The sudden cancellation of an oversight hearing for the Guam Visitors Bureau by legislative tourism committee Chair Sen. Amanda Shelton, sent minutes before the hearing was set to take place, has drawn serious concern and criticism from several of her colleagues and the head of the agency slated to participate.
“This is a tragic day for democracy – extremely. We’re being silenced. Not only have we been shut down and shut out, the lawmakers, the people’s representatives. But also, they’re shutting down two branches of government, the legislative side and the executive side,” Sen. Jesse Lujan, the committee’s vice chairman, said Friday afternoon.
Lujan, who called the hearing while he was the acting chairman of the committee, was in the hearing room with several other lawmakers, prepared to proceed with the oversight discussion. He has stated he wasn’t aware Shelton called off the hearing until a staffer from her office came and notified Lujan verbally and showed him the cancellation notice.
Microphones were turned off and the hearing’s live broadcast never began.
Lujan and others remained in the hearing room after being told to leave by the Legislature’s sergeant at arms, to speak on the hearing cancellation and their concerns.
There were a number of issues to be discussed Friday, including the status of tourism recovery on island and the state of progress harmonizing the bureau’s bylaws with its enabling laws.
The GVB board hasn’t met since May 2022, when it decided to postpone all meetings until it addressed the bylaws, which were passed in 2013 and deemed illegal by counsel.
A special board meeting was supposed to happen at the end of January, but did not proceed because of a lack of quorum. There was contention over the legality of two directors, another issue that was to be discussed Friday.
Shelton was off island beginning Feb. 2 and, initially, was not scheduled to return until Feb. 13.
However, the Post obtained an amended off-island notice from the speaker’s office, showing Shelton’s revised return date was Feb. 8.
Lujan had said he never received a notice that he was no longer serving as acting chair.
Call for Shelton to step down
Fellow committee member Sen. Telo Taitague has called for Shelton to step down as chair of the tourism committee. She alleged Shelton has a conflict of interest with her uncle, Sam Shinohara, serving as a GVB board member.
“It just makes you wonder why she’s been very hesitant – not even hesitant – refuses to have oversights, refuses to have the GVB come before this body to explain what’s going on at GVB. And not just us, but the people of Guam,” Taitague said.
The Republican lawmaker alleged her Democratic colleague has displayed the conflict on multiple occasions.
“It seems like she only acts to the tune of her uncle. Don’t have a public hearing on that bill, don’t have an oversight. And now, all of a sudden, she rushes back because we’re having an oversight hearing of GVB, when she’s supposed to be back on the 13th. It’s the 10th. She runs back just in time so she can cancel this hearing? There’s something very fishy about what she’s been doing these last two years and nothing has been resolved,” Taitague added, referring to Shelton having led the tourism committee last term as well.
Sen. Joanne Brown, among the senators who showed up for the canceled hearing, said Friday she didn’t believe Shelton has ever called an oversight hearing since management and operational issues with GVB surfaced.
Lawmakers said Friday that Shelton may have been at the Guam Congress Building that afternoon, while they sat in the hearing room, but when The Guam Daily Post requested to speak with her, the Post was told by a staffer that she was not there at that time.
Requests for comment on her colleague’s remarks were submitted to Shelton’s office through email, but responses were pending as of press time.
Delayed until ‘others’ can attend
Shelton’s cancellation notice stated that four individuals were identified to participate at the oversight hearing, but that group “hardly reflects the number of people who are key for a successful dialogue with the industry.”
“The committee will announce an Oversight Hearing soon, when others are also available to participate,” Shelton stated in the notice.
The four people called for the hearing were GVB President and CEO Carl Gutierrez, Vice President Gerry Perez, board Chair Milton Morinaga and board legal counsel Joseph McDonald.
While Shelton stated the four would not be enough, Gutierrez said starting a hearing with a few people was the “best way to do it.” More stakeholders can come in subsequent hearings, he added.
“(The oversight) is not the end of it, it’s the beginning of it. But you can’t have a myriad of people in here where it becomes a free-for-all. … (Lawmakers) wanted to get specific answers on specific questions and there were four people that were able to answer it,” Gutierrez said.
The head of GVB said he was disappointed with the hearing’s cancellation, as the GVB officials were prepared to show how they were working to bring back tourists, and also to answer questions about what the problems are at the bureau.
“We just want to correct it. It was a good opportunity to begin the process of correction today. I’m just sorry that we didn’t move forward with it,” Gutierrez told the Post.
AG opines on appointments
One discussion topic Friday was going to be the legal opinion from Attorney General Douglas Moylan regarding three questions submitted by Gutierrez.
The legal positions were sent to GVB on Thursday.
One question was whether elected directors can appoint directors to fill vacancies in the board.
“In short, no,” Moylan opined.
That issue involved Akihiro Tani and George Chiu, who were selected by the board to fill vacancies left by the expired appointments of Charles Bell and Stephen Gatewood. It was their directorships that were at issue during the Jan. 31 special board meeting that did not proceed.
“Attorney General Moylan’s opinion supports management’s position of the bureau that the board’s attempt to form a quorum with expired memberships on January 31, 2023, fell outside the law,” Gutierrez stated in a release on the legal guidance.
The AG’s opinion was similar to previous advice given by GVB’s own legal counsel on the matter.
“Therefore, any board action directing management priorities and actions would have put management in jeopardy and made the bureau it serves liable under the law,” Gutierrez added.
Moylan also opined that corporate resolutions are binding until revoked by a subsequent resolution, and that the board can meet without having to first resolve issues with bylaws that triggered the suspension of meetings in May 2022.
By: John O’Connor
Source: The Guam Daily Post