SINCE we first met her when she was Speaker of the Youth Congress, we pegged Public Works Director Joanne Brown as glib, smart, loquacious and persuasive. We thought she had a future in politics and she did, as she elected to several terms as a Republican senator in the Guam Legislature.

Now she heads one of GovGuam’s most vital agencies, responsible not only for maintaining public buildings and roads, but for transporting 39,000 students to and from their schools every weekday. That’s right, 39,000. There are only about 30,000 public school youngsters, but DPW’s Bus Operations division also transports parochial and other private school students to their classes as well, accounting for the other 9,000.

Whether or not that’s appropriate is a subject for another editorial. What concerns us today is that Brown and her department do not have enough buses, bus drivers, bus maintenance mechanics, or money to do the job properly. Never mind properly – they may not be able to do the job at all, with schools opening in about a month.

When she spoke before the Rotary Club of Guam a week or so ago, Brown brought up the fact that of some $18 million in liquid fuel taxes collected by GovGuam every year, less than $1 million trickles down to DPW’s school busses. After the Rotary meeting, we spoke further with her about the lack of adequate funding and the need to hire more drivers.

On Tuesday night she testified at a hearing on the possible need for double sessions at George Washington High School, saying that if there is a need for such a change at GW, “I can tell you flatly that we will not be able to accommodate” the extra bus trips required.

“There needs to be a reality check,” Brown told the senators and assembled education officials. There must be more money appropriated for school bus operations.

The DPW director said for this upcoming school year, there are only 105 to 110 busses available, a decrease from last year of about 5 to 25 repairable, operable busses. That number may decrease even further to 98 or 99 busses – all of which are from 8 to 25 years old. Plus, there are no purchase orders in the works to buy new buses, or even recently refurbished ones.

And these big, 60-passenger vehicles are not cheap. They can cost more than $100,000 apiece, delivered to Guam. Maintaining the older buses is also expensive, Brown said. “It’s not economically viable to repair these aging buses for the amount it costs to fix them.” She pointed out a replacement diesel engine alone can cost $35,000 to $40,000.

Joanne Brown, arguably the most articulate department director in the current administration, says she hasn’t even had a budget hearing for her agency since she took over. She speaks of the need for more funding, but is anyone listening?