THE big election news this past week was former Gov. Carl Gutierrez’s withdrawal from the Public Auditor race. To sum up the sequence of events, following the date of declaration, there were two applicants for this non-partisan office. Doris Brooks, the incumbent, and Zeny Nace, the comptroller at the University of Guam. Within days of the filing date, Nace withdrew her candidacy. Ms. Brooks then sent out a number of letters to the Legislature and to the Guam Election Commission asking that the primary be cancelled since no one else was named on the ballot and certain cost savings might result. To be frank, this was a very unusual step for a candidate to take in an election. Candidates for public office should not dictate their means of election. In reaction to this move to cancel, former Gov. Carl Gutierrez ran a write-in campaign to get named on the general election ballot. This gave him the opportunity to air several longstanding concerns he had with Ms. Brooks and these were well covered in the media. After the election, Gutierrez withdrew likely for a number of reasons, including, he likely wants to run for governor again in 2014, he met his goal of airing his complaints against Brooks in the forum he knows best, it was clear that he was not happy in the non-partisan format and he prefers his partisan grassroots approach, and finally, the Democrats as a group need his partisan help in this critical election. Nothing gussies up a political candidate or media coverage like a little competition. Competition is good.

On a final note, it is likely that Guam would be much better served if governors could appoint the Public Auditor, Attorney General and a host of other assorted elected and appointed positions. The government has fragmented into dysfunctional ineffective pieces.

On Friday, Sept. 14, about 70 students, government employees and elected officials participated in our annual conference on public administration. The theme of this conference was “Government Employee Ethics Training,” and all of the participants received four hours of ethics training required in 4 GCA 15410. The School of Business and Public Administration decided to present this training conference as a community service as a part of the University of Guam’s 60th anniversary. According to 4 GCA 15409, elected officials, board members and appointees need to attend this training at least once every four years. Generally, these officials are required to have this training within 90 days of taking office. The ethics program topics covered Guam statutes concerning ethics; lobbying; procurement; contracting; parliamentary procedure; fiduciary responsibility; personnel policy; government finance; and the Open Government Law and Sunshine Reform Act of 1999. Most of the program time was used for small group discussions of six to 10 persons on these topics. We have found that this is the best way to help learners grasp these concepts. Current Sen. Judi Guthertz helped us develop this ethics teaching format many years ago. Our students were pleased that Speaker Judi Won Pat joined us and served as a facilitator at one of the tables. It highlighted her commitment to this topic and her assistance was greatly appreciated.

In general, we reached a consensus that every agency should have an in-house discussion system for ongoing ethics training. Right now, this training is very costly. We have many qualified government employees who could serve as trainers. We also discussed that leaders set the ethics tone of their agencies. Good leaders follow the law and encourage employees to openly address ethics concerns in their organizations. They also seek to resolve ethics concerns. Good leaders are hard to find.