Torres wants to ‘clean house’

The time has come to “clean house,” Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said on his first day back in office yesterday after trips to Hawaii and American Samoa.

During his absence, Homeland Security and Emergency Management special assistant and former Department of Public Safety commissioner James Deleon Guerrero was arrested and charged for alleged sexual abuse of a minor. Acting governor Victor Hocog immediately placed Deleon Guerrero on preventive suspension without pay.

Torres told reporters repeatedly yesterday that his administration would “move forward,” when asked about the allegations against the former police chief, who has allegedly confessed, along with another DPS officer, to the FBI of having sex with a 15-year-old girl on the bed of a police pickup truck.

Torres said Deleon Guerrero has sent in his resignation letter.

“Of course, I am going to accept it,” Torres said, when asked. “This administration will not tolerate any such actions. Again, they are innocent until proven guilty but we need to move forward knowing that we want to clean this administration.

Torres said Cabinet members, lawmakers, and others in the Executive Branch hold ethical obligations to the community. He said his administration would be moving forward in “doing the right things” and working for the betterment of the community, when asked if he had a message to government officials in the wake of the scandal as rumors swirl that the full extent of the scandal would reveal the members from each branch of government complicit in it.

“We vow to move forward in that spirit” of bettering the community, Torres said.

“Those that are involved—we know are innocent until proven guilty—but we want to move forward. This administration needs to move forward with the right cabinet…and be strict to that.”

At the same time yesterday, Torres revealed that he has pinned this Wednesday as his target date to submit a budget to the Legislature for fiscal year 2017.

Torres says the budget will be at $127 million—minus earmarks—or $15 million more, or a 10-percent increase from last year, for lawmakers to deliberate on.

“Today is a very busy day for me and tomorrow. We are going to finalize and hopefully we are going to turn in the budget by Wednesday. That’s my goal.”

Torres disclosed he still has changes to make that he would discuss with the Office of Management and Budget that center on his priorities of funding law enforcement agencies in wake of the federal court ruling that struck down the ban on hand guns.

“We need to restructure some of the current budget to address DPS safety and all the other law enforcement agencies,” Torres said.

Torres, when asked to share his thoughts on the projected budget growth, said he has seen the lowest budget the Legislature has had to work with in years past and said that anytime there was a cut to be made, it was “never good for anybody, not for any family, not for any business, definitely, not for anyone in the government.”

“We are very fortunate in the last year and half to see an increase in the [revenue generating] activities. This year, we have a projected 10-percent increase. We are closely monitoring the revenue coming in, but if we continue the way we are collecting we might have a supplemental [budget] again in July, which shows a very positive revenue.:

Torres said the budget addresses these priorities: government judgments, substance abuse prevention, as well as salary increases across the board for employees who haven’t seen raises in over a decade.

“It’s about time they get their salary increase,” Torres said. “Some of our folks haven’t gotten an increase for 10 or 15 years across the board. Our goal is to have everybody across the board with some increase as we move forward.

Torres added they have addressed the Judiciary Branch’s concerns with funding for a new drug court to combat drug use and says he wants the drug court to “flourish.”

“It’s going to be a lot of trial and error…but we are going to give that commitment,” he said.

Asked for the status of funding for the utilities, the hospital, and the public school system, Torres said they continue to work on this in the budget.

“Supposedly there is a letter from the Public School System that I haven’t seen. But those are the numbers that we are going to address that by Wednesday,” Torres said.

Torres yesterday also finally shed light on the issue with a reported blackout of communications with Pagan.

Officials had been silent up to yesterday about what caused the communications blackout last week but Torres disclosed that an “issue had transpired” between the four individuals on the island.

“One has threatened the lives of the other three,” Torres said.

“So we had to [deploy] our enforcement agency to stabilize the situation. And I believe they brought back two or three to make sure that it is safe.

Torres also confirmed a report that this situation had to do with impacting the island’s communication system.

“That’s what I heard too,” Torres said. “…We are going to do another assessment today. We will be getting an update of what we have and will be making further decisions on how to approach the Pagan issue.