Sen. William Parkinson discusses two bills he introduced on Monday in the lobby of the Guam Congress Building in Hagåtña.
HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Sen. William Parkinson has proposed the “No More Pari Pari Act of 2025,” a measure that would bar individuals who are relatives or fiancés of appointing authorities from being employed in the same agency.
“For too long, merit has not been the guiding principle in hiring people on this island,” Parkinson said on Monday during a press conference on the No More Pari Pari Act and another proposed measure, which would establish an elected public prosecutor’s office within the government of Guam.
These measures were not well received by the attorney general, who criticized them as attempts to curtail his office.
“Our community has witnessed instances where employment decisions within our government have been influenced by personal relationships rather than merit. This practice undermines public trust and the principles of equal opportunity. The key provisions of this bill aim to eliminate nepotism within all branches of the government of Guam,” Parkinson said about the No More Pari Pari Act.
The measure defines an agency as any authority, board, branch, bureau, commission, committee, council, department, division, office, service or other instrumentality of the three government branches within the government of Guam. An appointing authority is defined as an individual or group with the power to delegate authority and make appointments within an agency.
A fiancé is defined as a person engaged to be married, as evidenced by a mutual agreement. A relative is defined as individuals within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity, including spouses, parents, stepparents, children, stepchildren, aunts, uncles and others. The bill considers an adopted child equivalent to a biological child.
The measure would prohibit individuals from being employed in the same agency where their fiancé or relative is the appointing authority and would prevent them from being placed under the direct supervision of their fiancé or relative.
These prohibitions would apply to all of GovGuam, including Cabinet members and senatorial offices, Parkinson said. A grandfathering clause would protect current employees or individuals promoted to leadership roles. Though not explicitly stated in the bill, Parkinson clarified that under the Constitution, a legal hire at the time does not become retroactively illegal, even without a specific grandfathering provision.
“However, in our provision preventing someone from supervising a relative within three degrees of consanguinity, the agency would need to restructure to ensure compliance,” the senator said.
Parkinson’s introduction of the No More Pari Pari Act follows controversy over Attorney General Douglas Moylan’s hiring of relatives at the Office of the Attorney General and the promotion of his fiancée to chief of staff.
When asked if the measure was a response to these hires, Parkinson said it was not aimed at any individual but acknowledged that recent events may have been “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“This has been happening for longer than my entire life, and I am sick of it. Frankly, the best-qualified people should be hired, regardless of family connections. Maybe recent events were the tipping point, but this has been a long time coming,” Parkinson said.
The OAG commented on Parkinson’s bills, stating they were aimed at Moylan to stop legal policies and curtail the office’s operations. In an email to Speaker Frank Blas Jr. and Sen. Telo Taitague, whose legislative committee oversees justice matters, Moylan said people close to him who were “preeminently qualified” wanted to help his office, which was losing staff. He added that they shared his “tough on crime” vision.
“I was therefore disqualified, and their hiring was overseen by other management officials,” Moylan said, adding that he recused himself from the process even though he was not required to do so.
But Parkinson said disqualification is not enough.
“Would anyone accept it if I told my chief of staff to handle hiring, and if she happened to hire my wife, it wasn’t me who did it? That’s ridiculous on its face,” Parkinson said on Monday.
Specifically regarding the No More Pari Pari Act, the OAG stated in a release that it seeks to prevent the office from hiring “loyal, dedicated, trustworthy and competent staff to fulfill the AG’s ‘tough on crime’ promise, regardless of who conducted the hiring.”
“‘Loyalty’ is an interesting word for him to lead with. That is my problem with nepotism hires. He wants loyalty to him and his office, but we deserve loyalty to the people of Guam,” Parkinson said.
The second measure, which would establish an elected public prosecutor and make the attorney general of Guam a position appointed by the governor, was a proposal Parkinson previously introduced. It was among several unsuccessful measures to address the attorney general’s withdrawal of representation from agencies.
The OAG release said this measure would eliminate the attorney general’s ability to “check and balance” the governor and her Cabinet regarding civil law violations and would create a separate office solely to enforce criminal laws.
The release also argued that both bills would weaken ongoing investigations against the governor and her Cabinet and would halt the AG’s civil suit against the governor and the Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority over the use of Covid-19-era federal funds for property acquisition for a medical complex.
“My response is, who watches the watchers?” Parkinson said on Monday.
“If there is corruption in the attorney general’s office, who clears the attorney general’s name? If the AG’s position is that he clears his own name, and we have to take it on ‘trust me, bro, we did nothing wrong,’ I find that unacceptable. Unless he proposes a better alternative to separating the offices for accountability on both sides, I take his statements with very little faith,” Parkinson said.
During Monday’s press conference, he said that in other jurisdictions, if the attorney general is suspected of wrongdoing, the public prosecutor would investigate, while the attorney general would investigate allegations against the public prosecutor. According to Parkinson, splitting the current OAG into an appointed attorney general and an elected public prosecutor would protect against corruption and false allegations.
The OAG release implied that Parkinson’s bills were developed by the Office of the Governor, which has submitted disclosure requests to the OAG regarding the use of certain government seals on billboards depicting homeless encampments and tents on Adelup’s front lawn, as well as requests for documents related to the hiring of Moylan’s relatives and fiancée.
Parkinson said the governor was not involved in creating the bills, and he had not spoken with her about them.
“I wanted to discuss these issues with her because I wanted to see if I could get this past the governor’s veto. But I haven’t been able to talk with her. Maybe when she gets back from her trip, we’ll have that conversation,” Parkinson said.
As for the disclosure requests, the OAG requested an extension to respond to the governor’s office.
