Village mayors say they've had enough, and starting in Fiscal Year 2026, they won’t be the ones responsible for cleaning up abandoned cars or hauling away recyclable waste. This week, the Mayors Council of Guam voted unanimously to step away from the job and hand it over to other government agencies.  The move is expected to ease pressure on village staff — but it also leaves some questions about what comes next.

Across the island, the signs are hard to miss — abandoned vehicles, piles of green waste, and old appliances sitting along roadsides. For years, it’s been the mayors and their staff who take care of it. But not for much longer. At a special meeting this week, the Council voted unanimously to remove itself from the job of clearing out junk cars, white goods and green waste starting in Fiscal Year 2026.

Piti mayor Jesse Alig, MCOG president, announced, "Colleagues, I don’t ever say we can’t do it because we don’t want to do it. I say we cannot do it because we don’t have the resources."

The change shifts responsibility to the Guam Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Public Works and the Guam Solid Waste Authority — agencies the council says have more manpower and resources. "Because if you think about the large, bulky items, that’s GSWA’s job," Alig continued. "Their board should be responsible. And that GSWA management, that gets paid a whole lot more than us probably, should start picking up the white goods.

"And the tires? Oh my gosh, I agree. Green waste, honestly– we live on an island and there’s still no green waste management plan. And if there is, why don’t we ever know? We have bins– one bin for trash, one bin for recyclables. But what about the green waste?"

Under the mayors’ Islandwide Environmental Cleanup Program, about $1.5 million is allocated each year for vehicle and waste removal for all 19 villages from the Recycling Revolving Fund. But not every village has the capacity to do that extra work, according to freshman mayor of Yona Brian Terlaje. 

He said, "We have to put our everyday operations on hold to assist these individuals that are helping us in trying to clean up our village. But I think some villages, I don’t want to say advanced, but they have the equipment to assist. And some other villages don't have that capacity."

Barrigada mayor June Blas adds her village is “plagued” with abandoned cars– about 200 of them– and is nowhere close to removing them by the end of the fiscal year, adding, "Already we have a lot of calls coming in. and they’re blaming of course the mayors, the mayors offices for not doing what we’re supposed to do. But in actuality, it belongs to EPA and DPW. They have the money. We are short-staffed."

Adding to the issue, Yigo Mayor Frances Lizama says the Guam Police Department doesn't impound abandoned cars, which means more of them are left behind — sometimes stripped or even set on fire. "I’m kind of glad that we’re not continuing with these abandoned vehicles because I’m finding out now that GPD, when they pull over and they arrest the drivers, they don’t impound the vehicles anymore. So then it becomes our responsibility because then, like my colleague from Agana Heights said, people are going to start stripping the vehicles. Then we’re responsible for it," she said.

In the meantime, the mayors will continue cleanup efforts until this fiscal year, but after that, the task will fall to other central GovGuam agencies. Whether that shift means faster cleanups or new delays is still to be seen.