CUC chair told: ‘Stop acting like you’re the board’

The honeymoon period—if there ever was one—seems to be over between newly reinstalled Commonwealth Utilities Corp. chair Francisco Q. Guerrero and other members of the CUC board of directors.

CUC board member Velma Ann Palacios yesterday accused Guerrero of making decisions without consulting the rest of the body and disregarding the board’s bylaws.

“You’re acting as if you are the board. You’re making decisions and not getting our concurrence. I want audit and compliance to look into this,” Palacios told Guerrero during yesterday’s board meeting. “We’re all making attempts to work with everybody. But how can we do this, if you continue acting like you’re the entire board.”

She expressed disapproval of the chair’s move to order the reinstatement of an employee whom the board had unanimously decided to sanction. She noted that the board, under the leadership of then chair Herman Sablan, made the decision based on the findings and recommendation of the Personnel Committee. Palacios headed the committee at that time.

Guerrero, however, reversed the board’s earlier decision and called for the employee’s reinstatement without consulting the rest of the board or at least furnishing the board members a copy of his decision, Palacios said.

For his part, Guerrero maintained that he tried his best to inform the board members of his decisions. He decided on his own to reinstate the employee as no officers have yet been appointed to the standing committees, he added.

Guerrero also said he found out only recently that the CUC board’s bylaws are not official.

“I talked to attorney general Pam Brown and she told me that our bylaws have never been [published on the Commonwealth Register]. Therefore, they carry no weight,” Guerrero said.

No one at the board meeting could explain how this happened.

Board member Joe Torres also raised concerns about the delay in Guerrero’s appointment of officers to the standing committees.

“It took one and a half months to get the list of standing committee officers,” said Torres. He and Palacios, who were not elected to any of the four positions on the board, were neither appointed to chair any of the four standing committees.

Guerrero appointed CUC vice chair Herman Sablan to lead two committees—operations and cable TV. Board secretary Rufina Miles was appointed chair of the personnel committee. Board treasurer Allen Perez was appointed to head the audit and compliance committee.

Palacios, however, was elected by the board as chair of the special committee on appeals, while Perez as chair of the special committee that will draft the board’s new bylaws.

Aside from the appointments, Guerrero also prepared a seating arrangement for board meetings—an issue that elicited a reaction from Torres.

“What is the privilege in making me sit next to you, when I am comfortable sitting away from you?” said Torres. He was assigned a seat next to the board assistant, who sits directly to the left of Guerrero.

The CUC chair conceded, “This is just a proposal. If that offends you, you’re free to sit wherever you want.”

Guerrero called for unity within the CUC board after he was elected as chair on July 13, with a 3-1 vote. Those who had voted for Guerrero were Sablan, Perez, and Miles. Torres had voted for Palacios, while Palacios had abstained.