Senators-elect reconvened Tuesday for the second day of the two-day 2018 Pre-Legislative Conference, which featured meaty sessions that fueled spirited exchange, from the limits of the public’s right to know to the nitty-gritty of parliamentary procedures.
“The learning curve in the Legislature is 18 months, hopefully, and the other six months, you’re getting ready to run again,” said certified parliamentarian John Abramson, whose session on the rules of the Senate floor paired bluntness with humor.
Abramson, who has served as chief of staff to various senators and as Election supervisor, taught the incoming senators Mason’s Rules of Order, the procedures used by the Virgin Islands Legislature. The more nuanced set of rules, according to Abramson, means new people need to make sure they catch up and fast.
“Mason’s is by far the hardest thing you’re going to have to master. There is no business before the Legislature without the processes of motions,” Abramson explained. “It’s pretty much a chess game. When you have an opposition, you need to know when it is time to strike to cut them down.”
The incoming Legislature will see nine senators with no prior senatorial experience, but Abramson noted another striking feature. The 33rd Legislature will represent the first time in a long time that as many as 13 senators belonged to one political party. He cautioned members of the supermajority, however, that their powers have limitations and that the remaining two members who are not Democrats need to be treated with respect.
Abramson stressed that in the Senate, majority does rule and it can do whatever it wants, even overthrow a sitting senate president. He referenced the ouster of Elmo Roebuck, who adjourned a contentious session after a senator posed a challenge to the chair. Members of the majority met the same day and voted Roebuck out. He sued in what was then the V.I. Territorial Court, won, but eventually lost on appeal in the Third Circuit. That ruling established, said Abramson, that “the majority of any deliberative body can do anything as long as it is done by the majority.”
Abramson had noted that in a past Legislature, some 250 bills were created but only 19 became law, a “dismal failure” that he attributed to friction between personalities.
Abramson also addressed the Sunshine Act and the public’s right to know what goes on in government meetings. According to Abramson, a “meeting” under the Sunshine Act occurs when a majority is in the same room. His solution: don’t have a majority in the same room.
Abramson also said the public needs to be notified of executive sessions, and while deliberative bodies can discuss details involving legal and personnel matters behind closed doors, those sessions must be reported out in public without committing an invasion of privacy or revealing sensitive legal material.
“Your ability to satisfy the public by transparency issues will keep your names out of the newspapers. They’d like to have access to everything. They can’t and they shouldn’t,” said Abramson.
Abramson also urged the crowd to surround themselves with people with greater knowledge and experience than they do.
“There is no such thing as divine wisdom when you get elected,” he said.
Johann Clendenin, former senior faculty at Harvard Business School and member of the PSC board, lectured on changing trends in leadership. Clendenin likened the lawmakers’ journey to readiness to the growth stages of a butterfly.
“Don’t join the Senate and try to become a bigger and stronger caterpillar,” said Clendenin. “If you’re going to change, change into something that you can visualize and fully hope to be.”
Clendenin advocated positive leadership and cultivating the habit of saying yes. In the Senate, there has been an opposite trend, he said, senators acting as obstacles to other lawmakers’ bills.
“Your real power as a senator is that you learn you can prevent legislation,” he said. “That if you want to, as a matter of privilege, you can keep something in committee and prevent it from going forward.”
Clendenin also reminded senators-elect to figure out the needs of their constituents first, instead of those of major players in government, including Governor-elect Albert Bryan.
“Change requires trust and love, and you wanna be on the wavelength of the people you administer,” said Clendenin.
