Following a months-long conflict with management over policy and procedures, the new Guam Visitors board of directors wants a fresh start. And that includes launching a search for a new president, and soliciting proposals for a new legal counsel.

The issue came up during a board meeting thursday. Members were sorting out what to do about the long-delayed annual performance reviews for the president and the legal counsel. And during the discussion new chairman George Chiu made the suggestion.

"One power that we do know we have is that the legal counsel does serve at the pleasure of the board, that the general manager serves at the pleasure of the board, there's no contract required, we've been trying to do a review and we're going nowhere," he stated. "So how about this: I'm just throwing it out there so nobody get excited, okay?"

"Since everybody seems to have full disagreement that everybody serves at the pleasure of the board, to make this fair for everybody, why don't we just put the positions up for a new RFP, and those that are...[Joe] McDonald here can reapply, Governor [Carl Gutierrez] here can reapply, Gerry [Perez] can reapply. And then we do a review, new candidates, old candidates and take it from there.

"We may end up with the same people sitting here, but then no one's going to have an argument."

New director Mary Rhodes said the evaluations weren't going anywhere, and they need to move on. Another new member and former chairman Monte Mesa agreed, saying, "You know, Mr. Chair, in the case of moving forward, and I hear what you're saying, what Director Mary is saying, and we want to try and start out with a new slate. And I think to be fair, I'll make the motion then to make the announcement and see who applies for the position. The general manager controls who the AGM is going to be."

All eight boardmembers present voted yes. More details will be discussed at their next meeting.

Current president Gutierrez was appointed as the interim general manager by Governor Lou Leon Guerrero in May 2020 when former general Pilar Laguana retired.

He was later made the permanent manager by the board, but has also been at odds with several previous board members who he charged with ethics violations for voting on issues that benefited their businesses.