Dear Source:
Don't look now but here come our senators with another new way to waste our money and show us how not to problem solve. Not too long ago our legislature created the Wasted (sic) Management Authority as their answer to our Department of Public Works not being able to solve the challenges we face in resolving both our liquid and solid waste issues. They created a whole new department with a whole new commissioner and a whole new set of offices with all new jobs instead of hiring someone with the experience and expertise to take charge of Public Works and get the job done. Unfortunately, we know how well that has worked. Instead of going out to find the best person available they appointed someone who was working for the failed system already and we got the environmental user fee proposal, after spending hundreds of thousands of our hard earned tax dollars in consulting fees.
Well here they come again folks. We have a new folly presented to us by Senators Alvin Williams, Usie Richards, Carmen Wesselhoft and Shawn-Michael Malone. They propose to solve the challenges which we face in our jail system by removing that responsibility from the Justice Department and creating a whole new Department of Corrections with a whole new commissioner, a whole new warden, whole new division directors, a whole new …well you get the idea. Won't they ever learn? If we need to hire an additional person to relieve the Attorney General of some of his duties because he is not up to the task then do so. Why in the world would we need to create a whole new bureaucracy?
I can't wait for the next quandary we face. Will we in the future have a Department of Elementary Education because our youngest are not learning at the appropriate level? Will we have a Department of Family Planning because the Department of Health has been woefully inadequate in preventing teenage pregnancies? How will you feel about a Department of Motor Pools because Property and Procurement can't figure out how many vehicles the senators need to drive on each island?
Come on people. Please urge your senators and the governor to put this idea in a cell somewhere with a life sentence. The best solution is usually the easiest. Do a national search, find the best person available for the job and hire them. You don't need to re-create the wheel because of a flat tire, just get a new tire.
Michael A. Monagle
St. Croix
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