Camacho says he could be leaving CPA ‘soon’

Commonwealth Ports Authority executive director Efrain F. Camacho said he could be leaving the position in the near future, possibly by next month.

“I’m told by some point in time, possibly by next month, I should be walking. Where I’ll be walking I’m not sure. It could be to the exit door,” Camacho said at yesterday’s weekly Rotary Club meeting.

He officially took the helm of CPA on Nov. 10.

In August, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial appointed Camacho to take over CPA, following the retirement of then acting executive director Lee Cabrera. At the time, CPA was under a state of emergency because it was on the verge of a technical default on its $20-million airport bond indenture.

But the appointment became the topic of controversy after reports (not in this newspaper) surfaced that Camacho was to be paid $170,000. Concerns were also raised about EFC Engineers’ work for CPA. Camacho resigned after less than three weeks on the job.

In an open letter, Camacho denied the report about his compensation, saying his meetings with Fitial and the CPA board did not include talks of him potentially receiving anything more than the salary cap established by law for a licensed professional engineer such as himself.

During yesterday’s meeting, Camacho said his son often asks why he set aside his business to take over CPA.

“Why did I take it? I took it because I saw an agency at its inception slowly grow as a respectable agency, and I saw it going down the tube,” he said, adding that he couldn’t just sit back and watch.

In the mid-1980s, the Federal Aviation Administration was using the CPA as a model to show Guam how to operate a ports authority, he said, but mismanagement and a lack of drive to keep it running smoothly slowly caused it to go under.

He said it is his goal to turn CPA around in six to nine months.

His contract with CPA is not ideal, he said, but it works for him. “It stinks but I like it,” he added.

The contract allows him to be terminated with or without cause with 30 days notice. But he can also terminate the contract with or without cause.

But a contract like that will make it hard for CPA to hire others.

“[The contract is] bad in the sense that you really can’t get good people with that kind of contract—no security,” he said. “It’s hard to get people with a contract that says you can be terminated with or without cause.”