CIF Seeks Your Help To Construct Candidate Questionnaire
This election, Crucians In Focus will be distributing its own questionnaires to those seeking election – and we’d like your help constructing it.
First, we will address all candidates for Governor, Lt. Governor, Senator and Senator at Large who will participate in the September 11 primary. Following the primary, we will submit an updated questionnaire to all remaining candidates.
All candidates will be given the opportunity to participate in the questionnaire exercise and we will publish all the responses that we receive.
This election is serious business, so we’re looking for serious questions. Think about the information you believe is really important for us to know. Think about the issues you believe have been neglected since the last election that affect your daily life.
Since we want the candidates to take the questionnaire seriously, we will not include any frivolous questions. Please submit questions on topics that will help us all evaluate fitness for office and commitment to the community.
And while some of the characteristics of effective public officials are the same, other points may be more critical to specific roles. So please let us know who your questions are for. Once again, for the first round, the categories are:
- Governor
- Lt. Governor
- Senator and
- Senator-At-Large
Please submit your suggestions through Comments by Friday, August 20. We will distribute on Monday, August 23 with a return deadline of August 30. CIF will publish responses exactly as they are submitted beginning Wednesday, September 1.
A list of the candidates for the Primary is attached.
Thank you in advance for your participation.
Anonymous you are right. Case in point John de JOngh”s children have all attended private school and some are now in college. Paid for by the convicted child sex offender Jeff Epstein. Do we really think that de Jongh cares about the public school system and the education of our children?
To Anon @ 1:13 pm:
Never mind the governor’s children not attending public school. John deJongh HIMSELF had never attended public school. He didn’t even attend school in the Virgin Islands. This shows how out of touch he truly is.
@ anon 12:59
true wouldn’t disagree there but I guess only those teachers making the real big salaries everyones talking about….
senators ,docs, etc are more are given,but there are alot of teachers who aren’t making it and can’t afford it either that should be obvious….
@anon 1:10
so true I mentioned that in my first(really long post)lol
but this applies to everything not just the school system,it appliess to the government on a whole and our whole way of life in these islands….
Btw.. what private schools???
some aren’t better than the public schools no offense
but if we talking bout they mortage schools(lol) montesorri(spelling) antilles, then definately it’s a select,select few unless of course your child is real bright and scholarships involved.Those other private schools(sun,most) are just as run down,becoming over crowded (close to 30) in a room, and the teachers aren’t certified and are payed way less anyhow…
All Saints is also a “mortgage school”. These schools are where the elite attend. John de Jongh was on the Board of Trustees at Antilles (probably still is). A lot of his board memebers got REALLY GOOD job in the de Jongh Administation. GO FIGURE!
There are many advantages to attending private schools, such as smaller classroom sizes. However, there are also many issues. It is just that those issues are usually kept…private.
Public school students who take advantage of the opportunities before them receive a more well rounded education. As you know, placing a high value on education must begin at home.
“Would you have voted for the Diageo deal?” Ask this of every senate candidate. And don’t let them skate around the answer like Capehart, saying that that is already past.
Or ask them, “If another deal identical to Diageo came up again, would you vote for it too?
Next question:
“Do you support borrowing that does not include a line item budget? Did you support the borrowing of $400 million a few months ago (that is now paying retro to get votes)?
Board of Elections candidate:
“Do you plan to uphold the federal 2002 Help America Vote Act that requires a voter verifiable paper auditable trail if machines are used?”
Here we go again. Today the Governor and senators did not even include the Commissioner of Education or Superintendents in the decision making process concerning the building of a training center for at risk youth. Is it that education is BIG BUSINESS$$$$$
You know, what does not begin right will never stand! When individuals are hired to do a job, let them do it!
Only when problems arise are the commissioner and superintendents held accountable for the operation of the department. Seems that this administration only wants figure heads who are powerless.
Candidates for Senator:
-Do you pledge to the people of the Virgin Islands to pass a balanced, line-item budget each year?
-Do you pledge to the people of the Virgin Islands that you will thoroughly read all proposals placed before you and refuse to be pressured into a quick decision?
Candidates for Governor:
-Society has problems everywhere yet our society has been suffering from one of the worst homicide rates in the world. What will you do to take the problem head on and bring it under control.
-What near term solutions do you have for employing the many young men and women roaming the streets?
What commissioner,who is worth his/her salt,will allow any governor to stifle and/or suffocate the discharging of their appointed duties and responsibilities?
As autocratic and as arrogant a Governor as Cyril King was there was no way he could have intimidated the likes of Reuben Wheatley (when he was commisioner of Finance) by excluding him from any decision and or/policy-making decisions affecting his department.No way.But that was back in the day when men and women were professionals and not a bunch pushovers.
Today? Anything,regretably,goes.
To all candidate: with the influx of illegal weapons, such as high-power machine guns, what plans do you have to secure our borders to prevent these weapons from entering our territory?
I don’t see the comparison at all!
Candidates for Governor: with the ongoing dispute concerning our property taxes being unpaid for four consecutive years, how would you handle the situation? Will you send out the bills according to the 1998 rates, or will you use your own calculations?
What is the cost comparison of a grid interconnection with PR/others and investing community solar and wind projects?
1. What are your plans to support and implement a holistic agriculture program to include school & community gardens.
2. What types of programs will you support to retrain our inmates so they can become productive members of society?
3. What types of programs will you support to provide vocationl training for our young people as well as people who are interested in learning another trade/skill?
4. Do you support excessive force traing for our police & peace officers?
5. How do you plan to assist WAPA in replacing leaking and corroded pipes to reduce the cost of water loss passed on to the consumer?
Based on the growing population of children diagnosed with children in the Territory. What plans do you have on implementing a comprehensive program used to fulfill the educational and therapuetic requirements of these children?
Since it is a well known that fact, that once given the proper treatments at an early age. The majority of children are able to overcome the signs and symptoms of autism. What is your plan in constructing a much needed intensive therapuetic program in the Territory?
Do you support charter schools?
How do you plan (or do you plan) to reduce the cost of electricity?
Do you think there was any economic advantage to us subsidizing molasses for overseas consumption and for which we get no cover over monies?
What is your plan, if any, to modernize the local health care infrastructure?
Obama and advocates on the mainland see marijuana incarceration as a way to destroy families, lives, futures. would you consider the decriminalization of marijuana?
o you pledge to put the best interest of the Virgin Islands and her people as a 1st, 2nd and 3rd priority?
A Question of Transparence
I and many other concerned Voters would like to know, what is this thing a Bill Locked in Committee.
What Bills are you / they talking about?
When were these Bills introduced?
Who introduced the Bills, supporters and opposers?
Why are these Bills locked in Committee?
How long is it before something has to be done with these these Bills locked in Committee?
Where can this information be obtain, accessibly for the Voters?
Your position will be you can do a better job for the people of the Virgin Islands than some of the incumbents. On this issue of Bills locked in Committee, is your plan to introudce your own version or to salvage those already locked down?
This information would definitly let the Voters know, WHO IS WHO!