Speaker pushing for override of federal lease bill Wednesday

Control over the controversial Eagles Field lease could be in the balance when the legislature meets tomorrow.

Speaker Therese Terlaje has made it clear she'll push for an override of the governor's veto of her bill that requires legislative approval to lease federal land for five years or longer. That would include the 50-year deal for the medical campus that the governor is eager to sign with the navy.

An override would give the legislature approval authority over the lease of the Mangilao federal property that's been the governor's choice for her billion-dollar medical campus almost since the outset.

But that choice has come under fire from a group of original landowners who want their land back, even as Admiral Benjamin Nicholson has come out publicly to explain that it's not excess land, and can't be returned except for public purposes.

Meanwhile, many senators have also been leery over what they call a "take it or leave it deal" with the navy. For them, timing is of the essence, because the admiral has set an April 14 deadline to sign the lease.

Legislative session was recessed until Wednesday, ostensibly so that Sen. Telo Taitague, who was not present Monday, can attend.

Even when it is put up for vote, the nine-member coalition majority still needs a tenth vote for a successful override.

In the middle of all this -- Attorney General Douglas Moylan, who has been reviewing the lease.

"My job is to look over it, check out the statutes, compare it against those statutes, case authorities, things like that," he told KUAM News. "So we're taking it very seriously here. I don't want to prejudice it in any way. The legislature has a bill now that's under discussion publicly. So yeah that's essentially where we're at."

But if senators do override the governor's veto, Moylan said, "Well if the legislature acts it would probably remove the need for us to further review it given the structure of that current public law or I'm sorry the current bill as it's being discussed."

If they don't, Moylan said he'll honor a Friday, March 31 deadline.

"That is the commitment I made to governor, and we will  live up to that," he said. 

Moylan said it's not up to him to decide whether there should be a new medical campus or not, that's a policy decision.

But if his legal review is to reject the lease as to form, it still doesn't mean it's over.

"You're talking about almost a civil contract in nature that if the federal government wanted to give the governor of Guam more time all it takes is somebody making that decision on the other side of the contract," Moylan said. 

Ahead of the anticipated override vote, the governor issued a news release warning that the move would "place our island's health and safety in jeopardy."

She went on to blast Speaker Terlaje and senators who are pushing to overturn her veto, for presenting "misleading and incomplete information."

You can read the governor's statement here: