by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - Taking its transparency efforts to the next level, the Calvo Administration began its first of several briefings this morning to provide more information on what's going on in your government and what some of the Administration's major initiatives are moving forward. It's the first of many more, today's briefing focused on improving services specifically spending cuts, customer service and community partnership.

By using an additional staffer brought in from another division within their agency, the Guam Department of Public Health has increased its number of on-site inspections of regulated facilities by 92%. And even with a severe staff shortage, the Guam Fire Department completed a agency-wide personnel transfer to adjust to manpower challenges, equating to savings of $15,000 less in overtime per pay period - these are just some of the highlights reported during this morning's briefing on improving services.

Meanwhile, the 10% cut to Governor Eddie Calvo and his senior staff is still in affect, something they say continues to save money every two weeks. "As for the Governor's Office, there may be special assistants that have a certain pay scale, but I also want to make mention that take a look at middle management or management positions in the private sector, they're probably getting below what management levels are in the private sector," the governor asserted. "It's important for me to get qualified individuals from the private sector or from the public sector to provide services to me; I'm going to continue to find ways to provide a service at a lower cost."

Although cuts have been made, Governor Calvo says services shouldn't be jeopardized. For example, Public Health has completed the process for an electronic monitoring system for its Guam Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, GEDA and GVB have partnered to have its web site translated into Russian; and online services continue to be used to improve communication and speed up several services.

Additionally, chief of staff Frank Arriola pointed out Public Health's million-dollar personnel savings from attrition, and says even when they lose someone to retirement or change, the Governor's Office too can't fill that vacant position in order to ensure money is saved. "So what happens now is that someone else has to pick up that slack, with again fewer resources, the mandates haven't changed, so with less people we have to do more work, so it become more visible and become more pronounced," he explained.

Ultimately, Calvo hopes there is a harmonious movement in reducing costs throughout the government and that others will follow. He added, "So I'm hopeful as we move forward, in dealing with our financial situation and building better services, that the Governor's Office can work with other autonomous agencies and other branches of government such as the Legislature and Judiciary, that there is more of a spreading of the burden and some of the sacrifices of at this point, a government that has to live within its means."

Tomorrow, the Administration will hold a briefing on fighting poverty such as affordable housing initiatives, job creation and job training efforts. The briefing takes place at 11am at the Governor's Conference Room at Adelup.