Church Serves As Landlord to 2 Mayors" Offices

By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Pacific Daily News
November 5, 2016

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2016/11/04/church-serves-landlord-2-mayors-offices/92708400/

Editor's note: The Pacific Daily News this week takes a closer look at government of Guam leases.

Today: Catholic Church is landlord for some mayors.

While most of the landlords to GovGuam offices are in the business of real estate, one stands out for not being a business enterprise at all.

The administrative entity for Guam’s Catholics, the Archdiocese of Agana, makes some money – $55,200 a year – renting separate offices where the Piti Mayor’s Office and the Inarajan Mayor’s Office conduct their official business, bid documents show.

The Inarajan and Piti mayors’ offices’ annual rent falls under one lease agreement, which was signed by Archbishop Anthony Apuron in January 2014 .

The archdiocesan office wasn’t immediately available for comment on how the rent money is being used by the church.

A nonprofit, such as the archdiocese, can bid for a GovGuam contract and win it if no other entity submits a competitive bid, said attorney Robert Kono, procurement adviser with the Guam General Services Agency.

The Mayors’ Council of Guam pays the rent for the mayors’ office under the agreement, which executive director Angel Sablan signed.

In 2013, Guam law was enacted to allow the council to handle its own purchases, Kono said.

Sablan said the two mayors’ offices have been renting office space since before he became executive director in 2008.

Inarajan and Piti are the only villages on the island that have to pay rent for their mayor’s offices because no government building is available at their respective villages, Sablan said.

He said the council has been asking for a budget to renovate an old school building in Inarajan for the village’s mayor’s office, but that effort hasn’t succeeded because GovGuam doesn’t have immediate funds for it. There is no government office in Piti to house the village’s mayor’s office, Sablan said.

He said the council did propose moving into the governor’s office complex at Adelup when the plan to rebuild a central GovGuam office facility in Hagatna becomes reality.

The Inarajan Mayor’s office rents 4,800 square feet of office space for about 54 cents a square foot per month, or $31,200 a year from the local Catholic church, the lease agreement shows.

The Piti Mayor’s Office rents from the church 1,200 square feet of office space, for $1.67 a square foot per month, or $24,048 a year,according to the agreement.

The two mayors’ offices’ rent agreement with the archdiocese doesn’t include power, water and other utilities.

While other GovGuam agencies pay higher rent— some of them pay between $2 and $3 a square foot — their power and water are typically covered by their rent, bid documents show.

GovGuam’s office rent costs have doubled from $6.8 million to more than $14 million over a decade, through fiscal 2016, financial records and bid documents show.

Piti is among the lowest-populated villages on the island with 1,454 registered residents as of the 2010 Census.

Its mayor’s office has three office rooms, an administrative and reception room, and one lounge room. It has 12 to 15 parking spaces for staff, 20 to 30 parking spaces for the public, and three parking slots for people with disabilities.

Inarajan had a registered population of 2,273 in the last census.

When asked if the mayors’ offices of Piti and Inarajan can share offices with a nearby village mayor’s office to save cost, Sablan said that’s unlikely to occur.

Moving a mayor’s office to a different village could cause confusion to constituents, he said.

The Inarajan Mayor's Office is photographed on Oct. 29. The Archdiocese of Agana makes $55,200 a year, renting separate offices where the Piti Mayor’s Office and the Inarajan Mayor’s Office conduct their official business, bid documents show. (Photo: Mark Scott/PDN)

Contact: gdumat-ol@guampdn.com