Italian Government Official Questions Value, Expenses Of Sen. W. James “Twin Cities” Deal
New questions have arisen about the costs and value of the "Twin Cities" agreement crafted by Sen. Wayne James, center. Was he reimbursed for expenses the Italian government paid?
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Dear CIF staff,
I am Fabio Tinelli Roncalli and I am the leader of the minority group in the City Council in Montescudaio, Italy. As you probably know, the mayor of my village, Aurelio Pellegrini, has signed with Sen. Wayne James the twin city agreement between VI and Montescudaio.
I, like everybody in Montescudaio, don’t know absolutely nothing about (the) Virgin Island(s), its politicians or its economy and I suppose it is a beautiful country full of smart and beautiful people. But we strongly opposed the twin city agreement because nobody, (neither) Mr. Pellegrini (nor) Sen. James was able to give a plausible explanation of the reasons behind it.Â
I was interested in reading the article you published about the expenses made by Sen. James in his last trip to Montescudaio. I am as well tracking the expenses made by the Mayor of Montescudaio in supporting Mr. James and his delegation which so far amount to $13,500 USD (United States dollars) paid by Montescudaio’s taxpayers and so composed:
Food, Lodging and Transportation
Accommodation in agriturismo (a farm with some rooms acting also as an hotel):Â $754 USD
Food and beverages: $3,936 USD
Bus rent: $1,701 USD
Expenses connected to the ceremony
Mounting of the stand: $4,174 USD
Cecina Philarmonic Orchestra exhibition: $1,547 USD
Airing of commercials on local TVs: $1,160 USD
Electricity: $226 USD
To clarify: the sums were spent by the Montescudaio municipality for the hospitality of the entire VI delegation.
Reading Sen. James’ expense list I was surprised by some items:
Why did Sen. James (fly) from Pisa to Rome and from Rome to Florence spending so much money? It is a short trip usually made by train and does not cost more than $130 USD.
How could Sen. James spend $370 USD per day for his accommodation in Montescudaio where there are no hotels so expensive? Note how cheap the accommodation for the rest of the delegation was.
Why did he spend money for ground transportation when there were at his disposal a couple of minibuses paid by Montescudaio taxpayers?
A further question regards the promised support of $50,000 USD to the soccer team of Montescudaio. I think I should clarify some aspects. This money will bring absolutely no benefit to the VI tourism as it is a small team playing in the 6th division with a small public composed exclusively of some citizen(s) of Montescudaio and his match(es) are not aired on TV. The money will be used to pay for the soccer players’ wage – not to improve VI image. In Italy it is considered scandalous to pay a salary (also if small ) to amateur players and so this cannot be done directly by the municipality.
I have read that the transfer of the funds has been vetoed by the Governor and Sen. James replied that it is a pure matter of time and we will get the money. Can you confirm this? I hope that the money will be used for sport related activities in VI, not in Montescudaio, and a governor’s veto is not so easy to bypass.
I hope to collaborate in order to avoid further waste of people money on both sides of the ocean.
You can find more information about me and my party on this page (it is Italian but you can translate with Google):
http://insiemepercambiare.montescudaio.com/
Fabio Tinelli Roncalli
Capogruppo Consiliare Insieme per Cambiare Montescudaio
As always, CIF welcomes any clarification Sen. W. James would care to submit concerning this information and from what we can see, some explanation is definitely required.
And if all is at it appears here, we are amazed that this man believes he is worthy of reelection.
(Editor’s Update: After posting this morning, Mr. Roncalli sent us the following information: “I just discovered another thing: Sen. James promised (reported on 07/14/2010 by Il Tirreno, our main local newspaper) on behalf of the USVI tourism department to pay a nine days trip to VI for two persons in November. The trip is the prize for the winner of a  beauty/sympathy trophy  called “Mr/Miss Smile” organized by the same newspaper. The winner will be personally accompanied by Sen. James in his trip.”)
Expense Report from Italian Government (in Italian)
We concede whenever we allow stuff like this to happen and don’t do anything about it.
Wayne James will not make it in the general election. You can be absolutely certain of that. Positive, Ussie, Nellie, Baptiste, Chucky and even Springer stand in his way.
I agree with Tiredofthemess. Why do we read about these illegal
actions
and demand no further action. But the next time W James runs for his
seat again it will be brought up as gossip but no charges will be ever
filed nor will there be any compensation. How do we keep allowing these criminals to govern us and ‘Lord’ our children. What examples are we giving/exposing them to. Do we need to start not allowing them to see television, read the news papers or even keep them off the internet.
We already have to shield them from the violence occurring every day in our neighborhoods. Someone please stand up someone that we kind believe in and trust to lead us and our most precious natural resource “our children”.
Yet another reason NOT to vote for King Hill. He not only went on the last boondoggle to Italy, but has been approving ALL of Wayne’s trips abroad!!!!!!
If the legislature has that much money they need to take a couple of million in reduced budget.
The voting age does need to change! It should be from 15 to the age age of twenty five. I guarantee it is the older folks blogging on this web site who could not cast a vote for the right reason. Now we are trying to determine who is the lesser of the two evils. This is laughable and embarassing. No wonder we are losing our children. From the mouth of babes……….
We have criminals governing us. The worst part about it is that they are voted into office by the majority of the VI electorate. We need all new fresh younger people in the legislature and the governor’s office. We need change. Let’s get out of the 3rd world frame of mind.
I just read in the VI Daily news paper that the $50,000.00 slated for this Italian soccer team was approved by the Senate even after the Governor vetoed it. Now from what Fabio Tinelli Roncalli says the VI Tourism department will not benefit from this and that it will pay one players (amateur) salary for which it is illegal for the municipality to pay him. THis team doesn’t even play on TV. SO who’s gonna see the VI’s name? Why was this paid especially after questions about the scandalous trip haven’t been answered? IS the Senate gonna disregard the new information or they don’t believe this happened.
Let’ s not ignore this please.
OK now that everyone can what type of man this how come he hasn’t had some kind of censure? He is stealing from his landlady, he has stole from the taxpayers (Italy trip)and maybe other trips along with the Great Senate President Hill and now we learn he has a small legislature staff. This man is on drugs or he’s crazy. Any how why are we allowing him to get away with this stuff. These are issues that should determine if a person should represent the electorate but we seem to worry about the wrong things. I mean we have a bad Education dept, crime is the highest in the world, WAPA is wiping our pockets out with generators older than me and I have adult children, the governor has stolen money and an election, our roads are bad, we are being sued for too much pollution from garbage among other things,
we have too many gov’t autos on the road all day ( why would I see an health dept car at 8pm at the movies?) our hospitals are the worst, (I will fly to Miami for a sore throat) I could go on and on. These issues should determine who’s elected not how long someone has known person or who he’s sleeping with. We concern ourselves with the wrong information. Let’s finally do something for our children’s future ( the most important natural resource we have).