June 1, 2001 — The fray over reducing the number of V.I. senators widened Friday when the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit calling on the Legislature to heed the mandate of the territory’s voters.
The Chamber and its president, Carmelo Rivera, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on St. Croix to force the Legislature to act on a referendum on the 2000 ballot that sought to reduce the number of senators from 15 to either 11 or nine. Voters overwhelmingly chose to have a nine-member Senate.
Of the approximately 18,000 residents who went to the polls last November, roughly 87 percent voted to reduce the size of the Legislature. Of the approximately 15,000 votes to reduce the Senate's size, 12,589 opted for nine senators rather than the current 15. The other 2,826 voters cast ballots for an 11-member Legislature.
Those numbers far surpass the 50-percent-plus-one threshold and make the referendum binding — meaning the Legislature must act on the voters’ decision, the chamber believes.
"We simply want them to follow the will of the people," Rivera said. "We do not hear that coming from the Senate."
About the only sounds coming from the body on the issue are howls of indignation from Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, who first proposed and continues pushing a reduced Legislature. Donastorg’s bill to cut the number of senators was sent back to committee early in April, a move, he said, that was orchestrated by the Senate majority to bury the reduction effort.
Donastorg contends that the senators opposed to his bill are thwarting the will of the people.
At an April session of the full Senate, Donastorg successfully special-ordered his bill to reduce the size of the Legislature. In an effort to sweeten the proposal for his colleagues, Donastorg added language to direct any savings from the reduction to pay public school teachers.
However, senators ultimately voted 8-5, with two absent, to send the bill back to the Committee on Government Operations. That committee is chaired by Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole, who is against reducing the Senate and its budget by 25 percent.
Cole's committee will hold public hearings on Donastorg's bill Monday on St. John, Wednesday on St. Thomas and Thursday on St. Croix. Donastorg had asked Cole to reschedule the hearings because he will be off-island; Cole refused.
"The hearings are fine," Rivera said. "What they need to deal with is how to implement the decision made by voters. But to go back and raise the question of reduce or not to reduce is not the issue."
