Judge Wilma Lewis has had enough of the legal gymnastics. 

Per her order, the St. Croix Board of Elections (BOE) has until May 21 to  respond to the lawsuit filed by the Virgin Islands Action Group (VIAG) related to the stalled recall initiative that would force a recall election for four of its members. 

The order came after a last minute attempt by BOE Attorney Scot McChain to delay a request for an expedited hearing filed by the Virgin Islands Action Group, the sponsors of the recall initiative. 

The VIAG had filed a request for an expedited hearing in the matter of their original lawsuit, filed after the Board refused to honor the results of their recall petition drive, which had been accepted by Supervisor of Elections John Abramson, following advice from VI Attorney General Vincent Frazer. The BOE then filed counterclaim motions designed to delay action in the hearing. 

In response to the counterclaim, VIAG Attorney Yohana Manning filed a motion to dismiss the counterclaim and reinforced the VIAG claim by stating of the BOE attempt to delay, “irrespective of their “affirmative defense” and “counterclaim” they must set a recall election date.” 

“When the law, as here, requires an agency to perform a purely ministerial act; it must act. Section 12(c) of the Revised Organic Act, orders the Board of Elections to set a recall election date, within 60 days of certification of the Supervisor of Elections, without any back talk. Instead, the Board refuses to follow the mandates and strictures of the law, therefore Plaintiffs seek an order from this Honorable Court compelling them to do so,” the motion states.  Read more »

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Maybe the stripes will be painted in gold.

That’s the only reason we can come up with to explain the $750,000 that GlobeVest LLC estimated it would cost to construct a parking lot at its proposed sports complex on St. Croix.

An October, 2009, letter from GlobeVest CEO James Sutherland to Governor John P. deJongh, Jr., outlines the financial plan the development group says is required to construct the multi-use facility.

This highly contested proposal has now been moved to the Rules Committee, after being ushered out of the Human Services, Parks and Recreation Committee by a 2-1 vote. The proposal requires a minimum $30 million investment by the Virgin Islands government.

The letter details a study completed by the C.H. Johnson Consulting Company, Chicago, IL, and pouts forth the projected cost and activity requirements for the complex operations to be successful. Read more »

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It’s like watching an animal feeding on its young.

The St. Croix Board of Elections (BOE), still challenging the validity of a recall drive, has filed a defamation suit against a host of defendants, including one of its members, a member of the St. Thomas BOE, CIF President Michael Springer, between one and twenty “John and Jane Does”, several other named defendants and all members of the VI Action Group, the organization that sponsored of the recall drive.

The suit, filed on May 1 in the Superior Court, is an “Action for Injunction, Declaratory Relief and Damages” and accuses all named defendants of defamation and torturous interference as a result of their actions, direct and indirect, related to the recall petition and actions surrounding its validation.

A copy of the complaint is attached below. In summary, it states that the recall petitions, which it is claimed were initiated and authored by BOE Member Adelbert Bryant, contain “false and unsubstantiated allegations against the plaintiffs with reckless disregard for the harm it has caused and continues to cause Plaintiffs and their individual professional reputations and character.” Read more »

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By now we all know that the GlobeVest deal was moved out of the Legislative Committee of Human Services, Parks and Recreation and on to the Rules Committee – but we can’t figure out why.

Two voted yes; one voted no; one didn’t vote; and three just didn’t show up.

And at the end of the night, the proposal for a multi-million dollar sports complex, replacing the deteriorating Paul E. Joseph Stadium with a multi-use sports complex – and requiring at least $30 million in government funds before the “investors” spend a penny, was one step closer to becoming a reality. Read more »

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They will gather again tonight to pitch the next “public-private” partnership that is going to save the Territory and will only cost us a few more tens of millions of dollars.

The Committee on Human Services, Parks and Recreation will hold its second hearing at 6 p.m. on St Thomas to consider a proposed multi-million dollar sports complex to be located on St. Croix that would include the razing and rebuilding of the dilapidated Paul E. Joseph baseball stadium and a multi-sport complex that would feature tennis, beach volleyball, and an “aquatic center.”

But did the real meeting on the complex happen last night at the offices of Property and Procurement and already seal the deal? Read more »

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It has already cost us a fortune in lost revenues to the General Fund and our relationship with Puerto Rico. And now the Diageo Deal is the focus of a lobbying campaign by our other Caribbean neighbors to officials in Washington DC that will focus even more attention on what’s left of the cover over revenue the Virgin Islands receives.

A recent news report related that Caricom, a regional group of 15-Caribbean nations, will send a delegation to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk on Capitol Hill this month to complain to authorities that the Diageo deal, including the $250 million the VI government gave the British multi-national to build its plan, and the lucrative tax, marketing and molasses subsidies that were part of the deal, are undermining the ability of other rum-producing nations to fairly compete in the profitable United States market. Read more »

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Why is Senate President Ronald Russell doing legal work for an “interested party” in the Innovative Communications Corporation (ICC) Bankruptcy case?

Yesterday, Russell submitted to the District Court a “Motion For Administrative Claim” in the amount of $13,363 for legal services he has provided since July, 2010 to Cardinal Conner, identified in court papers as an “interested party” in the ICC case. And a portion of that work has been done since Russell returned to the Senate in January, 2011.

Conflict of interest perhaps?

Russell filed the claim after the court approved a motion to establish a “bar date” for administrative expenses related to the case. The motion had been submitted by Stan Springel, the trustee in the bankruptcy proceedings. A “bar date” is a date after which no claims for payment of fees generated after a certain date, in this case March 31, 2012, can be submitted for payment. The purpose of the claim is to assure that the creditor is included in any distribution of funds as a result of the disposition of the case. Read more »

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The plot thickens as former Senator David Jones has been identified as the behind the scenes “Bag Man” in the $20 million bribery scheme involving Virgin Islands government officials as revealed by the Daily Caller (DC) online newspaper.

The bribes, according to the Department of Justice source, were for Governor John P. de Jongh, Jr., his attorney general, Vincent Frazer, and assorted Virgin Islands legislators — all aimed at quashing local concerns about financial irregularities identified on the books of the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Cooperative (CFC). The CFC was the eventual purchaser of Innovative Communications Corporation (ICC), formerly owned by Jeffrey Prosser. Prosser is currently involved in a bitter bankruptcy proceeding concerning his former ownership of ICC.

According to the DC story, Jones was the invisible operative behind another former Senator, Roosevelt David, who was identified earlier as the primary money man in the bribery scheme. According to the DC, those who were reluctant to deal with David were more comfortable dealing with Jones when the money was allegedly being spread around. Read more »

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The only people who were surprised that there was no bus service on Monday for the public school students on St. Croix were the students and their parents.

It was no surprise to the owners of the Abramson Bus Company, who had notified the education administration that unless some $627,000 in outstanding invoices was paid that service would be discontinued.

It was no surprise to the officials of the education department, who knew that they were seriously in arrears on this $4 million annual contract.

In fact, according to an education department spokesperson, Ananta Pancham, the department has been working diligently to “identify money to pay the remaining balance” they owe, after struggling with ongoing cuts in their funding during the “financial crisis.” Read more »

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Playtime is over.

The false respite of Carnival is done.

While elected officials have been partying on our dime at the Festivities, we at CIF have taken a step back and the view is ominous – but not  irreparable.

You may not realize it, but the depth and scope of national attention on the corruption in the Virgin Islands is reaching its zenith at the best possible time for the VI and the worst possible time for the Administration.

From the Delegate to the Governor to the Legislature to the Commissioners – all are now on the Federal radar screen and – unlike the VI – US politics in an election year has a long memory.

Just the activities that we know about in the past five years have put us in an extremely vicarious position – this increased and widespread scrutiny, the ongoing precariousness of the cover-over rum revenue, the now very real Hovensa closure, and no solid plan from anyone on how we’re going to address not just its labor implications but the ongoing energy emergency – leave us rife for outside intervention.

And lest we forget, Tuesday is May 1^st – and the FY 2013 budget is due at the end of the month. Read more »

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