March 6, 2008 — One person one vote, representative government, republicanism and district governing were topics scrutinized at the Constitutional Convention Legislative Committee hearing Wednesday at the St. Croix campus of the University of the Virgin Islands.
However, there was little evidence of participatory democracy as only two residents signed up to give testimony. The majority of the half-dozen people in the audience were reporters or delegates to the Constitutional Convention.
"I'm really disappointed in only two people showing up to testify," said delegate Eugene Petersen. "We need to reach more people."
Mike Monagle, who works as a bartender at Duggans Reef, was the first to testify.
He recommended to the committee that if it is considering municipal governance, it make a corresponding cut in the Senate.
"The formation of your ideas on the legislature cannot be created without including your deliberations on municipal government. If you plan to introduce municipal government, and its costs, then we need to have a corresponding reduction in the costs of government in both the executive and legislative branches. The introduction of municipal government should show no net increase in the outlay needed to manage our islands. That said, one method of decreasing the costs of our legislature would be to reduce the number of senators from 15 to either 11 or nine, as was overwhelmingly voted on by the people of our islands several years ago," Monagle said.
He also cited figures saying that the per capita cost for residents of the Virgin Islands legislature was as much as four times as high as legislative government in the states.
He recommended that senators become "citizen representatives" and only serve part-time and be limited to two terms.
"A month of sessions to establish a budget and a month of sessions to deal with laws and regulations would seem sufficient to allow the legislature to complete its duties," he said.
Although he was thanked profusely for coming forward and testifying, his suggestions appeared to not be well-received by the committee.
Delegate Caine Magras said such a proposal did not take into account what would happen to all the jobs and bureaucracy that surrounds the present Senate.
Monagle answered again that he was just referencing the will of the people when they voted several years ago to cut the number of Senators to 11.
Gerard Emmanuel, who is a delegate but not on this committee, said he was concerned that a smaller legislature would be controlled by a smaller number of votes in Senate.
Monagle said in his testimony that accountability would come in the form of sub-districting. "Knowing who is representing your particular neighborhood’s specific challenges and interests is most important. Local problems can be solved by the local person," he added.
The second speaker, Dan Coughlin, touched on many of the same areas that Monagle did. Both speakers spoke of methods for St. John to get more representation. He said that the will of St. Johnians was not being enforced by the Senate and gave as an example the Senate's approval for rezoning that permitted a highly controversial development on St. John.
"St. John is getting the short end of the stick. Cruz Bay is becoming another Charlotte Amalie," Coughlin said.
Municipal government is needed to get more things done such as fixing potholes, said Coughlin.
"In writing the constitution we must be pretty specific," said delegate Frank Jackson. "We need to be more specific — if there is controversy it is less likely to pass."
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