Good afternoon, friends!
Governor Calvo’s weekly address is about the importance of focusing efforts on strengthening the Guamanian family through economic and community development.
You can watch the address by clicking here or by visiting the Governor’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/governorofguam
The text of the address follows for your convenience:
Helping the Guamanian Family
By Eddie Baza Calvo
Hafa Adai, my fellow Guamanians.
This past week, there has been a lot of talk about families and communication, and the importance of both. I wholeheartedly agree with Speaker Judi Won Pat’s message about open dialogue and positive collaboration.
Public servants are part of a family of those you elected. And when we work together like a family, we can do great things for the island. Yes, we are a family of elected officials. But as I mentioned, there are more important families out there. Our Guamanian families. They are the ones we serve. They are the families we must keep in the forefront of our minds. And while the relationship with other leaders is important, what’s more important is the relationship with our boss: the people of Guam.
For decades, our people have suffered through one government misstep after another. The wait for tax refunds was two to five years. Unemployment continually rose. Families had a hard time affording a roof over their heads. With all this suffering, it’s no wonder many people lost their sense of hope and pride.
We have a long way to go, but I’m proud of the progress Guam is seeing.
For the first time, we paid out error-free refunds in the same year they were filed. This hasn’t been accomplished for almost 20 years!
Unemployment is down. Job training and job placement has increased.
We’ve built affordable homes north to south.
We created a customer service hotline. This allows any Guamanian to register complaints or give their kudos. We’ve seen a marked improvement in customer service overall. I want to thank all the dedicated professionals within the government for their commitment to excellence.
Finally, we’ve had an amazing year in tourism — our best in 15 years, and our 4th best in Guam’s history. Altogether, more than 1.3 million visitors experienced our beautiful island and our beautiful people.
The new year is just beginning. With it comes new challenges, and longstanding obstacles we’re still working to overcome. And even though there is much to celebrate, we still have so much more to do. Ray and I will focus our efforts to strengthen the Guamanian family in 2013.
We want you to reach your dreams. We want you to have a good education…so you can have a good job…and afford a good home to raise your family. We want you to succeed. We want you to be strong, so Guam will be strong.
We are one island family. As we continue sailing ahead in this new direction, I promise to treat each and every Guamanian with the love, respect, and dedication I have for the 160,000 brother and sisters I serve.
Thank you, and God bless Guam.
