Dear Source:
I am amazed, as most of us here on St. John are, that our senators, especially our local Senator from St. John, Carmen Wesselhof, voted in favor of this most unpopular development's variance request. This especially after the developer's request had been turned down twice before at town meetings of the senators and DPNR on St. John. This was a last chance "Hail Mary" attempt by the developer to get the measure passed and would have never had a chance of being passed had the voting session date been published in advance as the law requires. The senators were obviously aware of how many people would have come over to St. Thomas in order to oppose this measure.
As it happens, there were over 600 hundred people here on St. John that signed a petition to defeat the developers initial request that had been filed with the legislature and senate, so they were all aware of the massive opposition to this project expansion. The fact is there were over 300 residents that had organized and were waiting, prepared to travel over to St. Thomas to attend the senate session once the date was announced in order to protest this measure. This is why Celistino White called the measure to the floor, unannounced, in the last minutes of Tuesdays night's session in order to avoid having to hear the voice of the people of St. John.
To add insult to injury, our own local senator, Carmen Wesselhof, who previously had promised the people of St. John that she would vote her conscious apparently has none and voted to approve the measure and persuade all the St. Croix senators that don't give a crap about St. John to follow her lead. Perhaps I missed some very important lesson in my civics class in school but if I'm not mistaken, it's my understanding that our elected officials are elected and employed by the people that they represent and therefore are obligated to vote to represent the general public's wishes, NOT HER OWN CONSCIENCE, of which it appears she has none.
This action is nothing but a slap in the face to all of us that live and work on St. John and has brought to the surface the true color of our local senator, GREEN as in the color of money. Carmen Wesselhof has, as of her vote on Tuesday night proven that she, her cohort, Celistino White, and all of the senators that chose to turn their backs on the people of St. John, to be completely and morally bankrupt and not deserving of our trust on any issues in the future. How can Ms. Wesselhof vote to let one developer run rampant and the next day issue a press release calling for restrained development? It's a simple matter of her trying to manage damage control over her outrageous behavior or trying to, "Shut The Barn Door After All Of The Horses Have Run Off". I've seen a lot of jokes played on the people of the Virgin Islands but this has to take the prize as the worst.
I call on every person, not only in St. John, but territory wide, to contact our Governor and demand that he veto this measure before it ignites a wild fire of problems that cannot be put out. Normally I would sign my letter respectfully submitted but I can no longer muster any respect for our senators.
John Francis
Cruz Bay, St. John
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