§1421g Establishment and Maintenance of Public Bodies and Offices

Summary

Guam’s government must set up and run public health services around the island. That means it must provide hospitals, clinics, and quarantine stations and make rules to prevent diseases from coming in or spreading. Guam must also provide and run an adequate public school system under Guam law. The government may create by law an Office of Public Prosecutor and an Office of Public Auditor, and those officers can be removed as Guam law provides. The Attorney General is Guam’s chief legal officer. When the office next becomes vacant, the Governor must appoint the Attorney General with the legislature’s approval, and the Attorney General serves at the Governor’s pleasure. Instead, the legislature can make the Attorney General an elected office in general elections held after 1998. An elected Attorney General serves a 4-year term. The people may remove an elected Attorney General under the procedures in section 1422d, or the legislature may set rules to remove the Attorney General for cause. If the office becomes vacant less than 6 months before a general election for Attorney General, the Governor appoints a replacement. If the vacancy occurs earlier, it is filled by a special election held no sooner than 3 months after the vacancy and no later than 6 months before a general election, with a gubernatorial appointee serving until that special election.