Guam EPA catches up on rent after $320,000 payment | News

The Guam Environmental Protection Agency is caught up on rent for its offices in Tiyan after making a $320,000 payment to the Guam Ancestral Lands Commission, according to Acting GEPA Administrator Nic Lee.

Lee provided the report to the Guam EPA board at a meeting Thursday.

He said the payments allow the Guam EPA to be current on its rent through the end of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

The Ancestral Lands Commission owns the offices that the Guam EPA leases.

Last month, the commission calculated that Guam’s EPA missed its rent payments anywhere from nearly two years at the low end to nearly three and a half years at the high end.

The Guam EPA pays $8,000 a month for the space it rents in Tiyan.

The total rental costs were disputed, but calculated between $175,000 and $328,000 by Ancestral Lands.

Last month, the Guam EPA said it was working with the Department of Administration and the Guam Economic Development Authority to determine the exact amount of rent owed.

This amount was apparently settled on Thursday.

Before Guam’s EPA caught up on its arrears, it had one of the highest arrears of all ancestral land lessees.

Mall developer Northern Market LLC also owes about $1.9 million for land leased to Dededo, but GALC agreed in June to defer the sum in exchange for a 50 percent cut of profits once the mall built.

Last month, the Guam Ancestral Lands Commission asked its legal counsel to write to the Guam EPA and other lessees who owe lower amounts, asking them to explain how they are current on their payments.

Commission staff, in a meeting last month, said the Guam EPA last February made a payment for rent due in February 2021.

Last month, some commissioners attempted to introduce a motion to send a notice of default to tenants with unpaid balances.

However, GALC Chairman Ron Eclavea said the commission should proceed in a more conciliatory manner.

Assistant Attorney General Norman Miller Jr., attorney for GALC, recommended that the commission first ask tenants to provide a written plan for repaying their debts.