The Senate Finance Committee on Friday approved six federal grant applications, one lease agreement and one bill. But in keeping with the tenor of several Senate meetings this week, the meeting was not without discord.
Several senators at the St. Thomas meeting objected to voting on the grants because some of them were already in effect and their funding under way. Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen refused to endorse these grants, not because she disapproved of the projects, she said, but because she had no voice in the matter.
Legislative Post Auditor Campbell Malone called the process "rubber-stamping." In his analysis of a federal grant to the Department of Health to support a territorial cancer registry, Malone said, "It seems the grants are routinely being submitted to the Legislature months after they have been submitted to granting agencies and even approved and awarded."
He said in the case of the health grant, if the Legislature had been given the opportunity to comment perhaps the award could have been larger. It was 53 percent less than requested.
Committee Chairwoman Lorraine Berry said that in her nine terms in the Legislature the grant applications had never been delivered on time. Sen. Gregory Bennerson echoed Malone's comments, "What we're into now is a retro-approval."
The senators also objected to the absence of Ira Mills, director of the Office of Management and Budget. Mills had been invited to testify on a number of the grants. He had sent a representative, but the senators wanted answers only Mills could supply.
Mills was summoned to the Senate chambers and arrived in the afternoon. He explained the many glitches in the grant process, including his office's lack of a senior grant analyst. Bennerson suggested Mills review his priorities and get a qualified person for the position.
Federal grant applications approved were:
– Department of Health to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a competing continuation grant for $264,556 to implement and support a territory-wide cancer registry;
– Department of Health for a Virgin Islands Minority HIV/AIDS Demonstration Continuation Grant for $150,000;
– Department of Public Works for a national Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Related State Program Grant for $25,950;
– Department of Tourism for an Economic Development Administration for Capacity Building Implementation grant for $290,907;
– Department of Planning and Natural Resources for a study of the occurrence of radium in ground water for $8,000;
– The New Image Corporation for a New Image Foundation Low Income Training/Placement and Entrepreneurial Development Program for $50,000.
– Lease agreement between the Department of Property and Procurement and John's Folly Learning Institute on Coral Bay, St. John;
– A bill to authorize the issuance of bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness of the V.I. government and the V. I. Public Finance Authority, and for other related purposes.
Testifying on the health grants, which are 100 percent federally funded, were Lucien Moolenaar, acting Commissioner of Health, Deborah K. Richardson, tumor registrar and Pamela A. Eckstein, director of grant writing.
Also testifying were Amadeo Francis, PFA director of finance and administration, Port Authority director Gordon Finch and Rudolph Krigger, the governor's assistant for fiscal policy and economic affairs.
