By Troy Torres
No one except Speaker Tina Muna Barnes and her staff are at work today at the Guam Congress Building. This includes the Guam Legislature's central staff, and the offices of Senators Amanda Shelton, Kelly Marsh Taitano, and Regine Biscoe Lee.
Today is NOT a GovGuam holiday. All the employees and senators, who did not show up for work, are being paid by the taxpayers.
Kandit placed live streamed calls to the offices of Senators Shelton, Taitano, and Lee. All calls placed to the offices's land lines were forwarded. Only Ms. Lee's staff answered the forwarded call. Her staffer said she was in the office in the morning before leaving to telework. She said she saw the legislature's executive director, Joe San Agustin, arriving as she was leaving the building. Ms. Lee's political advisor, Phillip Leon Guerrero, called Kandit to state the staff has not taken the day off, but is teleworking.
Ms. Muna Barnes's policy director, Chirag Bhojwani, who answered the landline to his office, confirmed the speaker and her staff have been at work since this morning, and will remain there through the day.
Mr. Bhojwani said he also is able to confirm the offices of Senators Jose "Pedo" Terlaje and Therese Terlaje are at work today based on phone calls he made to those offices's land lines, which were not forwarded. Both Pedo and Therese Terlaje's offices are not located at the Guam Congress Building. It is unclear at this time whether other senatorial offices are open, or which of the other senators have reported to work today.
Pictures taken at 1:45 p.m. of the parking lot of the Guam Congress Building show only two cars in the employee parking lot. Ms. Muna Barnes's staff parks on the shoulder of the facility fronting Archbishop Flores St.
