Bill calls for transparency for '21st Century Health Care Center Committee' meetings

No more closed-door meetings, or secret decisions when it comes to the proposed billion-dollar medical complex.

A bill mandating full transparency in the planning and execution of the project was heard last night, as critics complained there are way more questions than answers.

Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero has made no secret of her desire to build a massive medical complex at Eagles Field in Mangilao.

But critics say she has been far less transparent about the important details of the plan. 

In response, Speaker Therese Terlaje has introduced a bill that mandates compliance with the open government law in part to ensure that all  meetings of the "21st Century Health Care Center Committee" be announced and the minutes made public.

Supporters include original landowner family member Vincent Cabrera who said he just lately learned that there was an early alternative for Eagles Field.

"And what is that backup plan of property?  We don't know because it's a secret," he said. "The original landowners would like to know, so that we could have an open dialogue and talk about the merits each property has. We need to stop the secrecy and be transparent. especially when it deals with the land the military-owned that are deemed excess."

Terlaje spoke on the bill.

"The people of Guam are entitled to hear the deliberations that are taking place when these decisions are being made, particularly to hear the deliberation when Eagles Field was decided to be the first priority or the first preference for land instead of them finding out in the newspaper or some other news media," she said. 

Community activist Ken Leon Guerrero says he's spent a lot of his own money filing freedom of information act requests about the project. 

"That's why we need to have this open government law strengthened so that we get as many people involved in the process as possible because when you look at the list of committee members I think with the exception of four or five people everybody in that committee is a government employee that reports to Adelup," he said. 

Terlaje's bill adds new members from the medical community, the mayors and the legislature.

It also taps the Guam Economic Development Authority to head the committee.  CEO and Administrator Melanie Mendiola says she was "lukewarm" about it.

"Where the transparency crosses over to micromanagement is where I take issue with the bill," she said. "But if you're putting GEDA in charge because you think we do a good job running programs and you have confidence in us and think we're the ones that are gonna get it done then thank you, let us do our job."

Just two weeks ago, Adelup announced the launch of a new public website that will provide all information related to the medical campus project.