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SENATORS SPAR OVER WHAT NIBBS KNOWS

May 5, 2001 – A former assistant commissioner of the V.I. Housing Authority who recently resigned as chief researcher for Sen. Celestino White is the subject of a verbal tug-of-war between Sen. Lorraine Berry, who wants him to testify about alleged wrongdoing within housing agencies, and White, who says the man has nothing to testify about.
Berry called Friday for an emergency meeting of the Housing Parks and Recreation Committee, which White chairs, to hear testimony by Alphonse Nibbs.
Nibbs has verbally accused the government's three housing agencies — VIHA, the Housing Finance Authority and the Houring, Parks and Recreation Department — of wrongdoing, according to reports this week in The Avis.
Following the federal indictment Monday of a former housing contractor, Lucinda Oliver, The Avis reported, Nibbs said that more federal indictments of housing officials are likely this month. Nibbs had terminated the government contract with Oliver, whose whereabouts are unknown, according to the newspaper.
In a bitter exchange of letters this week, Berry told White that Nibbs would be willling to testify under oath about allegations involving the housing agencies. Berry said in a release Saturday that Nibbs had "extensive research which he personally gave to White, and which White requested not to be shared with other [Housing, Parks and Recreation] committee members." Berry is a member of the committee.
According to Berry, Nibbs made "abundantly" clear, verbally and in writing, his findings of wrongdoing in all three agencies having to do with housing. Nibbs resigned from his position on White's staff last month.
Berry first wrote White on Tuesday, requesting access to all materials Nibbs had submitted to him. She told White the material should have been supplied to all committee members. Failure to provide the material, she said, would lead to a public perception that "collusion is taking place among committee members … it would appear the material was being swept under the rug."
White wrote back saying "Alphonse Nibbs' research is hidden in his mind." White said his committee "wishes not to act as either bailiff, prosecutor or bounty hunter." He referred to Nibbs as having "claimed to have appeared before the grand jury some two and a one half years ago" and suggested Berry ask the grand jury for information about any alleged criminal activities that may have taken place under Nibbs' watch.
Berry wrote to White again Friday, saying she had been informed that Nibbs' "alleged grand jury activities … have no basis in fact." She asked White to schedule an emergency meeting of his committee and to subpoena Nibbs to appear before it. Not doing so, she said, would cast "a cloud that would surely hang over the heads of committee members, should they vote with you not to subpoena Mr. Nibbs."

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