HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Port Authority of Guam board nominee Fe Valencia-Ovalles sat before lawmakers during a confirmation hearing Tuesday, where she fielded questions about how she would handle decision-making and whether she could perform her duties without interference from the PAG general manager or others.
Valencia-Ovalles’ nomination comes at a pivotal time for the port authority. The agency’s board of directors is one member short of being able to make a quorum. Lawmakers greenlighted Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero’s reappointment of Dorothy Harris but rejected the reappointment of Judith Guthertz late last year. Other Port board nominees who haven’t passed the Legislature include a former director and a former deputy general manager.
As it stands today, only Harris and fellow member Conchita Taitano serve as directors.
PAG General Manager Rory Respicio said Tuesday that no board meetings have taken place since September 2023.
“The absence of a quorum results in the inability for the Port’s board to meet monthly. (It) is not only a statutory violation, it is not the most prudent way to operate a critical infrastructure agency, and we are prepared to let sleeping dogs lie and extend our hand asking the Legislature to give the Port the same kind of confidence that we have earned from other national and local partners and the credibility reflected by independent audits, bond ratings and financial balance sheets,” Respicio said Tuesday.
A number of issues have stood out for lawmakers in consideration of Port board nominees. These include settlements for the “Port 7,” the group of seven current and former Port employees who were involved in a yearslong workers’ compensation controversy.
Sen. Telo Taitague said Tuesday that she believed the Port board had “a lot of problems” and did not want a “yes woman” sitting on the board.
“Will you be able to, without interference from the (general manager) of the Port or anyone else, be able to make sound decisions for the best interest (of) the people of Guam?” Taitague asked Valencia-Ovalles.
The latter stated that she is ready to take on the responsibilities of a board member but added that Respicio could speak with her about specific issues mentioned by Taitague, which she said she wasn’t privy to at that time.
That response garnered comment from the senator, who said she “didn’t need” Valencia-Ovalles to be a “yes woman” to the general manager.
“The board is an independent body. You’re overseeing the work of the general manager. So you need to talk to other people, besides the general manager, to get a clear picture. Feel free to talk to even employees,” Taitague said.
Valencia-Ovalles replied that she would not side with someone “just to please them” and that her responsibility to the community of Guam would be to ensure that she would serve not just for “a person or a few people” but to oversee that everything “goes right and goes well” at the port authority.
During her turn to ask questions, Sen. Joanne Brown remarked that Valencia-Ovalles should be mindful of what she was “walking into” and that she should get around to talking to Port employees if she had the chance, assuming employees would want to speak.
“Because there are some probably that don’t because they’ll get targeted. It’s like if you don’t respond on the WhatsApp, or want to get off the WhatsApp, you’ll get called in. I think you really need to go beyond the surface level and the projections being provided to you … because everybody’s not happy,” Brown said.
Brown is Respicio’s predecessor as general manager of the port authority, and the two have been critical of each other. After Guthertz’s reappointment failed to pass last year, Respicio sent letters to lawmakers who voted against the nomination, stating that their decision appeared to be swayed by “the agenda of another sitting senator,” whom he later identified as Brown.
At the time, Brown commented that Respicio was good at “twisting words” and that senators had considered the position and actions taken by board members on various issues at the Port.
One concern the senator highlighted involves leave payments cashed out by Respicio and a deputy general manager at the end of the governor’s first term. Respicio has said the payments were proper, adhered to existing policies and were not unique to his tenure.
Brown brought the issue up again Tuesday and pressed Valencia-Ovalles on whether they would have approved the payment.
“I think it’s been allowed for elected offices. … I’m not aware of the rest of the government of Guam. I’m not aware … that there’s any other autonomous manager that did that because that’s significant,” Brown said.
Valencia-Ovalles said she could see the senator’s concern, but it was an issue she was not privy to.
“It is (a concern). … Especially when we see board members advocating for the general manager’s pay raise, and then they have a child hired just within a matter of months of that time. Do you have any contracts with the administration? … We want to make sure that you’re independent. Because there is a reason (that) there were four (board members) nominated, and only one survived. And I think only one survived by one vote because they just happened to be related to somebody in the Guam Legislature. Probably otherwise, they would not have been concerned,” Brown said.
“I will tell you, out of all the boards and commissions you probably served in, keep your eyes and ears open. Be very careful and look at the decisions being made. And we say, don’t drink the Kool-Aid. Down there, some people are gulping the Kool-Aid,” Brown added.
Hiring practices at the Port were also an issue brought up in the past. The Port commented on that in a release addressing various “misconceptions” issued after Guthertz’s nomination failed to pass. The Port stated that no immediate family member of Guthertz was employed during her tenure and that all hiring practices have been compliant with regulations and reviewed by the Civil Service Commission.
In response to Brown on Tuesday, Valencia-Ovalles said she is coming into the Port with a fresh mind but added that she can look into the appropriateness of past actions. She later confirmed that she did not have any contracts with the governor’s administration.
Fe Valencia-Ovalles testifies during her confirmation hearing to sit on the Port Authority of Guam board of directors Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024, at the Guam Congress Building in Hagåtña.
