HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Bill 222-37, which would reserve the former headquarters of the Department of Public Health and Social Services for immediate use by the department, is scheduled for a public hearing Monday afternoon.
Speaker Therese Terlaje introduced the measure just a couple of days after Vice Speaker Tina Muña Barnes and Sens. Chris Duenas and Joe San Agustin introduced Bill 221-37. That bill would designate Lot 2417-1-R7, the DPHSS headquarters, for the purpose of constructing a nursing annex for Guam Community College nursing program and other allied health educational programs, as well as any other purpose approved by the GCC board of trustees. The measure also would transfer the property from DPHSS to GCC.
The speaker said she introduced Bill 222 because a longtime Public Health employee asked for help, as Public Health workers are unable to provide the level of care and services they were able to provide when housed in their building in Mangilao. DPHSS left the building after an electrical fire was reported several years ago.
While Bill 222 is slated to be heard Monday, Bill 221 has no hearing date.
Later this week, on Friday, lawmakers will also conduct an oversight hearing on the Guam Power Authority load shedding issues and the recent audit from the Office of Public Accountability regarding credit and debit card usage.
Although load shedding isn’t new to Guam, it has become much more noticeable since the passage of Typhoon Mawar, enough for GPA to issue monthly potential rotating outage schedules. As it stands today, the generation capacity on the island may not be enough to address consumer demand whenever a generator or two go offline, particularly during peak demand times in the evening.
To help mitigate load shedding, GPA has partnered with the military and large power customers in an interruptible load program, in which those entities voluntarily switch to their own generators during peak hours, relieving demand on the power grid. Guam now is within the cooler months, which has helped with power conservation.
To further mitigate load shedding, GPA has said, it is looking to bring in temporary power generators and increase capacity in some existing assets.
But load shedding isn’t the only issue GPA has had to deal with. In December 2023, the OPA published reports on the Guam Power Authority, the Guam Waterworks Authority and the Guam Visitors Bureau as part of a series of audits on governmentwide credit and debit card use.
For GPA and GWA, the OPA found purchases that were not in compliance with Guam procurement law or were contrary to the agencies’ policies. Both utilities updated their policies and procedures in response to the findings.
The Guam Congress Building is seen Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024, in Hagåtña.
