Gov. Kenneth Mapp on Tuesday issued his 13th monthly extension of the territory’s post-hurricane state of emergency just a week after vetoing legislation that would have placed slight limits on his ability to do so.
The state of emergency allows the governor to bypass many restrictions on how the administration awards contracts and spends money. Like every state and territory, V.I. law gives the governor power to mobilize the National Guard and bypass time-consuming normal processes to organize a quick response to the immediate needs after a disaster.
Mapp initially declared a state of emergency just before the first of two hurricanes hit the territory last September.
Among his emergency powers, the governor may, for example, “(s)uspend the provisions of any statute prescribing the procedures for conduct of territorial business, or the orders, rules, or regulations of any territorial agency,” “(u)tilize all available resources of the Territory” and “(t)ake any other action he deems necessary.”
V.I. law says “(a)ll proclamations issued under this subsection shall indicate the nature of the emergency or major disaster, the area or areas threatened the conditions which have brought it about or which make possible termination of the state of emergency.”
None of the extension proclamations, including this 13th extension, (13th State of Emergency Declaration) appear to meet that statutory requirement. They only state there were hurricanes in September 2017 which caused extensive damage. They lack the recitals of areas threatened and conditions which make possible termination of the state of emergency which are specifically mandated in V.I. law.
At the beginning of September, the Legislature passed a measure that would allow the governor to renew an existing state of emergency for 30 days without question. But then, the governor would have to appear before the Senate five days before the end of the current state of emergency and justify any further extension.
The proposed law would not automatically have ended the state of emergency. If, under the measure, the Senate did not act within five days the state of emergency would have continued. The bill only would have required the governor to explain what he was doing with the power and why he needed to continue the state of emergency.
Late in September, Mapp vetoed the bill.
“This measure is irresponsible; it reeks of politics,” Mapp wrote in a statement about the veto last week.
“The Virgin Islands of the United States remains under a Presidential State of Emergency. The Presidential State of Emergency exists so federal agencies can respond and assist the people of the Virgin Islands in a more responsive and timely manner. The Virgin Islands’ State of Emergency exists so that we can expedite the procurement process and response to federal imposed cost share deadlines. While I understand the need of some members of the Legislature to ask for a ‘go slow’ process, this adds no benefit to the recovery of the territory … this measure will only result in delaying the Executive Branch’s immediate response to disasters and increase the territorial cost as we rebuild,” Mapp said.
In April, the V.I. Source requested information on all contracts entered into under the looser procurement terms of the state of emergency. In July, Attorney General Claude Walker responded, saying he had confirmed “no such contracts have been entered into by the government of the Virgin Islands. All such contracts were entered into consistent with the local procurement laws.”
Mapp contradicted Walker on July 30, saying the state of emergency “allows a truncated procurement process so that when we did the modular systems for the various schools, had we had to do that under a regular procurement it would have added two to three more months in the schedule but under the state of emergency it truncates those schedules.”
The V.I. Source’s request for information on all contracts entered outside the normal procurement process is still pending.
