The former executive director and chief executive officer of the University of the Virgin Islands Research and Technology Park has asked a federal court clerk to enter a default judgment against his former employer and the chair of the RTPark board nearly two months after filing a whistleblower complaint alleging statutory violations and retaliation.
Peter Chapman, the plaintiff, took the RTPark and its board chair to court in late November. His attorney, Scot McChain of McChain Hamm and Associates, asked the court to find the defendants in default after they failed to respond or plead one way or another. Neither defendant had filed a response by Tuesday evening.
UVI’s Research and Technology Park was established in 2002. It offers tax exemptions and reductions to promote the “economic growth, development and diversification of the Virgin Islands and the broadening of the capabilities of the University of the Virgin Islands,” according to the V.I. Code.
Chapman became executive director of the public-private entity in September 2018. His contract was renewed for a three-year term in 2021, but the RTPark board voted against renewing his contract a second time during an April meeting.
According to Chapman’s initial complaint, RTPark revenue tripled under his tenure, though Chapman “often found himself in the unenviable position of having to fend off efforts by members of the board — the RTPark’s statutory governing body — to divert large additional sums of RTPark money for UVI’s myriad interests, including the medical school project.”
Chapman’s attorney argued that as a public corporation and autonomous governmental instrumentality, the RTPark does not exist for the sole financial benefit of the university. The complaint cited a statute of the V.I. Code stating that the RTPark’s “debts, obligations, contracts, bonds, receipts, expenditures, funds, accounts, projects and property shall be those of the Corporation, and not those of … the University of the Virgin Islands, or any office, bureau, department, commission, officer, agent or employee of the Government of the Virgin Islands or the University of the Virgin Islands.”
According to the complaint, representatives from UVI serving on the RTPark board “and their principal advocate, Chair Edward Thomas, repeatedly made attempts to secure unreasonable sums of money from the RTPark — funding that exceeds the mutually-agreed-upon level of financial support generated for UVI via the RTPark’s increasingly effective business attraction platform.” Client companies recruited by the RTPark are required to make a contribution to UVI.
The complaint further alleged that the RTPark board repeatedly favored a set of “Guiding Principles” in its decision-making over the law.
