Guam Governor Eddie Calvo has tasked Port General Manager and former Senator Joanne Brown to review the operations at the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority (GMH). The role is temporary and a collateral duty to her current role as Port General Manager.
The move appears to provide the executive branch a listening post for keeping track of the pending legislative investigation of Guam Memorial Hospital. Adelup has painted the GMH investigation as politically motivated and more generally that the lawmakers are fiscally irresponsible in failing to support GMH. “I’ve asked Joanne to assist GMH by augmenting management and provide recommendations on how we can help. I want to ensure that GMH management remains focused on patient care during a divisive political season,” Gov. Calvo said. From the release: "GMH has recently been a political football of senators seeking higher office, and it has distracted them from their core mission. Senators running for higher office, to include GMH Oversight Chair Senator Dennis Rodriguez (gubernatorial candidate), Senator Mike San Nicolas (congressional candidate), and Senator Frank Aguon (gubernatorial candidate) are all championing a bill that would strip $30M from GMH and $10M from DOE moving forward." Joanne Brown is a former six-term senator and has held executive leadership roles for 12 years in department and agencies to include the Guam Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Public Works, and the Port Authority of Guam.