March 26, 2003 – The St. John Community Foundation on Wednesday kicked off an islandwide cleanup campaign funded to the tune of $79,400 by the Anti-litter and Beautification Commission.
"We're going to make sure St. John is clean and the public is educated about enforcement of the laws," Harry Daniel, foundation president, said.
The organization's director, Carole DeSenne, said the foundation has hired Powell Property Maintenance to clean up the island. Owner Dennis Powell and his crew were hard at work Wednesday in Cruz Bay Park getting rid of accumulated debris.
DeSenne said the crew will head to Coral Bay once a week to clean up areas there and will stop along the way to spruce up areas that need tending.
As part of this program, the Community Foundation will buy plants and trees to green up the island and will be responsible for maintaining existing plants and trees in public areas. It also will install a dozen trash cans around Cruz Bay.
Educating the public is key to the program's success, several Community Foundation members said.
The organization also must nudge the Public Works Department to enforce the territory's anti-litter laws. "There's been no litter tickets given in two years," DeSenne said.
She said Powell Property Maintenance personnel will document littering infractions with photographs. Then, she said, Public Works will be notified so its enforcement officers can issue tickets.
She said an auto repair shop owner was caught dumping used oil from a 55-gallon drum into a trash bin. When asked if he could at least leave the oil in the drum, she said, the man replied that he needed the drum for more oil.
The Community Foundation already has tackled the proliferation of posters that many businesses affix to trees and utility poles. As an option and an incentive, DeSenne said, the organization is working to identify spots to install public bulletin boards so the businesses that advertise with posters will have an outlet.
Cleaning up the island is normally a task that would be undertaken by the government. However, foundation member Lonnie Willis said that if the private sector through organizations such as the St. John Community Foundation chips in, more can be accomplished.

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March 26, 2003 – Police Commissioner-designate Elton Lewis got his feet wet Wednesday in his first Senate appearance, at a meeting of the new Public Safety, Judiciary, Homeland Security and Justice Committee.
Gov. Charles W. Turnbull has nominated Lewis to replace Franz Christian, who was relieved of his duties by the governor on March 18.
The meeting was called by Sen. Lorraine Berry, committee chair, as a "continuation" of the first two sessions, held on St. Croix on March 11 and 12. The objective on both islands was to get an overview from top safety and security personnel and union representatives of the territory's crime and homeland security situations.
Berry said testimony on St. Croix left her with concerns about the Police Department, not just about increases in crime but about police officers' roles in some cases. "We need to know your capabilities to fulfill your mandates," she told Lewis on Wednesday.
Lewis responded that "there isn't anything wrong with the V.I. Police Department that cannot be remedied … There are problems, but they are fixable."
While the person in the top police post has changed, the problems remain familiar: lack of funding, personnel and crime enforcement.
Lewis made it clear that he plans some structural changes. "It is my professional opinion that the Police Department must be run and streamlined like an efficient business," he said. "While I am not going to dazzle you with glossy paint, I am not a proponent of throwing the baby out with the bath water."
He said the department's problems can be remedied through "reorganization, enhancement of deployment patterns and strategies, proper command and control, and an appropriate injection of funding and sensible planning for future growth."
Addressing the matter of funding, the senators came up with many questions, not all of which had answers. Berry had an itemized list of 24th Legislature appropriations to the department. Lewis and the other police officials present could not specify which of them had been received.
The Fiscal Year 2002 budget approved for the department was $29.4 million; this was augmented by $4.8 million in individual appropriations for items including overtime, project Exile, vehicles and personnel on all three islands. Lewis and Bruce Hamlin, acting commissioner, said they could identify some, but not all, appropriations that had been received but promised they would submit a complete list to Berry soon.
The list of things needed but lacking was long: training in handling hazardous materials, proper communication tools, a trained bomb squad. Hamlin said no funding was available to send officers for bomb-detection training, and so "we have no bomb technician." He said the department borrows a bomb-sniffing dog from the private firm Dogs On Guard Security (D.O.G.S.) to respond to bomb threats called in to schools and other places. Berry reminded him of the $10,000 fine for carrying out a bomb hoax.
Sen. Shawn-Michael Malone asked Lewis why the Police Department cannot retain the cadets that it trains, saying that many officers leave the department after two or three years for more lucrative employment. Lewis said it is common police practice elsewhere for officers to sign a five-year contract and that he is considering this for the territory. Malone suggested "taking all the chauffeurs and putting them on the street."
Sen. Emmett Hansen II asked about security along the territory's shorelines and whether the department is getting its fair share of federal border security funding, an issue Hansen and Berry have raised before. Police Chief Novelle Francis said the department and the FBI are part of a Joint Terrorism Task Force and that the two agencies are in "constant communication." However, he said, while the department is making progress, he is not comfortable with its level of readiness.
Info-tech official critical of police
Roy McFarlane, special assistant to the governor for information and technology, gave a blistering report citing what he termed Police Department lack of cooperation with his office in setting up communication systems. McFarlane said his office has spent extensive time and money to assist the police but the department has not done its part.
McFarlane said his office is responsible for maintaining the Government Wide Area Network (GWAN) and overseeing Y2K millennium security for all government agencies. He said an assessment of police computers and 911 communications showed the department had a few computers installed but no network system throughout the department. He said the system need to be upgraded.
Further, McFarlane said, his office provided the necessary funding and technical support to communicate with GWAN, but "the Police Department did not make that a priority."
He submitted to the committee a letter from Networks Inc., the company supplying the department with radios and other communication equipment. The letter included a chronology of company officials' frustration in their efforts to install the equipment and 911 wireless links. The letter said the company had come under criticism from St. Croix police officers complaining that using two-way hand-held radios endangers their work.
"The time has come for the Police Department to be accountable for technological needs that they were entrusted with," McFarlane said. "It has become very disturbing to hear the VIPD attributing the blame for the smart zone equipment not working." The "equipment" consists of the mobile radios that officers complained about.
Lewis said a specialist hired last May to resolve the problems had applied for a $2.4 million federal grant to update the police communication systems.
Sen. Raymond "Usie" Richards asked how much the department had spent on its public relations campaign contracted to Austin Advertising. Hamlin said he didn't have the figure with him but that it was funded by the Public Finance Authority.
Richards also said: "We in the territory are being terrorized now. We are short 20 officers on St. Croix, and we have no security."
Fire Service 'not prepared'
The Fire Service director, Ian Williams Sr., did not have any more encouraging funding news for the committee. The Fire Service was appropriated $13.4 million in the FY 2003 budget, he said, but that has been cut by 5 percent — or $670,372 — and this limits the agency's ability to fill the staffing vacancies provided for in the budget.
A grant application will be submitted by the April 11 deadline seeking funds to provide safety equipment and training for officers, he said.
As far as preparedness, Williams said flat-out that the Fire Service "is not prepared for operating in a weapons of mass destruction environment. We lack vital equipment, training and funding to combat hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction."
Also, he said, firefighters' medical insurance doesn't cover "Hazmat" responders, nor does Workers' Compensation. He said Fire Service personnel as "first responders" do not receive hazardous duty pay as do police personnel.
Williams said the Local Emergency Planning Committee has an arrangement with the Hovensa refinery for Hovensa to provide emergency assistance in situations where control is beyond the capability of primary responding agencies.
He said the Fire Service has about 30 Hazmat team members on St. Thomas, and about 15 trained responders on St. Croix. Members are trained and qualify at different levels, but none are certified, he said.
Sen. Carlton Dowe, a onetime Fire Service director, questioned how much "homeland security" the territory has with no fire station at Bordeaux on St. Thomas's West End. "Are you serious about the Bordeaux fire station?" he asked. He pointed out that the West End has one road linking it to the rest of the islan d and 15,000 residents there "with no protection."
Sen. Roosevelt David praised Lewis, and Sen. Celestino A. White criticized David for doing so.
"I'm not going to join the glee club," White, a former St. Thomas police chief, said. "I don't care about homeland security at the risk of local protection. Things are bad." He accused police of operating in a timid manner, afraid to answer questions because of "security reasons." White elaborated: "We want the criminals to get information, to be so confused that they think apprehension is smart."
Berry, saying she wasn't part of any "glee club," asked the police officials to address two incidents.
First, she read them a letter she had received from a woman who had called 911 several times and received no response but managed to get the vehicle license number of a person who had taken things out of her car. Deputy Chief Theodore Carty said he wasn't aware of the situation but the woman should report the license number.
Second, Berry cited a case of a person being assaulted in the Divi Casino on St. Croix, but there being no police record and nothing on the police blotter. Carty said a complete report was filed in that case and that the information was recorded on the blotter.
The committee was to reconvene in the afternoon following a lunch break, to hear further testimony including that of police and fire union representatives.
Berry called for a moment of silence at the beginning of the meeting as she read the names of Virgin Islanders serving their country in Iraq.
Committee members attending the morning session were Sens. Berry, Dowe, Hansen, Almando "Rocky" Liburd, Malone and Ronald Russell. Sen. David Jones was absent. Also present were four non-committee members, Sens. David, Louis Hill, Richards and White.

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March 26, 2003 – The V.I. government will appeal the March 10 ruling by District Judge Thomas K. Moore prohibiting the administration from recontracting a St. Croix company to oversee sewage system repairs and ordering it to hire a qualified contractor to operate the island's pump stations and sewage collection system for 18 months.
Meanwhile, there are indications that Ohanio Harris, a special assistant to Gov. Charles W. Turnbull whose name surfaced repeatedly in three days of testimony leading up to Moore's ruling, is no longer in that position with the administration.
Moore on March 10 ordered the government not to revive its $3.6 million contract with Global Resources Management Inc. — a contract which Turnbull had abruptly canceled without explanation two days before a scheduled show-cause hearing on why the government should not be forced to void the agreement.
The contract had been awarded last December without competitive bidding as a "public exigency" under a "state of emergency" declared by the governor. A petition filed in District Court by U.S. Attorney David Nissman arguing that the emergency was one of political expediency prompted Moore to schedule the show-cause hearing. (See "Judge finds 'reek of politics' in sewage contract".)
According to documents filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the U.S. Justice Department and testimony before Moore, Harris was the chief executive of Global Resources Management until a year ago and repeatedly lobbied Public Works and Property and Procurement Department officials to approve the $3.6 million contract with the firm.
WVWI Radio reported on Wednesday that Harris "is no longer associated with the administration." It cited conflicting reports that he either resigned or was fired and said informed sources were unwilling to comment on Harris's status.
Calls to Harris's office on Monday and Tuesday went unreturned, and a Government House receptionist said only that he was out of the office. Government House spokesman James O'Bryan Jr., contacted on Monday, said he was not aware of any changes in Harris's status with the administration.
WVWI also reported on Wednesday that the V.I. government has hired a Philadelphia law firm specializing in constitutional law to argue its appeal of Moore's order.
The government contends that the federal court lacked jurisdiction in the case and impinged on the authority of the governor to declare a state of emergency regarding the St. Croix sewage system and thereby expedite repairs by circumventing the normal bidding process.
Moore also ordered the government to hire a "qualified independent private contractor" within 90 days of his ruling to operate and maintain St. Croix's pump stations and sewage collection system for the next 18 months.
For years, the federal court has been trying to enforce orders that the V.I. government comply with the federal Clean Water Act, which would mean stopping sewage spills and leaks that pollute St. Croix's streets and shorlines. The territory's lack of compliance with the terms of a consent decree entered into in 1984 and amended in 1996 regarding upgrading of its waste collection and disposal systems prompted subsequent orders issued by Moore in recent years.
The local government claims that in order to meet court-imposed deadlines it had to bypass normal bidding procedures in awarding the sewage-system repair contract.
Federal officials said Global Resources Management was a start-up company with no track record, equipment, resources or performance bond. The person who succeeded Harris as chief executive is Ashley Andrews, a St. Croix entrepreneur who has been involved in controversial and costly government contracts in the past.
According to WVWI, the local government is seeking another contractor at the same time that it is preparing to appeal Moore's order prohibiting it from re-contracting Global Resources Management.

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March 26, 2003 – More than 900 affordable homes and home sites have been made available to families of low and moderate incomes in the territory since the V.I. Housing Finance Authority was created in 1981.
But rising construction costs and clients' "stagnant income" has made producing affordable housing difficult, the authority's executive director, Clifford Graham, told members of the Senate Housing Parks and Recreation Committee on Tuesday.
The authority must generate 70 percent of its annual operating budget through the sale of housing units or face a budget deficit, Graham said. The authority's primary source of income, he said, is the sale of land acquired from the government for little or nothing which typically accounts for $10,000 of the purchase price of an affordable housing unit.
"The authority must produce and sell an average of 100 units per year to break even," Graham said.
To be affordable to clients, he said, units must be subsidized. The Housing Trust Fund was set up in the early 1990s to make $10,000 per unit available toward construction costs and enable the authority to sell the units at affordable prices.
By law, Graham said, any property taxes in excess of the initial assessed value of each parcel developed by the authority are to be deposited back into the fund to replenish it. However, he added: "To this date, no property taxes have ever been deposited to the trust fund, and the fund has had a zero balance since the late 1990s."
An analysis of the 2001 property tax assessments shows that about $190,000 for St. Thomas-St. John and about $120,000 for St. Croix should be deposited into the fund for that year, he said.
On St. Croix, the last piece of suitable affordable housing property is under development, Graham said, and to continue the program, additional property must be acquired. The Property and Procurement Department has agreed to exchange three parcels of land on St. Croix for one property on St. Thomas and another on St. Croix that are owned by the authority so the Police Department can construct communication towers.
Also on hand at the hearing were representatives of several area banks, invited to testify about programs intended to assist people in becoming homeowners.
Educating potential homeowners is an important part of the process, Paul Gourieux, a FirstBank vice president, said. "We have counseled over a thousand V.I. residents in a vast array of financial areas. We believe education to be a critical component in shaping the homeowner of tomorrow."
Juliette Kean, a vice president at Banco Popular, said its mission is to help people retain their homes, assist in difficult times and provide financial counseling.
Of particular concern, Kean said, are government employees who retire but then have to wait four to six months before receiving their first retirement check. "This is causing their credit records to be blemished and causing the threat of losing their homes," she said.
Laurence Bryan, Government Employees Retirement System administrator, said GERS is the last in a series of steps in the process of an individual's retirement. Paperwork, he said, must go through several government agencies first, and employees should prepare for retirement beforehand and get the paperwork on its way to GERS before they leave their jobs.
Bryan was invited to testify about the plausibility of reselling the agency's $25 million mortgage portfolio in the secondary mortgage market to raise money for housing development and mortgages. He said the high interest rate of GERS mortgages would dissuade the secondary market because interest rates nationwide are low right now.
Committee members present were Sens. Emmett Hansen II, the chair; David Jones, Luther Renee and Raymond "Usie" Richards. Sen. Celestino A. White Sr. was not present. Also present was Sen. Ronald Russell, a non-member.

Publisher's note : Like the St. Thomas Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.

March 26, 2003 – Police Commissioner-designate Elton Lewis got his feet wet Wednesday in his first Senate appearance, at a meeting of the new Public Safety, Judiciary, Homeland Security and Justice Committee.
Gov. Charles W. Turnbull has nominated Lewis to replace Franz Christian, who was relieved of his duties by the governor on March 18.
The meeting was called by Sen. Lorraine Berry, committee chair, as a "continuation" of the first two sessions, held on St. Croix on March 11 and 12. The objective on both islands was to get an overview from top safety and security personnel and union representatives of the territory's crime and homeland security situations.
Berry said testimony on St. Croix left her with concerns about the Police Department, not just about increases in crime but about police officers' roles in some cases. "We need to know your capabilities to fulfill your mandates," she told Lewis on Wednesday.
Lewis responded that "there isn't anything wrong with the V.I. Police Department that cannot be remedied … There are problems, but they are fixable."
While the person in the top police post has changed, the problems remain familiar: lack of funding, personnel and crime enforcement.
Lewis made it clear that he plans some structural changes. "It is my professional opinion that the Police Department must be run and streamlined like an efficient business," he said. "While I am not going to dazzle you with glossy paint, I am not a proponent of throwing the baby out with the bath water."
He said the department's problems can be remedied through "reorganization, enhancement of deployment patterns and strategies, proper command and control, and an appropriate injection of funding and sensible planning for future growth."
Addressing the matter of funding, the senators came up with many questions, not all of which had answers. Berry had an itemized list of 24th Legislature appropriations to the department. Lewis and the other police officials present could not specify which of them had been received.
The Fiscal Year 2002 budget approved for the department was $29.4 million; this was augmented by $4.8 million in individual appropriations for items including overtime, project Exile, vehicles and personnel on all three islands. Lewis and Bruce Hamlin, acting commissioner, said they could identify some, but not all, appropriations that had been received but promised they would submit a complete list to Berry soon.
The list of things needed but lacking was long: training in handling hazardous materials, proper communication tools, a trained bomb squad. Hamlin said no funding was available to send officers for bomb-detection training, and so "we have no bomb technician." He said the department borrows a bomb-sniffing dog from the private firm Dogs On Guard Security (D.O.G.S.) to respond to bomb threats called in to schools and other places. Berry reminded him of the $10,000 fine for carrying out a bomb hoax.
Sen. Shawn-Michael Malone asked Lewis why the Police Department cannot retain the cadets that it trains, saying that many officers leave the department after two or three years for more lucrative employment. Lewis said it is common police practice elsewhere for officers to sign a five-year contract and that he is considering this for the territory. Malone suggested "taking all the chauffeurs and putting them on the street."
Sen. Emmett Hansen II asked about security along the territory's shorelines and whether the department is getting its fair share of federal border security funding, an issue Hansen and Berry have raised before. Police Chief Novelle Francis said the department and the FBI are part of a Joint Terrorism Task Force and that the two agencies are in "constant communication." However, he said, while the department is making progress, he is not comfortable with its level of readiness.
Info-tech official critical of police
Roy McFarlane, special assistant to the governor for information and technology, gave a blistering report citing what he termed Police Department lack of cooperation with his office in setting up communication systems. McFarlane said his office has spent extensive time and money to assist the police but the department has not done its part.
McFarlane said his office is responsible for maintaining the Government Wide Area Network (GWAN) and overseeing Y2K millennium security for all government agencies. He said an assessment of police computers and 911 communications showed the department had a few computers installed but no network system throughout the department. He said the system need to be upgraded.
Further, McFarlane said, his office provided the necessary funding and technical support to communicate with GWAN, but "the Police Department did not make that a priority."
He submitted to the committee a letter from Networks Inc., the company supplying the department with radios and other communication equipment. The letter included a chronology of company officials' frustration in their efforts to install the equipment and 911 wireless links. The letter said the company had come under criticism from St. Croix police officers complaining that using two-way hand-held radios endangers their work.
"The time has come for the Police Department to be accountable for technological needs that they were entrusted with," McFarlane said. "It has become very disturbing to hear the VIPD attributing the blame for the smart zone equipment not working." The "equipment" consists of the mobile radios that officers complained about.
Lewis said a specialist hired last May to resolve the problems had applied for a $2.4 million federal grant to update the police communication systems.
Sen. Raymond "Usie" Richards asked how much the department had spent on its public relations campaign contracted to Austin Advertising. Hamlin said he didn't have the figure with him but that it was funded by the Public Finance Authority.
Richards also said: "We in the territory are being terrorized now. We are short 20 officers on St. Croix, and we have no security."
Fire Service 'not prepared'
The Fire Service director, Ian Williams Sr., did not have any more encouraging funding news for the committee. The Fire Service was appropriated $13.4 million in the FY 2003 budget, he said, but that has been cut by 5 percent — or $670,372 — and this limits the agency's ability to fill the staffing vacancies provided for in the budget.
A grant application will be submitted by the April 11 deadline seeking funds to provide safety equipment and training for officers, he said.
As far as preparedness, Williams said flat-out that the Fire Service "is not prepared for operating in a weapons of mass destruction environment. We lack vital equipment, training and funding to combat hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction."
Also, he said, firefighters' medical insurance doesn't cover "Hazmat" responders, nor does Workers' Compensation. He said Fire Service personnel as "first responders" do not receive hazardous duty pay as do police personnel.
Williams said the Local Emergency Planning Committee has an arrangement with the Hovensa refinery for Hovensa to provide emergency assistance in situations where control is beyond the capability of primary responding agencies.
He said the Fire Service has about 30 Hazmat team members on St. Thomas, and about 15 trained responders on St. Croix. Members are trained and qualify at different levels, but none are certified, he said.
Sen. Carlton Dowe, a onetime Fire Service director, questioned how much "homeland security" the territory has with no fire station at Bordeaux on St. Thomas's West End. "Are you serious about the Bordeaux fire station?" he asked. He pointed out that the West End has one road linking it to the rest of the islan d and 15,000 residents there "with no protection."
Sen. Roosevelt David praised Lewis, and Sen. Celestino A. White criticized David for doing so.
"I'm not going to join the glee club," White, a former St. Thomas police chief, said. "I don't care about homeland security at the risk of local protection. Things are bad." He accused police of operating in a timid manner, afraid to answer questions because of "security reasons." White elaborated: "We want the criminals to get information, to be so confused that they think apprehension is smart."
Berry, saying she wasn't part of any "glee club," asked the police officials to address two incidents.
First, she read them a letter she had received from a woman who had called 911 several times and received no response but managed to get the vehicle license number of a person who had taken things out of her car. Deputy Chief Theodore Carty said he wasn't aware of the situation but the woman should report the license number.
Second, Berry cited a case of a person being assaulted in the Divi Casino on St. Croix, but there being no police record and nothing on the police blotter. Carty said a complete report was filed in that case and that the information was recorded on the blotter.
The committee was to reconvene in the afternoon following a lunch break, to hear further testimony including that of police and fire union representatives.
Berry called for a moment of silence at the beginning of the meeting as she read the names of Virgin Islanders serving their country in Iraq.
Committee members attending the morning session were Sens. Berry, Dowe, Hansen, Almando "Rocky" Liburd, Malone and Ronald Russell. Sen. David Jones was absent. Also present were four non-committee members, Sens. David, Louis Hill, Richards and White.

Publisher's note : Like the St. John Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.

March 26, 2003 – The V.I. government will appeal the March 10 ruling by District Judge Thomas K. Moore prohibiting the administration from recontracting a St. Croix company to oversee sewage system repairs and ordering it to hire a qualified contractor to operate the island's pump stations and sewage collection system for 18 months.
Meanwhile, there are indications that Ohanio Harris, a special assistant to Gov. Charles W. Turnbull whose name surfaced repeatedly in three days of testimony leading up to Moore's ruling, is no longer in that position with the administration.
Moore on March 10 ordered the government not to revive its $3.6 million contract with Global Resources Management Inc. — a contract which Turnbull had abruptly canceled without explanation two days before a scheduled show-cause hearing on why the government should not be forced to void the agreement.
The contract had been awarded last December without competitive bidding as a "public exigency" under a "state of emergency" declared by the governor. A petition filed in District Court by U.S. Attorney David Nissman arguing that the emergency was one of political expediency prompted Moore to schedule the show-cause hearing. (See "Judge finds 'reek of politics' in sewage contract".)
According to documents filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the U.S. Justice Department and testimony before Moore, Harris was the chief executive of Global Resources Management until a year ago and repeatedly lobbied Public Works and Property and Procurement Department officials to approve the $3.6 million contract with the firm.
WVWI Radio reported on Wednesday that Harris "is no longer associated with the administration." It cited conflicting reports that he either resigned or was fired and said informed sources were unwilling to comment on Harris's status.
Calls to Harris's office on Monday and Tuesday went unreturned, and a Government House receptionist said only that he was out of the office. Government House spokesman James O'Bryan Jr., contacted on Monday, said he was not aware of any changes in Harris's status with the administration.
WVWI also reported on Wednesday that the V.I. government has hired a Philadelphia law firm specializing in constitutional law to argue its appeal of Moore's order.
The government contends that the federal court lacked jurisdiction in the case and impinged on the authority of the governor to declare a state of emergency regarding the St. Croix sewage system and thereby expedite repairs by circumventing the normal bidding process.
Moore also ordered the government to hire a "qualified independent private contractor" within 90 days of his ruling to operate and maintain St. Croix's pump stations and sewage collection system for the next 18 months.
For years, the federal court has been trying to enforce orders that the V.I. government comply with the federal Clean Water Act, which would mean stopping sewage spills and leaks that pollute St. Croix's streets and shorlines. The territory's lack of compliance with the terms of a consent decree entered into in 1984 and amended in 1996 regarding upgrading of its waste collection and disposal systems prompted subsequent orders issued by Moore in recent years.
The local government claims that in order to meet court-imposed deadlines it had to bypass normal bidding procedures in awarding the sewage-system repair contract.
Federal officials said Global Resources Management was a start-up company with no track record, equipment, resources or performance bond. The person who succeeded Harris as chief executive is Ashley Andrews, a St. Croix entrepreneur who has been involved in controversial and costly government contracts in the past.
According to WVWI, the local government is seeking another contractor at the same time that it is preparing to appeal Moore's order prohibiting it from re-contracting Global Resources Management.

Publisher's note : Like the St. John Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.

March 26, 2003 – More than 900 affordable homes and home sites have been made available to families of low and moderate incomes in the territory since the V.I. Housing Finance Authority was created in 1981.
But rising construction costs and clients' "stagnant income" has made producing affordable housing difficult, the authority's executive director, Clifford Graham, told members of the Senate Housing Parks and Recreation Committee on Tuesday.
The authority must generate 70 percent of its annual operating budget through the sale of housing units or face a budget deficit, Graham said. The authority's primary source of income, he said, is the sale of land acquired from the government for little or nothing which typically accounts for $10,000 of the purchase price of an affordable housing unit.
"The authority must produce and sell an average of 100 units per year to break even," Graham said.
To be affordable to clients, he said, units must be subsidized. The Housing Trust Fund was set up in the early 1990s to make $10,000 per unit available toward construction costs and enable the authority to sell the units at affordable prices.
By law, Graham said, any property taxes in excess of the initial assessed value of each parcel developed by the authority are to be deposited back into the fund to replenish it. However, he added: "To this date, no property taxes have ever been deposited to the trust fund, and the fund has had a zero balance since the late 1990s."
An analysis of the 2001 property tax assessments shows that about $190,000 for St. Thomas-St. John and about $120,000 for St. Croix should be deposited into the fund for that year, he said.
On St. Croix, the last piece of suitable affordable housing property is under development, Graham said, and to continue the program, additional property must be acquired. The Property and Procurement Department has agreed to exchange three parcels of land on St. Croix for one property on St. Thomas and another on St. Croix that are owned by the authority so the Police Department can construct communication towers.
Also on hand at the hearing were representatives of several area banks, invited to testify about programs intended to assist people in becoming homeowners.
Educating potential homeowners is an important part of the process, Paul Gourieux, a FirstBank vice president, said. "We have counseled over a thousand V.I. residents in a vast array of financial areas. We believe education to be a critical component in shaping the homeowner of tomorrow."
Juliette Kean, a vice president at Banco Popular, said its mission is to help people retain their homes, assist in difficult times and provide financial counseling.
Of particular concern, Kean said, are government employees who retire but then have to wait four to six months before receiving their first retirement check. "This is causing their credit records to be blemished and causing the threat of losing their homes," she said.
Laurence Bryan, Government Employees Retirement System administrator, said GERS is the last in a series of steps in the process of an individual's retirement. Paperwork, he said, must go through several government agencies first, and employees should prepare for retirement beforehand and get the paperwork on its way to GERS before they leave their jobs.
Bryan was invited to testify about the plausibility of reselling the agency's $25 million mortgage portfolio in the secondary mortgage market to raise money for housing development and mortgages. He said the high interest rate of GERS mortgages would dissuade the secondary market because interest rates nationwide are low right now.
Committee members present were Sens. Emmett Hansen II, the chair; David Jones, Luther Renee and Raymond "Usie" Richards. Sen. Celestino A. White Sr. was not present. Also present was Sen. Ronald Russell, a non-member.

Publisher's note : Like the St. John Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.

March 26, 2003 – Police Commissioner-designate Elton Lewis got his feet wet Wednesday in his first Senate appearance, at a meeting of the new Public Safety, Judiciary, Homeland Security and Justice Committee.
Gov. Charles W. Turnbull has nominated Lewis to replace Franz Christian, who was relieved of his duties by the governor on March 18.
The meeting was called by Sen. Lorraine Berry, committee chair, as a "continuation" of the first two sessions, held on St. Croix on March 11 and 12. The objective on both islands was to get an overview from top safety and security personnel and union representatives of the territory's crime and homeland security situations.
Berry said testimony on St. Croix left her with concerns about the Police Department, not just about increases in crime but about police officers' roles in some cases. "We need to know your capabilities to fulfill your mandates," she told Lewis on Wednesday.
Lewis responded that "there isn't anything wrong with the V.I. Police Department that cannot be remedied … There are problems, but they are fixable."
While the person in the top police post has changed, the problems remain familiar: lack of funding, personnel and crime enforcement.
Lewis made it clear that he plans some structural changes. "It is my professional opinion that the Police Department must be run and streamlined like an efficient business," he said. "While I am not going to dazzle you with glossy paint, I am not a proponent of throwing the baby out with the bath water."
He said the department's problems can be remedied through "reorganization, enhancement of deployment patterns and strategies, proper command and control, and an appropriate injection of funding and sensible planning for future growth."
Addressing the matter of funding, the senators came up with many questions, not all of which had answers. Berry had an itemized list of 24th Legislature appropriations to the department. Lewis and the other police officials present could not specify which of them had been received.
The Fiscal Year 2002 budget approved for the department was $29.4 million; this was augmented by $4.8 million in individual appropriations for items including overtime, project Exile, vehicles and personnel on all three islands. Lewis and Bruce Hamlin, acting commissioner, said they could identify some, but not all, appropriations that had been received but promised they would submit a complete list to Berry soon.
The list of things needed but lacking was long: training in handling hazardous materials, proper communication tools, a trained bomb squad. Hamlin said no funding was available to send officers for bomb-detection training, and so "we have no bomb technician." He said the department borrows a bomb-sniffing dog from the private firm Dogs On Guard Security (D.O.G.S.) to respond to bomb threats called in to schools and other places. Berry reminded him of the $10,000 fine for carrying out a bomb hoax.
Sen. Shawn-Michael Malone asked Lewis why the Police Department cannot retain the cadets that it trains, saying that many officers leave the department after two or three years for more lucrative employment. Lewis said it is common police practice elsewhere for officers to sign a five-year contract and that he is considering this for the territory. Malone suggested "taking all the chauffeurs and putting them on the street."
Sen. Emmett Hansen II asked about security along the territory's shorelines and whether the department is getting its fair share of federal border security funding, an issue Hansen and Berry have raised before. Police Chief Novelle Francis said the department and the FBI are part of a Joint Terrorism Task Force and that the two agencies are in "constant communication." However, he said, while the department is making progress, he is not comfortable with its level of readiness.
Info-tech official critical of police
Roy McFarlane, special assistant to the governor for information and technology, gave a blistering report citing what he termed Police Department lack of cooperation with his office in setting up communication systems. McFarlane said his office has spent extensive time and money to assist the police but the department has not done its part.
McFarlane said his office is responsible for maintaining the Government Wide Area Network (GWAN) and overseeing Y2K millennium security for all government agencies. He said an assessment of police computers and 911 communications showed the department had a few computers installed but no network system throughout the department. He said the system need to be upgraded.
Further, McFarlane said, his office provided the necessary funding and technical support to communicate with GWAN, but "the Police Department did not make that a priority."
He submitted to the committee a letter from Networks Inc., the company supplying the department with radios and other communication equipment. The letter included a chronology of company officials' frustration in their efforts to install the equipment and 911 wireless links. The letter said the company had come under criticism from St. Croix police officers complaining that using two-way hand-held radios endangers their work.
"The time has come for the Police Department to be accountable for technological needs that they were entrusted with," McFarlane said. "It has become very disturbing to hear the VIPD attributing the blame for the smart zone equipment not working." The "equipment" consists of the mobile radios that officers complained about.
Lewis said a specialist hired last May to resolve the problems had applied for a $2.4 million federal grant to update the police communication systems.
Sen. Raymond "Usie" Richards asked how much the department had spent on its public relations campaign contracted to Austin Advertising. Hamlin said he didn't have the figure with him but that it was funded by the Public Finance Authority.
Richards also said: "We in the territory are being terrorized now. We are short 20 officers on St. Croix, and we have no security."
Fire Service 'not prepared'
The Fire Service director, Ian Williams Sr., did not have any more encouraging funding news for the committee. The Fire Service was appropriated $13.4 million in the FY 2003 budget, he said, but that has been cut by 5 percent — or $670,372 — and this limits the agency's ability to fill the staffing vacancies provided for in the budget.
A grant application will be submitted by the April 11 deadline seeking funds to provide safety equipment and training for officers, he said.
As far as preparedness, Williams said flat-out that the Fire Service "is not prepared for operating in a weapons of mass destruction environment. We lack vital equipment, training and funding to combat hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction."
Also, he said, firefighters' medical insurance doesn't cover "Hazmat" responders, nor does Workers' Compensation. He said Fire Service personnel as "first responders" do not receive hazardous duty pay as do police personnel.
Williams said the Local Emergency Planning Committee has an arrangement with the Hovensa refinery for Hovensa to provide emergency assistance in situations where control is beyond the capability of primary responding agencies.
He said the Fire Service has about 30 Hazmat team members on St. Thomas, and about 15 trained responders on St. Croix. Members are trained and qualify at different levels, but none are certified, he said.
Sen. Carlton Dowe, a onetime Fire Service director, questioned how much "homeland security" the territory has with no fire station at Bordeaux on St. Thomas's West End. "Are you serious about the Bordeaux fire station?" he asked. He pointed out that the West End has one road linking it to the rest of the islan d and 15,000 residents there "with no protection."
Sen. Roosevelt David praised Lewis, and Sen. Celestino A. White criticized David for doing so.
"I'm not going to join the glee club," White, a former St. Thomas police chief, said. "I don't care about homeland security at the risk of local protection. Things are bad." He accused police of operating in a timid manner, afraid to answer questions because of "security reasons." White elaborated: "We want the criminals to get information, to be so confused that they think apprehension is smart."
Berry, saying she wasn't part of any "glee club," asked the police officials to address two incidents.
First, she read them a letter she had received from a woman who had called 911 several times and received no response but managed to get the vehicle license number of a person who had taken things out of her car. Deputy Chief Theodore Carty said he wasn't aware of the situation but the woman should report the license number.
Second, Berry cited a case of a person being assaulted in the Divi Casino on St. Croix, but there being no police record and nothing on the police blotter. Carty said a complete report was filed in that case and that the information was recorded on the blotter.
The committee was to reconvene in the afternoon following a lunch break, to hear further testimony including that of police and fire union representatives.
Berry called for a moment of silence at the beginning of the meeting as she read the names of Virgin Islanders serving their country in Iraq.
Committee members attending the morning session were Sens. Berry, Dowe, Hansen, Almando "Rocky" Liburd, Malone and Ronald Russell. Sen. David Jones was absent. Also present were four non-committee members, Sens. David, Louis Hill, Richards and White.

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March 26, 2003 – Two St. Croix senators, both members of the Labor and Veterans Affairs Committee, have written to Gov. Charles W. Turnbull citing concerns about unemployment on the island and the operations of the Port Authority.
Sens. Norman Jn Baptiste and Raymond "Usie" Richards told the governor that "the worst is yet to come" for St. Croix's foundering economy unless there is "swift change" in the territory's manner of doing business.
In the last 90 days, they said, several businesses shut down, there were hundreds of layoffs at the Hovensa oil refinery, cruise ship visits were canceled, the Navy tracking station issued notification of impending closure and American Airlines announced its intent to lay off nine employees and shut down its St. Croix ground operations.
"We are convinced that some of the aforementioned developments could have been averted, had the right steps been taken," the senators said. They charged that American Airlines officials unsuccessfully sought help from Turnbull to delay implementation of the Port Authority's recent 25 percent increase in airport landing and passenger fees, which prompted the carrier's decision to shut its St. Croix office and end American Eagle flights between the island and St. Thomas.
"Governor," the pair wrote, "we have been made to understand that the U.S. Virgin Islands has the highest landing fees throughout the Caribbean."
They said it costs about $41 to land a plane in the British Virgin Islands. Landing the same plane in the U.S. Virgin Islands costs about $150, they said. Puerto Rico recently reduced landing fees, and other destinations reduce airfare and encourage travel by engaging in joint promotions with the airlines, Richards and Jn Baptiste wrote.
Richards and Jn Baptiste said they have learned that the Port Authority also has raised rents at Henry E. Rohlsen Airport — from $11 to $45 per square foot for ticket counter and office space, and from $9 to $30 per square foot for other space. And they said "it has been alleged that significant pay raises were given to top officials of the Port Authority."
(At a March 19 board meeting, VIPA's executive director, Darlan Brin, announced that the Port Authority's steps to cut costs included a 10 percent rollback in salaries for 63 non-union management employees, including himself, for the balance of Fiscal Year 2003.)
"We simply cannot afford to engage in practices that hinder the territory's ability to compete effectively in the global market," the two senators said, adding that "immediate corrective measures" are needed to alleviate labor problems on St. Croix.
The two requested a special meeting of "stakeholders," including the Labor and Veterans Affairs Committee, Brin and Tourism Commissioner Pamela Richards, who by virtue of that position also chairs the Port Authority board.

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March 26, 2003 – More than 900 affordable homes and home sites have been made available to families of low and moderate incomes in the territory since the V.I. Housing Finance Authority was created in 1981.
But rising construction costs and clients' "stagnant income" has made producing affordable housing difficult, the authority's executive director, Clifford Graham, told members of the Senate Housing Parks and Recreation Committee on Tuesday.
The authority must generate 70 percent of its annual operating budget through the sale of housing units or face a budget deficit, Graham said. The authority's primary source of income, he said, is the sale of land acquired from the government for little or nothing which typically accounts for $10,000 of the purchase price of an affordable housing unit.
"The authority must produce and sell an average of 100 units per year to break even," Graham said.
To be affordable to clients, he said, units must be subsidized. The Housing Trust Fund was set up in the early 1990s to make $10,000 per unit available toward construction costs and enable the authority to sell the units at affordable prices.
By law, Graham said, any property taxes in excess of the initial assessed value of each parcel developed by the authority are to be deposited back into the fund to replenish it. However, he added: "To this date, no property taxes have ever been deposited to the trust fund, and the fund has had a zero balance since the late 1990s."
An analysis of the 2001 property tax assessments shows that about $190,000 for St. Thomas-St. John and about $120,000 for St. Croix should be deposited into the fund for that year, he said.
On St. Croix, the last piece of suitable affordable housing property is under development, Graham said, and to continue the program, additional property must be acquired. The Property and Procurement Department has agreed to exchange three parcels of land on St. Croix for one property on St. Thomas and another on St. Croix that are owned by the authority so the Police Department can construct communication towers.
Also on hand at the hearing were representatives of several area banks, invited to testify about programs intended to assist people in becoming homeowners.
Educating potential homeowners is an important part of the process, Paul Gourieux, a FirstBank vice president, said. "We have counseled over a thousand V.I. residents in a vast array of financial areas. We believe education to be a critical component in shaping the homeowner of tomorrow."
Juliette Kean, a vice president at Banco Popular, said its mission is to help people retain their homes, assist in difficult times and provide financial counseling.
Of particular concern, Kean said, are government employees who retire but then have to wait four to six months before receiving their first retirement check. "This is causing their credit records to be blemished and causing the threat of losing their homes," she said.
Laurence Bryan, Government Employees Retirement System administrator, said GERS is the last in a series of steps in the process of an individual's retirement. Paperwork, he said, must go through several government agencies first, and employees should prepare for retirement beforehand and get the paperwork on its way to GERS before they leave their jobs.
Bryan was invited to testify about the plausibility of reselling the agency's $25 million mortgage portfolio in the secondary mortgage market to raise money for housing development and mortgages. He said the high interest rate of GERS mortgages would dissuade the secondary market because interest rates nationwide are low right now.
Committee members present were Sens. Emmett Hansen II, the chair; David Jones, Luther Renee and Raymond "Usie" Richards. Sen. Celestino A. White Sr. was not present. Also present was Sen. Ronald Russell, a non-member.

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