Public transit employees, ex-employees and riders were left to their own interpretations Tuesday of the potential impact of a Senate vote the night before to appropriate $1 million for Vitran from one of the government's numerous funds.
The action came as approval by the full Senate Monday night of an amendment offered by Sen. Adelbert Bryan to appropriate the money for the Public Works Department from the government's Indirect Cost Fund. The measure specified that the money is to be used this fiscal year (which ends Sept. 30) strictly for public transportation purposes – rehiring laid-off Vitran bus drivers and hiring additional drivers for the separate Vitran service for the disabled.
In April, the Senate had appropriated $660,000 from the same fund for what most lawmakers and union leaders had thought was the same purpose. However, a Government House official said last week that more than half of that money had gone to pay Vitran bills and that what remained was not enough to rehire any laid-off workers.
Bryan's amendment Monday was one of several senators attached successfully to a housekeeping bill that provided for changing the effective date that the V.I. Telephone Corp. was to begin collecting a monthly $1 surcharge on behalf of the government for 911 emergency services.
The amendment passed 11-2, with the only comment before the vote coming from Sen. David Jones. He asked the Legislature's assistant post-auditor, Therese Todman, what the current balance was in the Indirect Cost Fund. She replied that the fund was reported to have had a balance of $3.2 million as of April 15.
However, on Tuesday, Post-Auditor Campbell Malone, who was unable to attend Monday's session, said there was a "shadow over that amount." Remarking on past Senate encounters with government financial officers, he said, "I wouldn't count on that amount, because the fund isn't reconciled."
Malone said he was doubtful for the same reason about another Senate appropriation Monday from the same fund, also of $1 million, to repair, extend and maintain water lines in Estates Tutu, Anna's Retreat and Smith Bay.
Meantime, labor leaders reacted favorably Tuesday to the Senate's approval of the Vitran funding measure.
Ralph Mandrew of St. Croix's Central Labor Council said while he hadn't seen the legislation, he was pleased to hear that the bill specified how the money should be spent. "This time," he said, "I understand it is specifically to return the laid-off employees, and I applaud it."
Mandrew said he feels that it is time to politicize the issue of public transit in the territory, but at the same time he would like to see the transit system returned to the private sector. "I was a labor leader when it was run by Abramson Bus Company on St. Croix, and it ran very well," he said.
On St. Thomas, Luis "Tito" Morales of the United Steelworkers Union said he would write to Gov. Charles W. Turnbull asking him to sign the bill into law promptly.
"It's enough to bring back everyone," Morales said. In fact, he said, "It may not take a million dollars." His reference was to the total of 62 Vitran workers who were laid off by Public Works Commissioner Harold Thompson Jr. on May 11.
Efforts to obtain information from Thompson Tuesday were in vain. Aides said the word from their boss was that he had imposed a "news block"on comment regarding the matter and would save what he had to say for his appearance Wednesday night on the "Face to Face" program on WTJX-TV/Channel 12.
On May 8, Thompson sold the Senate Labor and Veterans Affairs Committee that Vitran was $12.7 million in the red and that cutbacks were needed because rider fares did not cover operating costs. Meantime, at a Government Operations Committee hearing, Office of Management and Budget director Ira Mills said the Indirect Cost Fund was being frozen.
On May 11, Thompson laid off half the Vitran work force – including drivers and maintenance personnel – in a move calculated to reduce the government's public transit spending by half. The administration made no response to offers advanced weeks before by unionized workers to forgo sick-leave, overtime and holiday pay and to drop to a four-day work week in order to preserve their jobs.
Government House chief labor negotiator Karen Andrews refused to meet with labor leaders until the $660,000 was appropriated from the fund. When the negotiations got under way last week, she told the union leaders that $370,000 of the money had already gone to pay Vitran bills. And, she said, the remaining $290,000 was not enough to hire back any of the 62 laid-off workers.
Voting with Bryan Monday night for his amendment were Sens. Jones, Gregory Bennerson, Donald "Ducks" Cole, Roosevelt David, Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, Violet Anne Golden, Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, Norman Jn Baptiste, Almando "Rocky" Liburd and Vargrave Richards. The "no" votes came from Sens. Lorraine Berry and George Goodwin.
Yet another amendment approved Monday night was one proposed by Liburd to override the governor's veto earlier of a bill creating a Public Transportation Enabling Fund. The measure calls for the establishment of an imprest fund from which money can be drawn down for public transit operations, purchases, personnel training and inter-island transport of equipment without having to go through normal government paperwork procedures.
The bill provides for the fund to consists of all fare-box revenues plus legislative appropriations, federal funds and voluntary contributions, such that the balance shall at no time exceed $100,000.
