Felix Perez Camacho

Felix James Pérez Camacho (born October 30, 1957) is an Guamanian politician and businessman who served as the 7th Governor of Guam from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Republican Party of Guam, he had previously served as the six-term senator of the Guam Legislature from 1993 to 2003. Born into the Camacho family, his father, Carlos Camacho, served as the 1st Governor of Guam from 1969 to 1975.

Felix Perez Camacho
7th Governor of Guam
In office January 6, 2003 (2003-01-06) – January 3, 2011 (2011-01-03)
Lieutenant	Kaleo Moylan Michael Cruz
Preceded by	Carl Gutierrez
Succeeded by	Eddie Calvo
Senator of the Guam Legislature
In office January 4, 1993 (1993-01-04) – January 6, 2003 (2003-01-06)
Personal details
Born	Felix James Perez Camacho (1957-10-30) October 30, 1957 Camp Zama, Japan
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Joann Garcia
Children	3
Relatives	Carlos Camacho (Father)
Education	Marquette University (BS)

Early life

Camacho was born in Camp Zama, a U.S. military base in Japan, to Carlos Camacho and Lourdes Perez. He was raised in Tamuning, Guam and was educated in the Catholic school system. Camacho's father became Guam's last appointed governor in 1969 and first elected governor in 1971. Camacho then received a degree in business administration and finance in 1980 from Marquette University.[1]

Political career

Camacho has held positions with Pacific Financial Corporation as an insurance manager and with IBM as an account administrator. In March 1988, Governor Joseph Franklin Ada appointed him as deputy director of the Public Utility Agency of Guam and later that year he was chosen as executive director of the department. In 1992, Camacho was elected as senator in the Twenty-second Guam Legislature, and was subsequently re-elected in 1994 and 1996. As a senator, he served as chairman of the Committee on Tourism, Transportation, and Economic Development. He also served as a majority whip.

In 1998, Camacho was the running mate of Joseph Ada in the hotly contested gubernatorial campaign. Their loss resulted in Camacho's absence from public office for the next two years. Having won in the 2000 legislative election, Camacho returned to the legislature and regained his chairmanship, as well as the position of assistant majority leader.

Camacho-Moylan Campaign (2002)

Camacho-Moylan went on to defeat Speaker Antonio "Tony" Unpingco in the Republican primary election on August 31, 2002 and ran against Guam Delegate Congressman Robert A. Underwood and his running mate, Senator Thomas "Tom" C. Ada for general election. In 2002, Camacho teamed up with fellow senator Kaleo Moylan to run for Guam's governor and lieutenant governor and defeated Democratic contenders of the Underwood-Ada Campaign.

Governorship

First term

Guam was slammed by Super Typhoon Pongsona on December 8, 2002, shortly after Camacho and Moylan were elected into office. They opted not to have a formal inaugural celebration, due to the state of the island and instead chose to be sworn in with a ceremony at the Plaza de España at midnight after a celebratory mass at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica in Hagåtña – all under candle light.

The storm, just six months after another strong Typhoon Chataan hit the island, left the island reeling. The hospital, the schools, the airport, the seaport, hotels along with hundreds of homes and businesses, had all been severely damaged. The damages were estimated at $246 million by the Federal Emergency Management Agency-the largest natural disaster in US history, holding that record until Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Fuel tanks at the Cabras Island caught on fire making it unsafe for ships to come into the harbor. The Guam Telephone Authority and A.B. Won Pat International Airport were also shut down for a time. Soon, though, approximately 10,000 tourists who had been on Guam since before the storm were able to go home. Camacho and his administration worked on getting the power, water, communications and transportation systems running again, as well as re-opening the island’s schools and getting assistance to people with typhoon damaged homes and businesses. Tourism went down to a minimum and the government was essentially bankrupt.

Camacho led the effort to restore the island to normalcy, along with much help from the government of Guam, federal government, the military, the business community and the resilient citizens. Three months later island leaders let potential visitors know that the island was ready to welcome them again and tourism rebounded.

The Camacho Administration had other challenges to governing Guam as well. Due to concerns about the way the previous administration had handled government affairs, the Guam Legislature enacted legislation to remove power from the Office of the Governor in several ways. For the first time Guam had an elected attorney general and an elected auditor. There was also an elected school board and appointed superintendent of education who had complete authority over the largest government agency, the Guam Department of Education.

Likewise, for the first time the people of Guam had elected a board to run the government's utilities. The Consolidated Utilities Commission took management of the power and water out of the Governor’s hands. The Public Utilities Commission also set utility rates, and the Guam Telephone Authority was sold to a private company in 2005, the last government owned telephone exchange in the United States, taking even more government responsibility away from the administration.

Camacho took office during austere times. Guam lacked sufficient revenues to pay its obligations. The mandates of local and federal law far exceed the governments fiscal capacity to honor those obligations. To supplement revenues, Camacho sought to issue bonds worth approximately $400 million. However, the attorney general refused to sign the bond contracts because he concluded that issuance of the bonds would violate the debt limitation. In response, the Governor requested a declaration from the Guam Supreme Court that the issuance of the bonds would not cause Guam to exceed the debt limitation. The Guam Supreme Court agreed with the Governor and the attorney general appealed his decision. Four years later the US Supreme Court heard the matter and in the end the Governor was able to issue bonds.

In the meantime, several lawsuits dramatically impacted the government and the Governor had to prioritize government resources toward addressing many of these challenges. The following are a few of the major lawsuits against the government to which the government paid out millions of dollars.

In 1993, a class action lawsuit was filed against Governor Ada to implement a 1988 statute to provide annually to eligible government of Guam retirees a cost of living allowance to be computed by multiplying the entitle benefit times the rate of inflation based on the cost of living index. The law was later repealed in 1995. In 2006, the court awarded $123 million to the COLA class action suit and the government began to pay the judgment.

Since the US Environmental Protection Agency issued an order in 1986 to cease discharging leachate from the Ordot Dump, Camacho signed a consent decree in 2004 to close Ordot Dump and construct a new solid waste landfill facility. The terms of the decree appeared to be workable but in actuality it become difficult to comply with the decree due to resistance by members of the public and the legislature. Additionally, the lack of resources, experienced personnel, and necessary support prevented the government from meeting the various deadlines set forth in the consent decree.

The court imposed penalties of more than $2.86 million against the government for failing to abide by the mandates of the consent decree. Ultimately, the federal court appointed a receiver to enforce the terms of the consent decree and assume all the functions of the solid waste management division of the Department of Public Works. The court ordered the government to deposit $20 million into an account while the government with the court appointed receiver worked out a financing option for the consent decree projects. When a viable financing option was not presented to the court, the court ordered the government to deposit $993,700 on a weekly basis into the account. Eventually, the court suspended the weekly payments when the government issued bonds totaling $202 million for the consent decree projects.

In 2001, a group of mentally ill individuals who lived on Guam filed suit against Camacho's predecessor, Governor Gutierrez, for failure to provide community-based living services to the mentally ill. The court found that defendants had discriminated against plaintiffs by requiring them to reside in the adult In-patient units to receive services, and that the services provided to Plaintiffs were not appropriate to their particular needs. Additionally, the court found that the Defendants had violated the Plaintiffs' constitutional rights to minimum standards of care and appointed a federal management team in 2010.

In 2004, a class action lawsuit was filed against Camacho claiming refunds of approximately $112 million as a result of the earned income tax credit. The complaint was amended in 2006 wherein the class asked for approximately $135 million. The parties settled the case for $90 million. In anticipation of the court’s approval of the settlement agreement, the Camacho Administration managed to set aside millions of dollars in order to begin payments according to the terms of the settlement agreement.

The government budget was lower as well, at $396 million from a previous $500 million. Another first, also due to legislative mandates, was that the budget was based on gross receipt taxes, which at that time was four percent. That model simply didn't work as GRT fluctuates too much over the year and the law was later rescinded. Eventually the GRT was raised from four to six percent much to the dismay of the private sector. The entire administration took temporary cuts in pay, including the governor. Non-essential government employees were placed on a 32 hour work week until revenues started recovering.

One of Camacho's challenges in taking office was the change of having an elected attorney general. In the past, the appointed attorney general worked for the governor but now the elected attorney general saw his role as a watchdog and became very litigious. Moylan, first cousin to Lieutenant Governor Moylan, told the governor that the courts would define his limits and that he was not the governor's lackey anymore. The joke at the time was that the A.G. for attorney general, also stood for “aspiring governor."

Lawsuits and legal challenges defined those first two years and the dynamic of being the governor of Guam changed. The legislature, at the time, believed that the position of Governor of Guam held too much authority as granted by the Organic Act of Guam. Even though there was a Republican majority in the Legislature, several of the senators also had aspirations to be governor.

Camacho-Cruz Campaign (2006)

Due to various disagreements with Moylan during their first term, Camacho picked freshman senator Michael Cruz, M.D. as his running mate in 2006. Camacho again defeated Robert A. Underwood (this time with senator Frank Aguon Jr. as running mate) to win the governorship for a second term.

Second term

He is a member of the Knights of Columbus and participates in many civic activities. He was honored as one of the Outstanding Young Men of America and received the Pacific Jaycees Three Young Outstanding People award.

Post-governorship

Congressional run

In 2016 he ran against Democrat incumbent Madeleine Bordallo to represent Guam's at-large congressional district, but was defeated 53% to 47%.

Personal life

He is married to Joann Garcia and has three children (Jessica C. Blas, Felix "Champ" Camacho Jr., Maria C. San Nicolas) including his three grandchildren (Colin, RayRay and Mason). Mrs. Camacho is a niece of Vicente "Ben" Gumataotao, the mayor of Piti and first cousin of Jose Gumataotao, the husband of the former US Treasurer, Rosa Gumataotao Rios, also the cousin of a working judge Vernon Perez and other cousin of a local entrepreneur Valentino Gumataotao Perez.

References

1. "Decision 2006". KUAM. Archived from the original on October 24, 2007. Retrieved 2009-06-30.

External links

• Official Site of Governor Felix P. Camacho

Party political offices
Preceded by Joseph Franklin Ada	Republican nominee for Governor of Guam 2002, 2006	Succeeded by Eddie Calvo
Political offices
Preceded by Carl Gutierrez	Governor of Guam 2003–2011	Succeeded by Eddie Calvo