Dec. 9, 2008 — Moving toward their goal of having a final draft of the territory's constitution in place by the beginning of April, delegates to the Fifth Constitutional Convention wasted no time Tuesday in adopting language from three of their standing committees, including the document's preamble and sections outlining the structure of the local judicial and education systems.
"Today has been overwhelming in terms of its uniqueness and we're just moving smoothly along," convention president Gerard Luz James III said as Tuesday's plenary session wrapped on St. Thomas. "We were able to come to consensus and that's the key."
Parts of the meeting moved at a quick place — no objections were raised by the delegation to language dealing with the judicial branch, so the section, presented by Judicial Committee chair Douglas Capdeville, was adopted unanimously. Powers granted to V.I. Supreme and Superior courts are defined under the section, which also establishes a judicial nominating committee tasked with supplying the governor with names of potential candidates for open judge or justice positions.
"All justices and judges shall be appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Legislature, but no person shall be appointed as a judge or justice who has not been nominated by the judicial nominating committee," the language reads.
The section also establishes a judicial misconduct and disability commission that has the power to "discipline, censure, suspend remove for misconduct, or retire for disability any judge or justice" within the local court system.
During other parts of the meeting, however, some old issues raised by delegates in previous sessions resurfaced, topped off by motions to cut the word "African" out of language proposed by the Education committee and to include in the constitution a firm definition of the word "marriage" as the union between "one man and one woman."
But the same-sex marriage debate was quickly quelled by two arguments. While some, such as delegate Gerard Emanuel, said they did not want to create a document based on religious beliefs or practices, others, such as delegate Kendall Petersen, said including the word "one" in the definition prevented men from taking more than one wife.
Stepping down into Committee of the Whole for about 10 minutes, delegates were warned by one community member that taking the wrong position on the issue could push the territory out of God's favor.
"I'm here to warn you that as you deliberate and discuss issues such as capital punishment and the definition of marriage, I want to make sure that what you bring to the people is in line with the original Constitution — the Bible," said Dolores Clendinen, who told the delegation that she appeared at the meeting on "divine assignment from the all sovereign God."
"Failure to do so will result in dire needs for the community," Clendinen added.
But Emanuel countered that the convention has been charged with writing a secular constitution and not a religious one, and a line should be drawn between religious practices and government practices.
The idea that delegates were trying to "micromanage" the government by putting specific facts and figures into some of the language proposed by the Education, Youth and Culture Committee was also a concern for delegate Douglas Brady and Robert Schuster.
Brady also took issue with the committee's proposed educational philosophy, which states: "It is the goal of the Virgin Islands to provide its citizens with a free, high-quality, public education system that does not discriminate against any citizen, preserves the African history, culture and traditions of the people of the Virgin Islands and prepares its citizens to compete globally."
Brady suggested the word "African" be removed from the document.
"I understand the comments that have been made, but we are not here to cure the ills of society, we are here to put in place a framework for the structure of the government of the Virgin Islands," he said. "The structure for departments, boards and other institutions need to be put in place so they can do those things to cure the ills of society. We are much, much, much too much acting like the Legislature here."
As the debate began to heat up, delegate Craig W. Barshinger suggested that the proposed language be sent to the public for their input. If objections are made, then the delegates will try to include them in the final draft, he said.
The same objection has been raised in the past and voted on by the other delegates, committee chairman Mary Moorhead added. It's now time to move on, she said.
Language that sets a specific class size for each grade — no more than 15 students in each kindergarten to seventh-grade class and no more than 20 students in grades eight and above — and funnels 30 percent of the territory's annual budget toward education also sparked the same concerns for Schuster, who questioned why the department should get more money when enrollment levels are down.
"If we're serious about improving education, then we have to put the money behind it," Moorhead responded.
The committee's proposal passed on a 15 to five vote, with three delegates abstaining. Voting to adopt the proposed language were delegates Capdeville, Emanuel, Mario Francis, Lois Hassell-Habtes, Stedmann Hodge Jr., Myron Jackson, Gerard Luz James II, Wilma Marsh-Monsanto, Moorhead, Petersen, Claire Roker, Schuster, Lawrence "Larry" Sewer, Elsie Thomas-Trotman, and Alecia Wells.
Voting against the proposal were delegates Brady, Arnold Golden, Clement "Cain" Magras, Charles W. Turnbull and Lisa Williams.
An amendment setting up an entity within the lieutenant governor's office to deal with the copyrighting and registering of "cultural and intellectual" property of the Virgin Islands was also approved.
The amendment lays claim to certain local inventions, symbols and historical artifacts, among other things, and helps to preserve them, said Delegate Myron Jackson.
Rounding out the session, delegates elected Moorhead as the convention's new secretary — a position previously filled by Emanuel — and Roker as the convention's executive director.
The three sections adopted Tuesday will now go out for public input, then return to the convention for further amendments before delegates put together the final draft, James said after the meeting.
Absent from the session were delegates Violet Anne Golden, Rena Brodhurst, Eugene "Doc" Petersen, Richard Schrader and Arturo Watlington Jr.
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