Guam - Nearly three months ago, Henry Taitano was selected by the Guam Economic Development Authority's board of directors as its new acting administrator. Today, lawmakers took up his nomination but it didn't go without lengthy discussion.

Two days ago, the confirmation hearing was held for Taitano. And today, lawmakers discussed during session this morning whether or not to confirm his nomination. While he didn't have any problem with Taitano's nomination, Senator Michael San Nicolas questioned whether Taitano's confirmation met the 10-day timeframe from the public hearing for public commentary. "Today's conformation for this individual has had even less time than that particular bill in that previous session," he said.

San Nicolas is referring to Bill 88 relative to the regulation of alcoholic beverage licenses. That bill was objected to move forward as it was substituted, changing the intent of the bill without enough time for stakeholder and community input. Senator Brant McCreadie made the objection and said it was different for Taitano's nomination. "We talk about this particular instance with Mr. Taitano, we have all the tangible information that we need to go ahead and vote as a body. Nothing has changed from his public hearing date to today's vote," he said.

The committee report showed eight senators had voted to confirm with one to report out only. Senator Tom Ada rose in support of Taitano, however, he did so with reservation. "He's a young, educated, young man, probably needs more real world experience to kind of smooth out those rough edges but we all went through that I know I did," he said.

And while he didn't see any convincing argument to not confirm Taitano, Vice Speaker B.J. Cruz did. While he agreed that Taitano had potential, he once again questioned whether Taitano had any business interest or potential conflict of him taking the GEDA position specifically concerns about LLCs and LLPs. It was a concern we brought up during the public hearing.

He said, "I have my own personal apprehension about those because you can layer these things when you're doing your articles of incorporation and after several layerings you're not going to be able to find out who's all involved in certain things."

And while Taitano had stated he did not have any involvement with any LLC and LLP, it wasn't enough for Cruz as he was still convinced Taitano did and believed he wasn't entirely truthful during the public hearing. He further brought up documents from Rev & Tax including a letter addressed to Taitano as an active partner dated in March 2012. Cruz voted to report Taitano's nomination out only and said he would be voting no to confirm.

And while concern was raised as to whether Taitano needed to be confirmed today as the 90-day appointment time frame was set to expire tomorrow, the committee chairman Senator Dennis Rodriguez Jr. says there still might be time. "However based on what we received in terms of legal counsel, that 90 days starts when this appointment came before the legislature which is April 19," he said.

Taitano's confirmation ultimately did not go up for a vote and instead adjourned to discuss the details when the appointment timeframe actually starts. Rodriguez tells KUAM he met with GEDA and the Governor's Office legal counsel along with Taitano today. Taitano meanwhile tells KUAM that he submitted documents to the committee showing he's doesn't have any involvement with these LLPs and LLCs and that the allegations of affiliation are not valid. Taitano says he has never seen the letter Vice Speaker Cruz referred to as it was sent to his mother's address.

He says there's a lot of great work to be done at GEDA but unfortunately this is some of the politics that go with the legislative process.