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Channel 12 is live outside the Legislative Building on Saint Thomas, where Governor Albert Bryan Junior is expected to enter within the hour to deliver his sixth state of the territory address before the 35th legislature of the Virgin Islands.

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the show.

I'm Lesley Young.

I'm joined on set by a powerhouse panel that includes Lucy Richards, retired five term senator and former Senate president from the District of Saint Croix.

Akeel Saint John, chairman of the Board of directors of the Saint Croix Chamber of Commerce, and a corporate lawyer who's represented some of the largest businesses in the Virgin Islands and previously served as Assistant Attorney General.

Attorney Don Lisa Henry, senior advisor for the nonprofit organization Beyond Plastics and former commissioner of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, where she also worked as legal counsel for ten years.

And Hugo Hodge, junior co-host of 107.9 FM's The Morning Show and former chief executive officer of Wapa, who continues to serve on several boards in the territory.

Hugo is the governor's representative on the panel.

Welcome everyone.

It's great to have you all here.

Later in the evening, we'll invite you, our viewers, to join the conversation by calling in and sharing your thoughts on Governor Bryan Speech.

Your voice matters and we want to hear from you.

Before we delve into our panel discussion.

Let's go back to Saint Thomas, where our cameras are on the ground, capturing a protest near the legislature aimed at catching the governor's attention.

So Governor Brian mentioned, we don't like your attitude.

Governor Brian Richard rude, we don't like your attitude.

Dozens of United Steelworkers members have been rallying since 4:30 p.m. to demand fair treatment and job security for workers providing essential public services.

For more, let's hear from U.S. District Director Dan Filippo.

Yes, we're here with the United Steelworkers.

And what you see behind me are members of the government and private sector.

And we're standing up and fighting back on the government side.

The government needs to recognize the contracts that we have and the surrounding negotiate the contracts that they haven't.

They will not be able to ignore us via shipping jobs to Guyana.

That's not right.

The you know what?

We'll get to Mr. Filippo in just a moment.

We're going to line him up on Saint Thomas.

So let's go to the panel and get into the expectation for this evening's discussion.

Let's start with former Senate President Uzi Richards.

What do you expect to hear from the governor this evening?

I think the governor is in the position.

And good evening to the fellow panelists to have to provide a whole lot of answers.

This is his sixth state of the territory address.

There are a number of, infrastructure concerns, a lot of concerns about our schools.

There have been a number of groundbreaking of a number of projects that, have only broken ground since last year and none has actually materialized.

And I think that is something that's very particularly, important to the members of our community.

Attorney Saint John, your perspective on what you expect to hear this evening from the governor?

I expect that the governor is going to address the economy.

As we all know.

We all feel the inflation has just wreaked havoc on our territory.

The cost of goods has has increased significantly, which places a significant burden not only on the consumer but actually on businesses who have to procure those goods.

So I think the governor is going to come in right off the bat with a strong address on inflation.

And as it relates to the economy, I also think that he's going to have to address education.

We saw recent numbers showing, that our test scores, have or have missed the mark, so to speak.

As a graduate of the public schools, who went on to law school.

We cannot sustain this burden.

These virgin Islands without addressing education and instilling, the, the passion for for academics.

So I think he's going to come at the, the, the economy.

And I'm also looking forward to him talking about education as well.

Attorney Henry, your thoughts on what you expect to hear from the governor this evening?

Well, I in line with the other panelists, I would I expect that the governor will definitely be talking about our recovery.

It's been going on since 2017.

And I think the people of the Virgin Islands feel like they're not seen much.

What I would like to hear the governor also address is poverty in the Virgin Islands.

All consumers.

Not all consumers.

Not just those who can afford to pay, but especially the those who can least afford to pay.

And then the water situation, particularly on the Croix, that I'd like to hear some more about it, because it's kind of surprising to me what I what was learned and how it progressed as is not what I knew the system to entail.

So, I found a lot of the findings that were early on to be a little strange from my understanding of the system.

So I'd like to hear more about that.

But definitely water and power.

And then the second secondary would be the economy, as my colleague said already.

So the economy is quite important to all of us.

We got to make sure that we all can have as much disposable income to utilize for the things that we need around our different households.

Well, you've heard from our panel.

Now let's take a moment to hear directly from residents.

We recently hit the streets on Saint Thomas, Saint John and Saint Croix to ask residents about what they would like to hear from the governor during tonight's state of the territory address.

Here's what some of you said.

I would really like to hear the governor talk about the roads, which is so bad, and paying the taxes.

Saint John always seem to get left out.

So I want to hear what you got in store this year.

I would like for Governor Brian to address in the state of the territory, the schools.

And when is the deadline for the repairs?

The water has well been going to the issue with, copper.

Was it the copper in our water?

Yeah, that has been a big issue from a minute now, but I feel like it's been so heavy right now with the color changing that they made it known to us.

But we've been known about that issue with the dirty water and parasites in the water and everything.

I would like to hear the governor talk about the issues going on with Wapa, as well as the issues with the land swap budgeting.

I'm hoping that he talks about that.

It's a big deal.

I think the last time I looked at our payroll for the Virgin Islands is much higher than most of the states, so how do we consolidate jobs so that we do have money to cover things like infrastructure and roads and things like that?

I'd like to see him address waste management in particular.

Sewage is running over as recent as last week.

I had merchants complain to me about it.

That is something that, again, you know, it's all community homelessness in the Virgin Islands, addressing the issues with mental health concerns.

And all the homeless people are around, especially homeless people around my age especially, just focus on putting more love into the island, period.

I mean, the buildings.

I mean, for the love of God, have some pride in the way we look.

Put some paint, fix something you know, don't just let it be broken down the way it looks right now, all over the place.

It's like, what is that?

After seeing, what you heard from the men and women on the streets of the territory.

Specifically regarding the economy, which you brought up early, and you mentioned inflation, which, you know, consumers, businesses and the government also experiences, you know, inflation in the process of doing business.

What do you think about what our folks have to say?

Man, there's so much that was discussed there.

I think I saw a former lieutenant governor on there talking about the sewage, and knowing him, that probably he was probably referring to Christians, that, there was an issue with sewage running.

And a lot of business owners were upset with this and felt like it really impeded their ability to do business.

That's something that I expected.

You know, there's there was mention of homelessness.

There was mention of the roads.

The roads are significant because let me tell you, it's a safety issue.

Number one, I was driving, the other day, somebody swerved to avoid a pothole.

Almost hit me.

Is a safety issue.

It's an economic issue because your car gets wrecked.

It's very expensive to change a suspension and so on and so forth.

And also, it just kills your passion to go out.

Sometimes you don't even feel like leaving the house because, you know, why do I want to run out over these potholes?

So there's so many issues that are all tied back in some way to the economy.

And so it seems like that is reversing, reverberating through a lot of the comments that we just heard.

Was he what did you think about what our men and women on the street had to say?

The, the, the first impression they have on reminds me of, the definition of, of health care, a complete state of physical, mental, social and economic well-being and, throughout our entire territory, all of these particular, adjectives that we use to describe, what health care actually means to our community, being pointed out and I think the, the important thing is that, we have to, to find a way to, to bring some focus and pride to rise the things that needs to be done within our central government.

Hugo, as an experienced executive in the government of the Virgin Islands, I think, to something Attorney Henry said earlier, people feel like they're not seeing the recovery.

And I think recently, if you read the editorials in the Daily News asking about where did this $12 billion go, I think there was a little bit of politicizing in their messaging, because we all know that there's not a pot of $12 billion sitting in a bank account that belongs to the government of the Virgin Islands.

So to ask that question is kind of like nefarious a little bit, but we know their job is to sell papers, talk to people, though, about processes and why some of the things that we expect to get done overnight don't happen overnight.

Well, first of all, we're talking about the federal government.

And there's a certain amount of bureaucracy that takes place.

It's a it's a blessing and a curse.

So we we don't have the funds.

We don't have the dollars in our, in our we have a lot of needs for services.

But the tax base where which is where you pay for services, can't cover all the desired services, much less the perception or services that people believe they should be receiving.

Now, when we talk about the federal process, I can tell you that in the 2000s, I think around 2010 or 12, I was able to resolve the femur issues with Hurricane Hugo that hit in 1989.

That's how long some of these processes take to to materialize and get to to the end and point.

So I, I'm happy that we have access to 12.

I'm hearing upwards of $15 billion.

But I do understand what comes with it.

And the length of time some of it takes sometimes it's it's getting your, your finances in order.

They want to see carbon audits.

I'm hearing about others that are three and four years late.

We're not going to get federal funds until there's a current.

If you couldn't get the audits done in one year, how can you promise me 3 in 1 year?

Right.

So I it's certain things that have to take place that, that I expect to see, materialize over the next year or two.

But definitely the process is what it is.

And it takes this kind of time because when you're holding the blade in at the handle, you have to make sure that all your ducks in a row for them to provide the funding that you desire.

Attorney Henry, recently the governor in one of his, weekly press conferences, talked about the amount of cash on hand.

In recent state of the territory address is the governor has touted the, economy as one of the mainstays of his administration.

The fact that they've been able to do significant belt tightening came on board with a certain number, I believe was six days cash on hand, tripled it to 18 at one point in his administration, which was also mentioned in a state of the territory recently, we heard the governor saying we got two, maybe three.

What do you and then again, going to the legislature on Friday for the, line of credit.

What do you think is happening with the economy and is it a cash flow issue, or do we have a management a cash management issue?

Well, I think I think it's both.

Right.

It's it was clear from the legislative, hearing that we have an issue with the governor's financial team really been able to pull together the central government to do what it needs to do.

We have $72 million from the federal government, but we are using the general fund to pay the federal government payroll expenses.

We're spending the general fund money, but not drying down the federal government funding that has been sent to the territory to help the people.

These processes that we're talking about, drying funds, it's nothing new.

It's like the bedrock of government.

And for us to be telling the people of the Virgin Islands that we are now trying to figure this out.

We have to have a meeting with the governor to understand how we're going to move forward.

To me, that's very troubling, especially hearing it from the governor's chief.

Financial people, very troubling.

Let's briefly revisit the governor's previous state of the territory address.

Is where the highlighted of the territory, where he highlighted, excuse me, the territory's economic progress, along with his recent thoughts from earlier this month.

Tonight, as I begin now my fourth week in office, I must report that the state of our territory is distressed.

I can confidently report this evening that the state of our territory is on the mend.

We have maintained at least 30 days cash on hand for most of last year.

We hope to finally say, gone are the days of measuring cash on one hand in the single digits.

Over the last three years of this administration, we have seen the annual revenue collections exceed the revenue projections creating budget surpluses that have not been seen in over 15 years.

Four years ago, we promised to stabilize government finances, and we frankly outdid ourselves.

We managed not only to stabilize the failing pension system, but we also realized economic growth during the global pandemic, while many other economies showed a decline.

Why?

To take this opportunity to clarify some things about the current financial challenges our territory is facing, particularly regarding the timely payment to our government vendors.

The government isn't broke.

We haven't some cash flow problems.

We have cash in different types of places, but we need the legislature's authorization to use that cash.

So do you say how many days cash on hand?

The government has three.

If you ask me today, they don't look good at all.

I say one, but we make it up payroll, so we just, got payroll out.

Are we going to get some vendor payments off this year?

But we're down to, like, 2 or 3 days cash.

Senator Richards, being the president of the legislature, you are very familiar with the government's budgetary processes and the finances of the government.

Same question.

I asked Attorney Henry, why do we find ourselves in this situation that we are now, when we're supposed to have all this money available to us for this recovery process and to help us through to get this money into the economy where it's needed.

My observation and what I think the current administration is, suffering from is, experienced individuals who are head of departments that understand the structure of, central government.

I've worked in the Department of Health, and we have dealt with our federal funds for close to, to 20 years before being, part of the legislature.

I understand the subject matter of, raised by, by Mr. Hodge in regards to the expectation on how to disburse federal funds.

And when I made mention of our prioritization, a good example of if we have ten federal projects and we're talking about, the six state of the territory address, we're talking about, but at least, going into, a six, six year period that, we have ten projects we need to prioritize, those that we can get done each year going down.

There is no plan of action, of how best to expend, to disperse and to address that priority projects.

And you can't do that if you haven't been able to prioritize what where you want to go to projects that ought to be implemented.

And I think this is what what I expected to hear from the governor and I believe in our previous administration.

I'll take a quick example under the, the DeYoung, Finance Administration, there was, in fact, in government House, a capital projects coordinator, someone that spoke to the prioritization.

This is what we would like to get done as we speak today.

We have an Office of Disaster Recovery, but they are responsible for managing and ensuring that the federal funds get expended.

And I think we need to have some real experience persons in government when we dealing with implementation of these particular type of moneys.

Attorney Saint John, you spoke earlier about getting the money into the economy and business owners taking the hit from inflation, etc.

when we start to spend these monies, naturally that's what happens.

Businesses get pay taxes get paid to what, Senator Richards just said about a plan of action.

What would you take as your plan of action?

What would you prioritize as the low hanging fruit, per se, that the administration can take on first to get quick bursts of infusions of cash into the economy?

Well, the first thing we need to do is make sure that whatever money is spent is spent with local vendors.

And there's been a lot of discussion among local contractors about reforming our bonding system so that when money is spent, it's not sent to somebody in Louisiana who's going to take it and not pay any gross receipts, not pay any income taxes in the Virgin Islands, but they take their money right back to the state they come from.

So there needs to be some reform to make sure that whenever it spent, it spent it with local businesses.

So that's that's a structural issue.

First it needs to be addressed.

Second, we need to go into, looking at the major projects as, as my colleague just said, roads.

Easy.

That's an easy fix.

It gets people employed.

It gets folks who are most vulnerable, often without a fancy degree or anything.

It can get them in construction, where they can work and provide for their family.

Many of us know vendors, who have not been paid for periods of over a year.

And a lot of the young men, especially, are on the streets, unemployed because vendors are not being paid.

So I think we ought to start looking at the vendors, the critical vendors that perhaps employ the most people.

We need to look at the areas that are quickest to mobilize, such as roads, construction projects, and get a couple off the road of, of, going first.

And then once those start going, the money starts being spent.

It's going to be a cyclical effect to improve the economy.

Generally, you go as the governor's representative, I'm sure that you have reviewed prior speeches and know that there have been promises that the governor has made in previous state of the territory addresses.

One of the things I think the governor is really good at is reminding us of the things that he said that he has accomplished.

Let's go over some of those things that may come to mind just off the top of your head.

And what do you consider to be, crowning achievement?

Let's just call it that, of this administration.

I think some of the things that have taken place are going to be on the financial economic side.

We can sit down and talk about, what seems that appears to be easy to, to accomplish.

We can talk about roads being a one of those things, but there's a budget of about $10 million in public works.

We have $150 million with a project to do, and there's funding that's needed for for those projects.

So it's not an easy fix or an easy thing to take care of.

We had a water in part already that was, being said by their, their current leader that he was in a position to have to raise rates, for, for our impoverished community.

I saw the government spend just about $100 million on subsidies.

What has never had a subsidy ever before.

Now, this administration came in, paid off the debt to Wapa, and then provided a $100 million subsidy.

So the residents were not impacted by what Wapa was claiming was taking place in the economy.

As far as they're concerned, it could have been done in a prepayment, it could have been done where we were paying for future bills.

It wasn't, even though it was done as a straight subsidy could benefit the ratepayers.

No, no prepayment of bills coming up.

And these are things that have to be noticed and and recognized for what it means to the economy or what it means that are ratepayers not a difficult part is when you do make some corrections and their subsidy goes away.

That's what you see.

The subsidy go away, you don't see the rate reduction.

So I mean there's there's been a lot done on or attempted on the energy side.

I wait to hear more this evening.

I know, some of the, some of the capital projects, the school for Saint John Foster is a big accomplishment.

It's been a long time coming.

And finally, we are at the point right now where that can move forward.

Okay.

It looks like Senate President Noel Francis is, starting the official ceremonies that take place.

As you know, this is a legislative process, actually, we see Senator Carla Joseph greeting Lieutenant Governor Corrigan's approach and escorting him into the chambers of the legislature.

So our cameras are capturing both the activities inside and outside.

We see Delegate Stacey Plaskett is being escorted into the well of the legislature by Senator Kenny Giddens, and traditionally an officer member of the legislature will escort guests like our delegate, our governor and lieutenant governor into the well.

And there is the traditional, shaking of hands.

Greetings.

I was reviewing the Covid, speech, and it was interesting to see how we've gone from the fist bumps or the elbow bumps back to hugging and kissing, but, that's taking place right now.

The delegate, of course, looks lovely as usual.

And, this is, you know, we could consider a little bit of Virgin Islands pageantry.

I saw people in the cabinet today, had hairdressers, and people get suits saying it's like, dress the fair.

But I think it represents the best of us.

And when we all come together, and I especially like to see, our members of the judiciary and like, tradition, dictates they normally don't, you know, clap or applaud any part of the speech.

They're supposed to be the neutral branch.

It's always interesting to see them just, you know, sitting there, very stoic.

But, this, of course, is one of those moments where Virgin Islanders are paying attention.

At this time, we will welcome the lieutenant governor of the Virgin Islands, the honorable Roach, and he'll be escorted by Senator Carla Joseph.

Madame Secretary, please rise.

Again, as an experience executive in the government of the Virgin Islands.

And having run department, I want to ask you about the same question, that I did earlier.

What are some of these things that are just not happening?

And how do you think we can accelerate things?

Especially with the technology, I always look at technology solutions to things because when you lack manpower, resources or finance, technology is usually that bridge that you can, you can get to solve issues.

Where do you think and are there any technological points or advantages that we may not be utilizing to help us with this process?

Absolutely.

On the technology side, I remember when I was the commissioner, I fought really hard for us to replace the ERP system with something that was much more conducive to assisting us with property management, dealing with our grants.

Okay.

We see, Governor Brian being escorted by Senator Brian as, Senator Biden.

Excuse me, Lieutenant Governor Rhodes, excuse me, is, doing his rounds and shaking all the members as we see Senator Alma Francis High Lager in a lovely outfit there as well.

And he is about to take his seat.

I don't have audio of what's taking place in the Legislative Hall right now, but traditionally the governor is accompanied by one of my favorite parts of the evening.

The governor's all written by our very own Alton Augustus Adam, the first black naval band master, and I would consider one of the Virgin Iowa's most accomplished musicians.

A self-taught flutist like myself, but was capable of playing multiple instruments and a master at what he did.

And, I enjoy hearing that recording of the governor's own being played.

This is actually one of the very few times that song gets to be played in a public venue.

Is the president of the United States.

I'm gonna go over Brian here.

Welcome the governor, Albert Brand, junior.

Number.

One.

And we see the governor doing his round of, handshaking.

And it's a very pleasant, even for for individuals that may have had legislative differences.

The legislative ballots.

Everybody's nice, at least.

For this moment.

Senator Richards, you have experienced this moment a few times.

So what is that normally like?

We'll use the adjective.

Nice.

I just, would like to call it very cordial.

That's what makes I think that, in this particular setting, because, after the, the governor, the lieutenant governor and the delegate have, made it into the well, and everyone of her the, the the what is the anthems and the prayer and the and they've taken the seat and they've heard the presentation after the governor's presentation, there's a a whole lot of, different opinions of what the governor should have spoke about.

And I think, at least in my mind, and I never did, like to, to hear, members of a legislative body speak to the fact that the governor should I talk about this?

Yes.

Please remain standing as we have a, presentation by the honorable Reverend Father Anthony Abraham of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

Our scripture reading is taken from Isaiah 41, verses ten and following.

So do not fear, for I am with you, and do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you.

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Let us pray.

Lord, we thank you for this day.

We thank you for the many blessings you have bestowed upon us.

We pray, oh God, this evening you will be with us through the power of your spirit.

We pray that your blessing will be upon our governor, our Lord, Lieutenant Governor, and all members of the legislature.

Here we pray, oh God, that this evening you would uncover your face to us, that you will be gracious to us as we reflect on the many blessings you have bestowed upon us and upon this territory.

Lord, today may you uncover your face to us and be gracious to us and give us peace in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

And.

Good evening.

Please be seated.

Reverend father Anthony Abraham.

Lieutenant governor Jay Roach, Esquire, Senate president.

Novell, Francis Junior, and members of the 35th legislature, Chief Justice Reece Hodge, and justices of the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands.

Presiding Judge Deborah Watlington and the judges of the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands.

Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett, Chief Judge Robert Malloy, and judges of the District Court of the Virgin Islands.

Members of my cabinet and other agency heads.

Members of my staff.

State chair of the Democratic Party Stedman Hodge.

Other invited guests and my fellow Virgin Islanders.

Good evening.

This evening, I'm grateful for the privilege of appearing before you again as governor of the Virgin Islands of the United States, to report on the state of the territory as mandated in the Revised Organic Act of 1954.

This is my sixth such address to the Senate, and I always look forward excitedly for the opportunity.

However, as I look out at the audience, I'm reminded that we have lost some pillars of our community since I last addressed you.

Even with my very own cabinet.

And I am missing the face of Darryll Mosley George, who stood unwaveringly with a wavering lead with me and our administration throughout this journey.

His absence here tonight is surely felt, as is the absence of the Honorable Alicia Chalky Hansen.

She provided invaluable wisdom and experience as my political advisor and served this community with passion and love.

Please join me in a moment of silent reflection for all those who we lost in 2023, but who have forever left their mark on us and these islands.

Thank you.

Please join me in honoring the service of the brave men and women of the Virgin Islands Army and Air National Guards.

Last year marked the 50th year of federal recognition of the Army and National Guard.

50 years of excellence.

I'm immensely proud of our soldiers and grateful for the redeployment of the Army Guard's 148 Aviation detachment from the southern border of the United States, where they supported the Department of Homeland Security.

We are also happy to have our Air Guard men and women home from the deployments in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Our airmen and soldiers continue to demonstrate their competence and ready readiness, whether deployed within the Caribbean, activated during our local state of emergencies, or protecting the president of the United States.

The contributions of our National Guard demonstrate to the rest of the nation and the world the high caliber of professionals they call the Virgin Islands home.

As we embark on this blessed New Year, the state of our territory is resolute.

We are purposeful, determined, and steadfast.

The social and economic impacts of Covid 19 pandemic are increasingly further in the rearview mirror, and we remain firmly focused on the opportunity to permanently transform the Virgin Islands into a home that provides us all the standard of living and the quality of life we deserve.

Hand in hand with you.

We withstood the challenges and uncertainties of that time, but we have not been deterred from continuing to deliver on our promise of progress for the people of the Virgin Islands.

That progress, that progress is most evident in the strength of our economy.

Despite facing inflation, rising interest rates and volatile global conditions.

Our economy continues to demonstrate resilience through sustained economic and job growth.

While the growth of the last two years has been more modest than the years prior.

The rebound from the Covid 19 pandemic has been remarkable.

Consumer spending, tourism and significant investments from businesses and the public sector have driven this incredible growth.

GDP according to the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis, the territory's gross domestic product, or GDP in 2021, was valued at 4 billion, 2.8% higher in 21 than 20.

This marked the strongest recovery in the fastest growth of all territories.

While the final reports are not yet available.

Public sector business investment and the ongoing recovery in the tourism sector are projected to have generated more than 2% growth in the 2022 and 2023 years.

Our employment numbers have improved.

We have created 1000 new jobs in 2023 alone.

This 2.8% growth was mainly in the private sector, specifically in the hospitality industry, as that industry recovered from the pandemic and the 2017 storms.

Other sectors in the economy remain relatively unchanged, demonstrating our consistent economic performance.

Unemployment rates also remain low during this period.

Last year, we realized a record low unemployment rate in the history of the U.S. Virgin Islands at 3.2% in the month of November and averaged 3.5% throughout the year.

This was lower than the national average of 3.64%.

There was even more potential job growth if the restart of the refinery and other hospitality projects come on line.

So while recent indicators suggest some normalization is underway, the labor market is forecast to perform well even as the post-Covid momentum eases.

In fiscal year 2023.

The value of building permits issued was 305 million, which indicates a 5% increase compared to 290,000,000 in 2022.

For the same period during 2023.

The private residential construction permits were worth 166 million, which is only slightly higher than the 165 million worth of permits issued in 2022.

However, the nonresidential construction permit showed significant growth to 100% increase from 27.7 million in 20 2 to 80 3.5 million in 2023.

However, if it feels like the economy has not been as prosperous as the economic indicators suggest, it is not your imagination.

We have been battling the headwinds of inflation for at least the last three years.

The positive impact of our economy, economic growth has been significantly tempered by high inflation, with steep increases in food, housing and construction costs being the most significant concern.

Now, I frequently go to the grocery stores in both districts and have witnessed a sticker shock on certain food items.

The local consumer price index increased 8.6% in 21, and again by 9.8% for the 12 months ending December 2022.

That means between January 21st and December 22nd, inflation in the Virgin Islands increased by a whopping 20%.

This translate to Miss Mary shopping cart, which costs the $100 in January 20th to increase into $120 by the end of last year.

Now, while we got some relief from a decline in gasoline prices in the second half of 22, food and housing costs remain high, putting an incredible strain on our households.

The good news is that the national inflation rate appears to be slowing down as the federal government policies start to take effect.

However, the trade off is that these policies have resulted in rising interest rates, which have been which have made credit and access to capital more expensive for all Americans, including Virgin Islanders.

But thankfully, the recession that was predicted and by economists in 2023 never happened, and the national economy has remained steady.

In fact, the stock markets finished this year at at or near an all time high, while higher interest rates and elevated inflation can be expected to weigh on economic activity in the near term.

These factors have not altered the longer term outlook for our economy.

The Virgin Islands remains well-positioned to navigate these challenges, and is expected to experience continued economic growth in the coming years.

Our economy now is indeed stronger than it was before the pandemic.

That is undeniable economic progress.

Now tourism continues to thrive with our cruise ship business standing out of the strongest in the Eastern Caribbean in fiscal year 23, cruise passenger arrivals soared by an impressive 87%, reaching almost 1.6 million compared to 851,000 in fiscal year 22, surpassing pre-pandemic levels.

The territory also saw a 36.5 increase in cruise ship visits, totaling 516 calls made in fiscal year 23.

Notably, Saint Croix, Saint Croix experienced a remarkable 100% increase in cruise ship arrivals over the past year.

In fiscal year 23, arrivals experienced a 4.5% decrease to 756,000 from 792,000.

Carrying a more in the premium on, although this is following a record high and surge in air arrivals.

Although the current figure is lower than the record set in 21, it still represents an improvement from pre-pandemic levels.

This decline is attributed to the challenge of the airline industry and what his face really for the last two years in building capacity to meet growing travel demand.

And we all know the cost of the fares to come home have increased dramatically.

We're in demand.

We did, however, witness an increase in regional transportation options last year.

Sky High Aviation started two weekly flights between Saint Thomas and the Dominican Republic, and once a week between the Dominican Republic and Saint Croix.

Cape here began offering eight flights a week between Saint Thomas and Nevis.

Silver Airways resumed airlift connecting Saint Croix and Saint Thomas, and continued flights between the Virgin Islands and San Juan.

Fly the whale finally provides daily flights between Saint Croix and Saint Thomas.

It most welcome development after the challenges we pay, we face post-Covid.

I particularly want to thank Omar Ursula, the president of Fly the Will, for working with us to provide affordable and comfortable interisland travel for all of us.

We we expect much more announcements of continued progress in this regard soon.

Rachel.

Hotel occupancy rates in the territory remain stable at 58% in 23, a slight decrease from the 63% in fiscal year 22.

This decline is attributed to the popularity of Airbnb accommodations due to the limited availability of traditional hotels.

Not a decrease in the number of overnight stays.

Despite the shortage of hotel rooms, the number of visitors from the U.S. mainland that stayed for an average of three and a half nights, significantly increased in fiscal year 23.

There were over 452,000 overnight visitors, an 85% increase when compared to fiscal year 22.

Excitingly, the newly opened Westin Beach Resort and Spa Frenchman's Resort has significantly expanded our hotel inventory, contributing to the positive momentum in the tourism sector.

The 392 room hotel plays a critical role for the entire territory.

By restoring our appeal as a convention destination right next door.

The 92 room Morningstar Boathouse Beach Resort, part of the Marriott Autograph Collection brand, opened its doors in May.

Together, both hotels represent $425 million worth of redevelopment of Frenchman's Reef and Saint Thomas, made possible by the incentives of the Hotel Development Act.

I want to give thanks to Fortress Investment Group, the Economic Development Authority, the Public Finance Authority authority and this body for making this a reality.

On the western end of Saint Thomas, the owners of By the Sea Resort and Botany Bay have made significant strides in developing that hotel with construction of the first group of guest units well underway.

I was totally blown away to see the level of work and detail that the Ferraris have invested in this beautiful property.

The Hampton Inn Haven site has also broken ground.

The project is a five story, 126 room hotel for business and leisure travelers.

This property is expected to come on, come online next year.

It was a development that has come to fruition at a record pace, thanks to the team and Sean Miller, who has made considerable investments in our territories success on Saint Croix.

The current of beach Resort is gradually reclaiming its former prominence as a luxurious beachfront destination under new ownership.

Karen Boland never really closed its doors despite sustaining major damage during the hurricane.

Since then, the property has probably presented itself with 150 renovated and upgraded rooms under the Marriott brand.

Finally, the hotel on the north shore of Saint Croix has entered the first phase of its redevelopment.

I commend the Hamad family for making the investment to restore this property to its prior beauty.

After 40 years, 40 years of on being unable to build a new hotel in this territory.

Construction and developments are underway.

To keep these properties filled and the hoteliers happy.

We must consistently market these islands to our potential guests.

In this regard, the Department of Tourism continues to win industry accolades for its Naturally in Rhythm marketing campaign.

The U.S. Virgin Islands was recognized in 2023 as a top travel destination, again by prestigious publications like Condé Nast Travel, Travel and Leisure Travel Magazine and From Us.

Tourism remains the cornerstone of our economy and we excel in managing it.

Fiscal year 2023 saw our streak of four consecutive years of general fund revenue growth come to an end.

Gross revenue collections total a little over 942 million in fiscal year 23, compared to a record peak of almost 1.1 billion in fiscal year 22.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, we collected $1.1 billion in fiscal year 22 in revenue.

It remains the high watermark for revenue collection by the government of the Virgin Islands.

Ever.

It was a banner year.

However, our collections were in line with our revenue projections for fiscal year 2023 revenues.

Our Office of Management budget gross revenue was projected to approximately 934 million for fiscal year 23, and collections were off by less than 1%.

But this downturn in revenues is mostly attributed to the end of Covid related fiscal stimulus with relief.

This direct infusion of cash to the population included the impact stimulus payment.

Now remember that stimulus spent, the increased child tax credits, the pandemic EBT transferred all those nice food stamps premium pay.

Everybody's knocking on my door for those water and power authority credits.

Stipend for social recipients.

Rental assistance.

Mortgage assistance and subsidies to taxi drivers, just to name some of the larger programs.

These programs had greater than anticipated impact on the economic activity in the territory, and helped generate substantial tax revenues for the government.

Those stimuli have worked their way through the local economy and now revenue collections are normalizing.

Now, although the streak is broken, the revenues collected by this government remain far above where they were in the years before the pandemic.

While the naysayers continue to predict fiscal calamity, our government's finances remain strong and steady.

The numbers simply don't lie.

The fact is, revenues for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2024 are already above revenues for the same period in fiscal year 23.

However, there is some cause for concern.

The last six months have seen our expenditures outpace revenue collections.

This has depleted our available cash on hand and caused significant delays in making vendor payments.

Perhaps we could have predicted this.

The government, just like everybody else, has been subject to the rising cost of goods and services resulting from the same inflation.

This includes well-deserved salary increases that have been awarded to our public sector workers.

We're not behind in any of those.

Our available cash on hand has also been strained by aggressive efforts to stay on track with our commitments to pay income tax refunds and retroactive wages.

Simply put, we've been debts that are 40 years old with today's operating revenues all while continuing to build up cash reserves in our rainy day fund.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have a rainy day fund with 20 million in it.

We anticipate that this is a temporary cash crunch, and we remain on track to meet our projections for the collections of revenues in the current years.

I want to assure our vendors this evening that we are working hard to catch up on outstanding payments, and we will.

That is currently the administration highest priority.

But in the interim, we have begun exploring options for establishing a line of credit for working capital.

We look forward to further discussions with this body regarding the authorization to establish such a credit vehicle.

The government depends on two big paydays each year.

One in April when we get the taxes, and one in October when the late taxes come in.

But all the expenses incurred and paid constantly throughout the year.

Now, while the present situation could benefit from the additional liquidity offered by a line of credit, having a general fund budget that is approaching 1 billion, I didn't say total.

Just the general fund is another 400 million in federal funds.

Now, having a general fund approaching $1 billion mean it means that we have to develop a more permanent cash management strategy to effectively manage government operation.

It's time to join the modern financial world and establish a permanent revolving line of credit to bridge the gaps in revenue collections.

Just like all of you in here and outside, there, you have a credit card to get you from one party to the next.

Every two weeks you need to buy something.

Now you expect the money to come in.

My money don't come until April.

Give me a little credit.

We are ready to have those conversations with this body.

Perhaps the primary driver of our progress as a territory has been the unprecedented level of public infrastructure projects currently underway.

The ongoing rehabilitation of Melvin Evans Highway has brought critical improvements to the entire corridor.

This includes reconstruction of the storm water drainage system, traffic and safety enhancements such as streetlights, guardrails, dedicated turning lanes, and roadway widening and repaving.

Additional.

We have constructed an entire new Clifton Hill connector road and will be improving the adjacent Container Port Road intersection to include dedicated turning lane.

This entire project is a significant improvement for the safety of our motorists.

And you can already see the progress.

No more blind hills and hazardous conditions for our pedestrians.

I am fully aware of the inadequate lighting situation on Melvin Evans Highway and the great safety concern it presents.

But over the last decade, the lighting has deteriorated due to the theft of copper wires hurricane damaged blown bulbs.

Frankly, I can't remember the last time I saw that highway fully lit.

However, under this administration, I am pleased to announce that at least 45% of the street light on the highway have already been restored or replaced, with the remainder expected to be completed this summer.

I know y'all think I travel different roads, but just like you, I frequently travel the same roads in the territory.

I also hear constantly from other residents, including my own child in my house who are affected by potholes and poor road conditions.

Early upon become government becoming governor, I recognize that the federal highway funds allotted to the territory were totally inadequate to address all our needs.

That is why we have been dedicating increasing amounts of local funds to supplement these federal dollars.

These last four years have seen millions upon millions of dollars invested in the territory's roadways.

Even though last years local funds for road work were not as substantial as previous years, we were still able to begin work on roads in estate women Mount Pleasant on Saint Croix and in stable ongoing Bethany in Saint Thomas.

We have earmarked another 5 million this fiscal year for the Transportation Trust Fund, and we will use those funds to get back on track.

Additionally, I'm extremely pleased to announce tonight that the long awaited road rehabilitation project to the Ethel McIntosh Memorial Drive, also known as Mahogany Road, is now in the procurement stage, with an award announcement expected in the next few weeks.

After almost 20 years, we're going to get this road paved and we are all ecstatic to see this project finally happening.

Happening.

Similarly.

Similarly, the long awaited FEMA funded projects for roads have also continue.

Residents can expect to see significant improvements in many areas across all four islands, with an emphasis on resilient and hardened infrastructure.

On Water Island alone, over 60% of the roadways have been improved and rehabilitated.

Roads in Francis Bay, Cruz Bay, Susanna Berg and Pat story have already been addressed on Saint John.

On Saint Thomas, work has started at Rita Point and Botany Bay.

Now the FEMA process has been slow and painstaking, but it's paying dividends.

Like elsewhere in the country, the historic bridges on Saint Croix are starting to show their age and are in need of repair.

Contracts have been awarded to the repair of five of those bridges.

The temporary Altona Bridge was completed in the summer 2023 and is currently in use.

The Altona Lagoon, Queen Mary Highway East Airport Ridge projects are all in progress and is scheduled to be completed in the next few months.

To maintain traffic flow, the Agriculture Road Bridge and the Midland Road Bridge will commence.

Will commence once the other projects are completed.

Now our ports, just like our road infrastructure, are undergoing modernization and improvement.

The Virgin Islands Port Authority is in the process of selecting a development partner to modernize and upgrade the Henry E Roseland Airport on Saint Croix and the Cirelli King Airport on Saint Thomas.

In this latest endeavor, Viper aims to use private investment to bring state of the art amenities, efficient airport operations, and long term maintenance plan to these two critical assets.

Under the contemplated arrangement, the Port Authority will remain the owner of the airports and the recipient of any federal grant and federal grant funds awarded to either airport.

The selection has been narrowed to our four qualified firms responding to a request for qualifications.

Final proposals are due in February and the port Authority expects to begin work on redeveloping the airport terminals by the first quarter of 2025.

At this early King Airport, the contractor is progressing on both phase one and phase two of the Parking and Transportation Center project.

Viper anticipates that phase one of the project will be open for public use for public use by March.

Completion of phase one will make half of the overall parking spaces available on the second and third floors of the garage.

Phase two of the project is also expected to be completed within the year.

In November, I signed into Law Act 8787, which appropriated $17 million to the Port Authority for the dredging of the shallow harbor.

This funding is necessary for the long overdue port maintenance to prevent potentially serious safety issues.

The dredging of Charlotte Amalie Harbor is vital to the United States Virgin Islands, maintaining its competitive advantage in the market for cruise passengers.

It will allow ships as large as the Oasis class safe entry to berth of the West Indian Company Dock in Haven site, thereby increasing passengers cruise passengers to the territory.

I want to thank this body for working with me to get this 17 million approved.

We we have been in constant contact with the Army Corps of Engineers and expect to get the permit by April.

The Port Authority is prepared to put the project out to bid.

Once the permits are approved with January, begin with dredging beginning in January.

Now a cargo ports are also in the beginning stages of major expansion and redevelopment.

We have partnered with Tropical Shipping and Crowley to successfully apply for 21.9 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration, married to reconstruct and modernize the cargo handling and storage infrastructure at the Crown Bay Terminal in Saint Thomas.

This project is now in design and permitting phase.

But then in November, we were blessed again by Marriott as they announced another award of 22 million for the enhancement of the will for Wilfred Bomba Ilic Port Transit Center on Saint Croix.

Known to us familiarly as the Container Port as we speak, Executive Director Costin DoD was out of the territory, solidifying our relationship with tropical shipping on these projects.

I want to thank him and the dedicated staff of the Virgin Islands Port Authority for their work.

Why?

Last October, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, informed the government of the Virgin Islands.

That testing conducted a few weeks earlier had found alarming levels of lead and copper at several point in Walpole's water distribution system.

Immediately, Wapa and the technical team at the Department of Planning and Natural Resources exercise all measures to find the reasoning and validity of these shocking results.

Although Wapa has no, let me say, no lead service lines in its distribution system, some samples were found to have exceeded the levels found in places that had lead service lines throughout the system.

It is important to note that routinely test its water distribution system for lead and copper, using the testing protocols required by the same EPA.

That testing had never produced results that suggested a system wide problem with lead and copper.

However, in the abundance of caution, we issued a no drink advisory for the potable water system to receive a federal declaration and access federal technical assistance.

We ultimately declared a state of emergency.

During the emergency declaration, the EPA began doing sequential testing that adhered to the established protocols for testing for lead and copper.

This led to vastly different results that I had previously observed, and that sorry, this led to vastly different results that were more in line with the test results that Wapa had previously observed and confirmed that lead and copper levels were below the levels that would be of cause for concern.

It is our firm belief that the original round of testing conducted used incorrect methodology.

The apparatus used to collect the samples at the meter box caused tiny shards of metal to become free and contaminate the samples that were sent off for testing.

Plainly stated, the water samples, the way the water samples were collected, created misleading results and led to the high levels of lead and copper reported.

The proper testing methodology, which took samples from the faucet inside the building without tampering with the plumbing components, yielded way more accurate results.

We allowed the local state of emergency to expire this past December.

60 days after it was declared the National Emergency declaration expires tomorrow, and we will also be rescinding the no drink advisory at that time.

Now, while we do not believe we have a water crisis caused by the presence of lead and copper in the water distribution system, I want to make sure y'all hear, hear, hear what I just said.

We do not believe that we have a water crisis caused by the lead and copper in the system.

We do acknowledge that water in the parts of the distribution system on both islands are discolored and therefore unfit for consumption.

It's been this way for the last 20 years.

We have clearly heard the frustration of the residents who have to cope with brown water from their taps.

It's simple.

We are getting rusty water in areas where we have rusty pipes, but the solution is equally simple.

Wapa must replace the rusty pipes.

Now what was completed?

The Clifton Hill Waterline Rehabilitation Project on Saint Croix.

The rehabilitation of Waterlines and estate Campo Rico is expected to be finished by March, and the replacement of water lines in state Hanna's rest is expected to also start in March.

The contract is in negotiation for waterline extension and rehab rehabilitation work on North Side Road, also expected to begin in 24 on Saint Thomas.

Progress is being made on waterline extension and projects and do new as well as Nazareth.

These projects are part of a program of replacing aging and corroded metal pipes with PVC pipes.

This started long before the state of the emergency was even declared on the water system.

Several areas of the distribution system have been rehabilitated.

However, we are hoping to greatly increase the speed of this system wide rehabilitation.

The FEMA has was previously approved the replacement of the substandard sections of the underground water distribution system in Saint Croix, as part of the Hurricanes Irma and Maria disaster recovery effort.

Last August, Wapa submitted a scope of projects with an estimated cost of approximately $1 billion for review by FEMA.

We expect FEMA to provide a fixed cost offer to fund these projects later this year.

A similar effort is being made to getting FEMA support for the replacement of substandard water lines in the Saint Thomas, as well as the Saint John District.

These projects represent several years of underground construction.

And yes, the roads will be dug up once again.

In the interim, Wapa has begun addressing rusty water in the distribution system by adjusting its erosion control program.

This entails inserting an FDA approved food grade additive to the water system that will essentially form a coating within the pipe that prevents further leaching of the rust into the water.

This is EPA's strongest recommendation yet for water systems like ours that are showing signs of aging.

For many years, Wapa had perfected such a corrosion treatment, but they did not make the required adjustment for the new water chemistry.

When the switch was made from desal water to reverse osmosis as a as a means of water production, they are now working with subject matter experts to make the necessary corrections and treat the rusting pipes within the system.

On the power side, the installation of the four new Wartsila generators at the Randolph Harley Power Plant represents the project with the greatest potential to reduce cost for all of us ratepayers.

These more efficient and reliable generators are now up and running on diesel, which reduces fuel consumption and lowers fuel costs.

However, the full impact will come later this year when the infrastructure necessary for the generators to operate on propane is installed.

The new generators will improve hoppers reliability in the Saint Thomas district by providing greater flexibility in responding to changes in wipers, power generation.

This will be solidified by the attached battery battery energy storage systems, which will help buffer disruptions on the energy grid.

This battery system.

This brand new battery system, will provide nine megawatts of energy storage gathered during periods of low demand and release during peak demand.

Improve operating costs and Saint Thomas will accrue to the benefit of all Wapa customers territory wide.

We are making progress in our efforts to buy Orbital's interest in the propane terminals that supply fuel to whoppers power generating facilities.

Wapa entered into a contract with BTR on April 28th, 2023 for the acquisition of the terminals and associated infrastructure, and at 8701 facilitated whoppers ability to make a good faith payment to meet up housing and urban development.

HUD agreed that Community Development Block Grant hazard mitigation funds could be used for acquiring the facilities.

The application is now undergoing its final environmental review.

Prior to the approval by HUD.

We look forward to completing this transaction with the help of HUD and other federal partners, and resolving our obligations to veto by the end of the first quarter of this year.

My friends, I am fully committed to fixing Wapa and restoring its viability as a government agency.

Most importantly, changing our perspective and approach to the energy challenges of this territory.

It's essential.

We are working very diligently to transform the future of energy in the US Virgin Islands.

In the years past, our economy and quality of life have been crippled by the oppressive cost of fuel for energy production.

That is why we have invested over $100 million to subsidize the cost of energy, to keep the rates from increasing for everybody.

Our vision is to reduce the energy burden for all Virgin Islanders, which is at the core of a lot of our challenges.

Residents and businesses must have affordable and resilient energy options.

We are moving to a future where our power generation will be decentralized, with greater reliance on small private power producers.

We are also creating opportunities for individuals to produce their own power and purchase their own battery storage.

Getting back on track with our renewable energy goals is a critical part of this administration's vision.

To this end, last year, Wapa approved five power purchase agreements with bi electron to supply the utility with 58MW of solar power.

That will include Honeywell Battery Storage Systems via electron is in the process of developing solar powered electric generating facilities, which they will own and operate on the islands of Saint Thomas, Saint John and Saint Croix.

Construction has begun on the first of the two solar farms to be built on Saint Croix, and is expected to be ready to produce solar energy by April.

Honeywell is a great example of the type of major multinational corporations that are willing to help with our infrastructure transformation efforts.

Tonight, I want to recognize Christian Lauren Jr of the Electron and Lucia, and both the president and CEO of Honeywell Industrial Automation.

Gentlemen, please stand.

Last year, the Public Service Commission also approved the power purchase agreement between Wapa and Advanced Power to provide wind energy on Saint Thomas.

The Bhavani Wind projects should provide more than 15MW of wind power at about $0.11 per kilowatt hour, compared to the $0.43 we are paying now.

Property leasing and permitting are underway and the grid interconnection study is almost complete.

Once the notice to proceed is issued by advanced Power, construction is anticipated to be completed within six months.

But the truly exciting opportunities to transform our energy infrastructure go way beyond Wapa.

President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act allows the EPA to fund solar for our programs.

These are nationwide.

These programs aim to give subsidies and financial help to residential rooftop, and residential serving communities.

Solar project projects benefiting low income and disadvantaged communities.

We anticipate $100 million to be awarded to the U.S. Virgin Islands.

For this funding allocation, 100 million.

This funding will allow the Energy Office to install photovoltaic or PV systems directly on low income, single family homes, at no cost to the homeowner.

It will also allow solar developers to install large community renewable energy facilities or community solar that can provide electricity bill credits to low income residents who are renters or whose rooftops are not suitable for installing solar.

The Virgin Islands Energy Office is currently awaiting approval of this grant award, and we are assured that Uncle Joe is going to seek favor on us.

This funding will also support the continuation of the sun.

So SunPower solar loan program.

This program I told you about last year provides low interest financing for homeowners who wish to install PV systems and battery storage devices in their homes in which, through paying their utility bill, they can.

Simonds generously repay their loan.

In addition to the anticipated solar for our funding, the Energy Office has another 64 million in federal grants.

That's to advance various energy initiatives.

14 million has already been awarded.

The considerable amount of funding being made available to the territory due to President Biden's climate change agenda will allow us to incentivize residential, solar and energy efficient appliances and the adoption of electric vehicles.

In addition, we have marked another $10 million of electrical grid grant funds for community focused project.

This grant must be in areas enhancing energy resilience, improving electrical power systems or other innovative efforts that contribute to the electrical infrastructure.

Small businesses with up to 100 employees, for profit and nonprofit groups, educational institutions, government bodies and those working with low to moderate income or vulnerable populations can all benefit from this grant.

These programs will bring us one step closer to witnessing the Brian Roach administration's vision of a transformed energy future in the Virgin Islands.

We want the next generation of Virgin Islands islanders to view energy independence as an achievable and a normal way of life.

Wapa will continue to play a critical role in that energy future.

Its commercial, industrial and government clientele will continue to require affordable and reliable power from the utility.

Wapa will also play an important role as a supplemental source of energy that backstops the distributed energy connected to the grid.

We have already begun the mission of ushering in an energy revolution with Wapa.

We will lay a solid foundation this year to get us there.

Through tireless advocacy, the Office of Disaster Recovery has successfully increased the anticipated allocations for federal disaster recovery funding from 8 billion to 12 billion, with the potential to exceed 15 billion over the next few years.

Of the approximately 1500 FEMA public assistance projects, 1500 only 54 remain to be obligated.

This encompasses the more complex education, healthcare, and infrastructure projects.

In 2023 alone, more than 2.6 billion more has been obligated, marking a 138% increase compared to the funds secured in 22.

This brings the total amount of obligated funds to a little over 8.6 billion, with 3.1 billion of that already spent.

Over the next year, the territory expects about 300 projects to enter various phases of construction, generating over 500 million in spending.

Now that we have successfully convinced the federal government to obligate billions of dollars to aid in the territory's recovery.

My administration is laser focused on spending those dollars and accelerating the rebuild efforts.

Accordingly, I've looked at areas where realignment is necessary to meet this goal to propel the recovery forward.

On November 20th and 2023, the Office of Disaster Recovery executed an agreement with the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority to manage Cdbg Dr. disaster recovery programs and has already transitioned itself from under the auspices of the Housing Finance Authority to ODI.

This effort will allow the territory to accelerate the spending of HUD dollars, foster greater synergy across various projects, and boost the performance of housing programs and infrastructure infrastructure projects that have fallen behind expectations.

Specifically, this change has allowed us to adjust this strategy to the envisioned program.

Remember that we got to get those houses built faster, but we can't do it alone.

I want to thank the legislature for passing the authorization and act 8701 to establish a line of credit to provide the funds needed to advance disaster related recovery project.

Besides the $45 million loan to Wapa for acquiring the meter, appropriating terminal, 60 million of the remaining 55 has been utilized to advance other recovery projects.

As I said, the Virgin, the government of the Virgin Islands has expended over $3 billion in disaster recovery funds since Hurricane Irma and Maria Stuck in 2017.

That is an impressive and unprecedented average of 500 million in federal recovery dollars spent annually over the last six years.

Prior to the hurricanes, we had never expended that much in contracts in a single year, not even have that much.

At this pace, though, it will take us another 20 years to complete the recovery, and that's simply good enough.

Our goal is to at least double this amount and expend $1 billion a year solely in disaster recovery funds, but to get there, we cannot continue doing things the traditional way.

Frankly, we don't have enough contractors.

We don't have enough workers.

We don't have enough materials, and we don't have enough housing.

We need a significant paradigm shift.

And as a result, we are embarking on a new initiative called rebuild USVI.

We're estimating the total cost of reconstruction for the hurricanes to ultimately approach $15 billion or more, $15 billion.

That is a monumental task for any community to manage.

But we only have a workforce of 41,000 people.

Rebuild USVI is being developed to expedite the timeline for this massive reconstruction effort.

As a core strategy rebuild, USVI will group many of the top priority recovery projects into billion dollar bundles for procurement.

This initiative has three major goals one to attract some of the largest general contractors in the nation who can secure the necessary performance bonds on projects and bring resources and people to the islands.

Two to systematically resolve the logistical challenges and supply chain issues that have driven up project costs, discourage contractor interest and slow recovery efforts.

And three, to solidify manpower and capacity issues by transforming our project management office into a super project management office to coordinate high priority recovery projects and be able to have the manpower to do so.

Rebuild USVI supercharges the territory's disaster recovery to think outside the box and dispense with the bureaucracy that is simply inadequate for our progress.

The success of this initiative will allow us to launch several of our largest recovery projects simultaneously, and create an ecosystem of economic activity from the resulting construction boom.

This is the way we facilitate the transformation of a resilient Virgin Islands.

In our recovery, our parks are crucial to our successful recovery.

As any other component of our infrastructure, parks provide important venues for family friendly entertainment that promotes physical health and social well-being for our entire community.

Parks are where future stars learn their preferred sport and hone their skills.

It is where future legends like Elliott Boston and Michelle Smith are born and their stories are told.

Here's where multiple generations of Virgin Islanders can find a common joy.

This is why we have given these facilities priority in the recovery.

The Brian Roach administration is getting our people outside and back to the parks.

On Saint Croix, we are concluding repairs to the hurricane damage on Wren Hill, Jackson Park in William Kramer's Park Beach.

Rudy Krieger in Science Farm, and the Marley Beach front in Frederick Street on Saint Thomas.

Repairs are nearing completion at Emile Griffith Park.

Karen Terrace Ballpark and Joseph are being ballpark in Frenchtown and Saint John.

Repairs have been completed to the Oval basketball court and the Cruz Bay tennis courts.

A grand agreement between a grant agreement has been executed, with the Saint Thomas Cricket Association providing $1.5 million for the development of a cricket pitch and associated facilities in an estate in Nazareth.

We have issued them the first half a million and the construction has already begin begun.

I am pleased to announce that the Clinton Phipps Racetrack is, in fact, on track.

Southland Southland Gaming is honored its commitments and fulfilled its obligation.

I will be giving out the Governors Cup at Carnival races this year.

Yes.

I want to thank.

I want to thank those legislators who took the stance to support rebuilding the Clinton Phipps racetrack, and also to the owner of Southland Gaming, Mister Robert Bobby Huckaby, their senior vice president, Mr. Shane Gaspar, and my good friend Mr. Jason Chiles.

For bold leadership, because bold leadership is necessary for the progress.

And that's what we have now.

Now, I wish I could make a similar pronouncement for horse racing on the island of Saint Croix.

Although construction.

I saw crane out there moving around.

It's just begun.

Vegas simply has not made the necessary progress to return horse racing to the Big Island.

Now, my administration has taken every step necessary to bring relief to our horse racing fans.

We even went as far as giving and granting $5 million to video towards the completion of the track.

We have approved the necessarily necessary building permits and leases.

We have given concession after concession, but yet no substantial signs of progress.

Tonight, I am publicly urging via video, to make good on their commitment to this government, to our horse racing enthusiasts, on Saint Croix and to the people of these Virgin Islands.

There's simply no more concessions that can be granted.

In pursuing excellence.

Setting goals is a foundation of personal and academic growth.

The students of the Virgin Islands exemplify excellence as they strive for success.

Attention to students academic achievement and effective strategies to address learning loss resulting not only from the disruption of the 2017 hurricanes, but also the pandemic, is imperative.

However, these discussions cannot overshadow the very real concerns that our faculties and students face regarding the physical condition of our schools.

You heard me say before the straightforward to this.

The schools are just showing their edge and they become harder and harder to maintain each year.

I wish I could just magically provide brand new schools, but the real solutions require significantly more effort.

That's why we set up the new School Advisory Board to implement the Educational Facility Master Plan.

Through the help, we are now having a clear strategy for the replacement or extensive renovation of all of our school campuses.

Construction of the first FEMA funded replacement project, the new Arthur Richards K through eight school, commenced in February 2023 and is expected to be substantially completed by the spring of 26.

The first phase of the Gladys Abraham Modernization Project was completed by Custom Builders in September 23rd.

This will become the new site of the Wheatley Skill Center on Saint Thomas.

In September, solicitations were concluded, concluded for three additional school projects.

The design services for Saint Croix Central High School have been awarded to MCM build, while design services for Saint Thomas Solider Molly High School and the.

The modernization of Bertha C Bus Healthy Middle School have been awarded to the joint firm of consistently Benton.

All of these projects are scheduled to begin in 24.

Schematic designs are now being developed for Alexander Henderson Elementary School for the Marco Saint Croix Educational Complex.

The renovation of Lockard Elementary and Edith L Williams Alternative Academy.

Additionally, FEMA has also recently announced that they have obligated $133 million in federal grant funding for the rebuilding of the Julius Sprout School on Saint John.

The acquisition of the 11 acre parcel in that state.

Catherine Burke from the National Park Service finally provides us with the perfect location for the construction of this modern day campus.

After 50 years, I acknowledge the cause, the frustration and concerns of those Saint John's.

I believe that the national park has not been a good neighbor, and perhaps intruded on the quality of life of the native residents.

I understand the concerns that Saint John's have raised regarding unreasonable federal restrictions, and in some cases, the unfair treatment by the National Park.

These are issues that chickens and I have discussed directly with both president and former park superintendents of the superintendents, as well as two of the secretaries of the interior.

Both Deb Haaland and Dave Bernard together went personally with a team to see them.

I assure you, we are committed for to be advocates on behalf of the people of Saint John.

But I also listened very intently to the concerns of students and former students, talking about the experiences and the hardships of attending high school as a resident of Saint John.

I have listened to them explain the extra effort and commitment that has been required of them over the years just to go to school.

It is something that I believe we all agree needs to be addressed.

This is unfair and it puts them at a disadvantage compared to their colleagues residing on Saint Thomas and Saint Croix.

That is why we have moved resolutely and with intentionality, to resolve the issue of public high school on the island of Saint John.

That is why we have fought.

That is why we have fought to secure the investment of 133 million that FEMA is willing to provide for this effort.

That is why I'm so grateful to the leadership of this body for passing the legislation that authorize us to close this transaction.

I want to thank you, legislators, for that leadership immensely.

Together, we have written a momentous chapter in Virgin Islands history by reclaiming a critical piece of property from the National Park Service for the use and benefit of all Virgin Islanders.

Not only will we get a new school, but a third of that property will be held by the territorial park system and the balance will be used to educate the children of the Virgin Islands.

This marks the largest public sector investment ever made on the island of Saint John.

In a noteworthy, accomplished, achieved together.

I am thankful for your support, especially to Senate President Noel Francis, Junior and Senator and Hoboken's junior, for their incredible leadership.

As controversial as it may have been in 2023, history will view this as a pivotal moment in the development of improved quality of life for all our people in Saint John.

This year will also find us making a fundamental shift in the structure of the Department of Education.

We are on the verge of launching the Bureau of School Construction and Maintenance, led by an experienced and qualified Facilities Maintenance professional.

This professional will also take responsibility for construction and major maintenance from the Department of Education.

This is an initiative championed by Senator Donna Fred Gregory and passed by this body.

We we we need we must we we need to have our trained educators focus on student instruction, not building construction, but.

The key to Tournament of Success and everything we aspire to accomplish is a well-educated community.

The Virgin Islands Department of Education is actively implementing its strategic plan to enhance public education.

This plan focuses on four goals, all of them related to student achievement.

One ensuring we have quality schools.

Two fostering an effective education that produces self-sufficient adults.

Three engaging our families and for building a supportive community.

Each of our schools have developed improvement plans detailing strategies to enhance students performance.

With $250,000 allocated to each principal to facilitate that implement implementation.

That's a far cry from the $25,000 they used to get in the past.

School based teams have now been charged with closing achievement gaps and improving student outcomes through the deployment of tools like I-ready and apps with gaps.

We are putting the power of change at the school level, school based level.

The administration we remain focused on cradle to career.

The Department of Education has put extreme focus on the foundational level of pre-kindergarten through third grade to ensure that students read proficiently.

We encourage that the Smarter Balanced Assessment data reveals that third graders have not shown regression in reading and math.

Pre-K classes have been implemented in schools, and those cohorts are being closely tracked.

Moreover, the dropout rate has reduced decreased from 4.9% in 2022 to 2 point 8 in 23.

While graduation rates have actually improved from 74% to 78%.

Plans are in place to ensure that every single 12th grade student has a goal for college.

For technical school, military are prepared to meet the workplace.

Now, while we must focus our attention on the challenges confronting public education, there are always examples of great student achievement that continue to make us all proud.

Last summer, 14 students received the opportunity to study pre-law, pre-med, and business at Harvard.

Yes.

Harvard University.

William, a tire from an ebony Dora Kent High School.

One of the best business plan in the business program.

And Alondra James from Charter High School won the best prosecuting attorney in the pre-law program at Harvard.

Ten students attended Yale University summer Springboard Travel High School program with Rodney Morehead Junior under the name from the Saint Croix Educational Complex, receiving the Outstanding Award for business, and Alfred Monsanto receiving the award for Emergency Medicine.

Jeremy Bellow, the drum major at Alabama A&M and a graduate of our very own DeVante Derrick in high school, recently led the first HBCU school to participate in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan at the.

I ain't done yet.

We going to talk about the stars.

And maybe I was talking about the bottom I Ricardo Richards Elementary School.

Miss Alyssa's fifth grade scholars have been on an incredible journey of discovery by designing and building their own cars, utilizing a systematic approach to design, these young minds are bursting with excitement and enthusiasm as they delve into the world of engineering.

These are our children and they are excelling everywhere.

Throughout throughout our public school system, you can find examples of talented and dedicated teachers producing exceptional scholars.

This evening we have two of the finest examples with us.

Mr. Simeon, an Advanced Placement English literature composition teacher at Solid Molly High School who has been honored as Saint Thomas Saint John's Teacher of the year, and Mr.

Cell McConnell, a foreign language teacher and a department chair in the Foreign Language Department at the Saint Croix Complex high School, who has been recognized.

Personally.

I went to the class myself.

You should have seen it as a teacher of the year from the Saint Croix, they said.

Please join me in celebrating their awesome success, educating our kids.

I made sure I went this year to the classrooms.

I didn't want this to be the first time I met them.

Now, it's not always to do easy to do the work that you do.

And we all know the conditions are real challenging, but our best and brightest teachers persevere and find a way to be brilliant.

Every day we continue to invest in early childhood care and education projects under Head Start program, backed by 42 million in disaster recovery grants are advancing, advancing consistently in 2023 six locations Anatole Concordia, Poland, Go Limburg, Be, Minetta, Mitchell and Bay conclude ad solicitations, with work commencing in August.

Demolition is underway and completed for most of these facilities, with contractors working to complete construction of six brand new head starts this year.

Yeah, yeah, I think I know me going at me.

A large part of our continued strategy to ensure that our graduates are both college and career ready for the job.

So America's graduate program, JAG is a national nonprofit that deploys a model in 40 states, 40 states designed to keep young people in school through graduation and improve their success in education and career.

As a vice chair of the National Board of Directors, I am extremely proud of this program and the success that they have across the territory and nationwide.

We now have eight programs having doubled in size under my administration.

The Leadership Development Conference saw the participation of 186 students, 120 seniors will participate in a 12 week work based learning partnership with the Department of Labor.

The Virgin Islands has received awards for its outstanding performance for two consecutive years, highlighting the significance of investing in our students for the future.

That is what we did when we started the GBI Financial Fellows program.

We offered young people just out of college the opportunity to gain real world experience with a big paycheck, $55,000 a year.

This is a paid two year internship in the government of the Virgin Islands.

The first cohort of students graduated last year, and numerous of these graduates of the program are already finding success in permanent jobs.

Young people like the Department of Human Services financial analyst Robert Tirado in Office of Disaster Recovery financial analyst Lenny Williams.

Stand up.

Let them see who you are.

Young people.

You have to invest to get returns.

After years of people complaining about a dream bring you see our young people in.

We want to ensure that our students receive a strong start from birth, all the way through their public education journey and ready for the world.

If there's one thing I am passionate about, you know, is reading in 2024, we we began a campaign to bring our libraries library facilities back online.

We will continue to champion programs to promote latest literacy, provide flexible spaces for community engagement, and bridge the digital divide by providing easy access to online resources.

Getting so excited!

Our goal is for like all library facilities to operate at extended hours on weekends.

I'm pleased to announce this evening that after receiving 1.8 million in extensive repairs and hazard mitigation measures, the Florence Williams Library in question said is reopening in February.

To add the following, Peterson Library and Frederick said will be open at the end of this year.

On Saint John, we saw the hiring of new staff and the opening of the Elaine I own Sproul Public Library.

The Turnbull Library closed in August to undergo extensive renovation work, but the two will be open later this year.

Now, I had the pleasure of dining with the auction winner in support of Saint Kreuz Children's Museum this past December, and I was sitting there doing our dinner.

I was introduced to DPI honors newest initiative and it's called hoopla.

Hoopla is set to launch next month.

Grandly.

What is hoopla?

It hopes to bridge the digital divide by putting on Virgin Islands Public Library at the fingertips of every Virgin Island student and adult.

With just a library card.

Everyone will have access to borrow and enjoy audiobooks, e-books, comics, movies, and so much more.

And all you will need to access platform is a screen for free.

Tonight I pleased me to say that as of March of last year, the GFL North temporary hospital facility opened on Saint Croix.

This state of art $130 million facility accommodates anxious residents during demolition and reconstruction of the governor.

One F Louis Hospital.

Currently, there's still four additional projects necessary for the complete decommissioning of the former hospital.

Once completed, the demolition of existing storm dam of the existing storm damaged structure can begin.

This past May, FEMA announced that they have allocated over $800 million towards the new permanent facility.

The department of Health is currently managing more than 300 million in disaster recovery projects.

These were awarded for the rebuilding of four different facilities the women, infants and Children Center at Noon, handsome, which is complete, the Wig building in Frederick said, which is under construction.

The Charles Howard Memorial Complex, which is going through demolition, and the eelgrass shelter and mental health facility on Saint Thomas, which is in design.

We are eager to start serving our residents in these new and modern health spaces.

In 2023, after a successful battle with Covid 19, with more than 56,000 Virgin Islanders immunized and minimal loss of life, we transitioned from pandemic to endemic.

However, COVID's impact exposed longstanding health disparities, emphasizing the urgent need to fundamentally change the way health programs are delivered.

The future of public health is centered on health equity.

Predicting and preventing illnesses at the community level lessens the disease severity that will serve to reduce the economic burden of our health care most, namely the unfunded care at the hospitals.

The pandemic also pushed us into the digital age, with public health increasingly dependent on automation and integrated systems for comprehensive program and service delivery.

Today, the Department of Health and our Office of Health Information Technology are actively reimagining the public health landscape in the territory.

We are making progress in making health care more accessible to our residents.

For the first time in decades, residents in the territory have access to individual health plans from the newly admitted insurance carrier Caribbean Group.

This means an individual without belonging to an employer's group plan can get insurance.

This is sure it will offer individual private Medicare medical care insurance coverage, filling the longstanding void in the health insurance market.

We are excited about the potential for this development to reduce the uninsured population.

Lieutenant Governor Larry Roach and his staff have done an excellent work in searching for this opportunity for us.

The country the country continues to grapple with a mental health crisis exacerbated by the isolation, fears and uncertainties resulting from the pandemic.

This crisis affects us all, all our generations, but has been especially devastating to our young people.

Last year, the Department of Health stepped up its effort to address mental health concerns in the territory.

DHS held its annual Children's Mental Health Summit territory wide to engage stakeholders in developing solutions.

The Behavioral Health clinic saw 790 patients and made school presentations to more than 3800 students across the territory.

Overall, our behavioral health outreach efforts have touched over 23,000 individuals as of November 2023.

Last July, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline launched 988 as nationwide, easy to remember.

The three digit dialing code for people in crisis.

The Department of Health has implemented the 988 lifeline.

The 664 contacts were made to the line from Virgin Islanders between January and November alone.

The lifeline connects those experiencing a suicidal crisis or mental health related distress to confidential emotional support from the counselors.

The goal this year is to hire interventionists to allow for local answering of the lifeline.

The 664 contacts made to this number past made to this number this past year do not alarm you then the four confirmed suicides we had last year should never before we've seen this in the territory, but perhaps the greatest public health challenge is facing our community is the persistent epidemic of gun violence.

Tonight, we honor the memory of Detective Delbert Phipps junior, who was killed in the line of duty on July 4th last year.

We Revere his selfless sacrifice and dedication to the service and his service to this community.

Likewise, we commend all those men and women who have chosen a career in law enforcement and conduct themselves with competence and professionalism.

Last year, we added another 37 office to their rank.

We are grateful for your heroism as you keep the peace and protect our community.

Gun violence.

Gun violence is a leading cause of premature death in the U.S.. For African Americans between the ages of 15 and 24, we are witnessing individuals in our community with a complete inability to control their anger or to resolve conflicts with civility.

This is an urgent behavioral health behavioral health concern for predominantly brown and black communities like ours.

We understand the trauma, the fear and anxiety that many of our residents live with because of violent crime.

We have heard the community cries for more prevention programs and work support for our young people.

Our focus has been proactively intervening in the lives of people who are the who are most at risk of being either the perpetrators or the victims of violent crime.

The Office of Gun Violence Prevention has taken on the challenge of addressing the root causes of gun violence in our communities.

This work involves planting the seeds to facilitate the long term reduction of violence by mentoring at risk youth, conducting community activities, making presentations in our schools, and assisting individuals with getting gainful employment and getting their lives on track.

The office maximizes its effectiveness through partnerships with Project Safe Neighborhoods, the National Network for Safer Communities, various government departments, and others.

In the short term, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention conducts walk and talks on the turfs, assists parents with unruly children, and intervenes and into incidents to prevent retaliation.

This past year alone, the Office of Gun Violence intervened in at least six potential retaliatory attacks that could have led to further violence and potential homicides.

They have de-escalated numerous conflicts and prevented them from coming to violent conclusions.

It is always difficult to quantify the bad things that didn't happen, but if even one homicide was presented, isn't it worthy of our acknowledgment and our support?

Our Virgin Islands Police Department has been making substantial strides in its crime fighting capacity, thanks to a measure sponsored by Senator Dianne Capehart and passed by this body.

We will be developing a real time crime Senate center to monitor our growing network of closed circuit surveillance cameras, the use of technology and camera system has played an integral role in over 30 cases in the Virgin Islands, leading to arrests and closing vehicle accident investigations, contracts are in place to add additional cameras to our schools.

Are roadways our recreational parks to protect our people?

We also added assets on the marine front with the purchase of two renegade go fast vessels that have been in operation in Saint Croix since July.

The Saint Thomas units build out is scheduled for completion in May through the assistance of our delegate to Congress, Stacey Plaskett, the VIP has received an additional $4 million congressional appropriation for the first purchase of three more of these go fast vessels, one for each island.

As our marine industry goes.

As our marine industry grows, so should our enforcement capacity.

But a large part of our crime prevention strategy is focused on discouraging convicted criminals from re-offending.

We know that when provided with the appropriate support, previously incarcerated individuals can transform to rehabilitated citizens who contribute to our workforce.

We have partnered with Align Community Inc to ensure inmates give their wraparound services they need to be productive upon release, they will get workforce training and assistance with career placement.

In addition, they will receive mentorship and counseling and be part of a cohort whether we receive additional support from peers and professionals on their transition back into society.

This program complements the reentry program that begins in the Bureau of Corrections.

The Equine therapy program, which began last August, harnesses the therapeutic essence and our cultural love of horses.

This groundbreaking program at the John Bell Correctional Facility has witnessed its first 11 graduates, having experienced the journey of emotional healing and personal growth.

The Bureau has also collaborated with Happy Homes to unveil the first transitional home on its campus.

They actually have houses on campus and the correctional facility with two more on the way.

This is significant because sometimes when inmates are released, they don't have anywhere to go.

Second chances don't just benefit the individual.

The they benefit our entire community.

We all know when the mainland sneezes, the territories catch the cold.

The economic and social issues plaguing the continental United States are slowly creeping their way into the territory.

Our Department of Justice has tirelessly confronted many of these issues through vigorous prosecution.

Although the fight against human trafficking and sexual abuse, the proliferation of opioid abuse and tax evasion continues, the Department of Justice has demonstrated that it is up to the task.

Through its effort, the Department of Justice has secured more than $1 million in opioid settlements and judgments to combat this growing epidemic.

This will be administered through the Department of Health.

The national opioid epidemic that started in the late 90s is now an active problem in this territory.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin, heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, is a major contributor to fatal overdoses in the U.S.

Unfortunately, it is now here in the territory.

Last year, there were three confirmed deaths due to fentanyl overdoses.

Three deaths are three too many.

This month, the Division of Behavioral Health hosted a planning meeting for a territory wide opioid overdose Prevention Overdose Prevention Task force to center community engagement and address this growing crisis.

I urge each of you and our entire community to get educated on the dangers and actively discourage our family and friends from abusing fentanyl and other opioids.

We must not shy away from the ugliest parts of our community, but instead be resolute in our efforts to address them head on.

Human trafficking and sexual abuse are real and present threats to our community.

The territory has now received settlement funds resulting from human trafficking litigation, including proceeds from the sale of Great Saint James, Little Saint James and other direct funds.

These settlement funds include 20 million to support services to vulnerable disenfranchized individuals and community organizations to address social ills, including sex trafficking, human trafficking, mental health initiatives, domestic violence and poverty.

An additional 25 million will supplement prosecution and enforcement measures within the territory.

54 million will be allocated to mental health services.

Last August, legislation strengthening support for human trafficking victims, including mandatory reporting requirements, was forwarded to the 35th legislature for action.

The proposed legislation recognizes and allocates an additional 11 million specifically to be used to combat human trafficking in the territory.

Tonight, I implore this body to act on this legislation.

The roll out of legalize cannabis industry in the Virgin Islands continues to make progress.

This administration remains adamant about bringing the growth, sale and purchase of cannabis to a legal and properly regulated market.

This includes the first of its kind in the entire United States, a pathway to legal cannabis for sacramental use.

I have also recently submitted to the legislature pertinent technical amendments to 8680 to address some of the remaining issues with the existing law.

Tonight, I am pleased to announce the launch of the Cannabis Registry program, starting with the medical practitioners in Sacramento organized as being allowed to registered.

This will be followed by patient and sacramental users to begin in early April.

Additionally, just a few months ago, 50 Virgin Islanders participated in cannabis training courses, including horticultural training, extraction and manufacturing and bartending, ensuring that our community is prepared and educated to take advantage of this industry.

By early September 2024, we expect to issue the inaugural license for dispensaries cultivation and processing.

Finally, the need to ensure that everyone can participate in this new industry makes it work.

Of the Auto Expungement Task Force vital, the task force has been assembled and is working meticulously to expunge the criminal records of those who were previously convicted, convicted of simple possession and other other related marijuana statutes.

We are utilizing the best practice from the experience of other U.S jurisdictions to develop this industry in the right way, since the creation of the Supreme Court in 2006, we have been served by three exceptional justices as part of the continued growth of our Virgin Islands judiciary.

Tonight, I wish to announce my intention to add another exceptional jurist to their ranks by nominating the Honorable Harold Wilcox to be a justice of the Virgin Islands Supreme Court.

Judge Wilcox is no stranger to the bench and the judicial community.

After serving more than two terms as a judge in the Superior Court, his prior public service includes previously serving as the presiding judge of the Superior Court, Chief Public Defender, and Assistant Attorney General.

Judge Wilcox is a consummate public servant, published author, and son of the soil.

I'm confident that he will be a wonderful addition to the Supreme Court as an astute and deliberative justice.

Last year, the Virgin Islands Housing Authority completed the renovation of 82 public housing units, and while time had Pavilion and Fenwick said some of those units had been abandoned since 2020 years.

This is the first phase of the eventual renovation of 248 units at that site.

The total project represents over $116 million being invested in upgrading affordable housing.

In Frederick Stead.

Large infrastructure projects like these are important drivers of economy.

Not only does it man doesn't, not only does it provide much needed affordable housing in the territory, but it also provides substantial employment for our people.

People like us.

They sold as a laborer, and Billy Navarro, a laborer, now apprentice as heavy equipment mechanic.

Both the residents of this community and both are employed by the prime contractor, Jay Benton construction.

We are tireless in our homeownership for Virgin Islanders and in our pursuit of opportunities.

We continue to promote our VA slice program via a slice of the gap financing program administered by the EDA that helps eligible Virgin Islanders buy, build and renovate their first home.

It provides grants, not loans grants of up to $200,000 for the purchase of construction of a home, and up to $100,000 for down payment and closing costs.

Since the program's launch in October 22nd, the Vida has executed a member of agreement with six local mortgage lenders.

Two of those lenders, Banco Popular to Puerto Rico and Merchants Commercial Bank, are offering constructions loan loans today.

A slice has helped nine local families in the US Virgin Islands purchased their first home, seven have closed on Saint Croix and two closed on Saint Thomas.

As of December, there are 147 applications for Homeowners Assistance Fund mortgage program funded with $8.5 million from Arpa.

The housing Finance Authority paid out 918,000 in direct assistance to 70 qualified households.

These funds provided relief for homeowners who experience financial hardship during the pandemic and were used for mortgage reinstatement, mortgage payments, mortgage principal reduction, cases of foreclosure, delinquent property taxes and insurance, just to name a few.

We are steadfast in helping Virgin Islanders achieve and keep the goal of homeownership.

The Revital ization of our downtowns is a passionate goal of this administration.

Last year, we were encouraged and helped tremendously by the private sector.

Whether it was Chris Pardo or Peter Silky and Christian, said Shamari Morehead or John Alexander in Frederick Said, or Charles Kim or Cohen or Pastor Swaney and Charlotte O'Malley.

Our private partners are stepping up.

We continue to support their investments by installing modern infrastructure and public amenities that help sustain commercial activity.

We remain dedicated to the ongoing enhancements to our towns and the surrounding areas.

We successfully completed road rehabilitation, drainage and safety improvements on all roads in, Frederick said.

Except for King, Queen and strand, those three streets will finally be addressed.

This year, with federal highway funds finally eliminating the images of flooding streets with heavy rains, Christian said, has undergone extensive modernization of its underground utilities in the last few years.

Walker completed the replacement of his waterlines in 21.

Most recently, the Waste Management Authority completed a considerable upgrade of its wastewater system that upgrades solve many issues we have experienced over the years, with clogged sewer lines and overflowing manholes running sewer into the streets.

Unfortunately, the constant excavation in the area has left the Christians that rose in admittedly terrible condition.

However, we must be reminded that progress is disruptive and a period of disruption is necessary to make way for prosperity to a resilient and modern infrastructure.

We have to dig up a few roads.

Having said that, the Department of Public Works is standing by with the contract in place to begin the full repair and pavement of Queen market, Prince East and Hill streets in question said as soon as this wastewater project is complete.

In Solid Amalia, another longstanding project is coming to fruition.

The overall design for Veterans Drive two way is in final design review stages by the Federal Highway Administration, as the 2022 Department of Transportation Raise Grant.

This project is one of 42 projects nationwide selected to expedite processing to ensure that the notice to proceed occurs this year.

That's the highway that comes around the legislature and connects to Veterans Drive.

Now, it has been a consensus for quite some time that the key to restoring our vitality to our downtowns is to restore residential living to the town's truly creating live, work and play spaces.

Unfortunately, many of the residential structures within our towns that formerly house some of our founding and most prominent families are now abandoned and dilapidated.

While there is a shortage of properties available for home buyers and renters, we have hundreds of homes across the territory sitting in disrepair, some admittedly beyond the point of repair.

If we can successfully address those properties that are being neglected, it will not only remedy the blighted condition of our towns and our neighborhoods, but it would also help reduce the cost of residential rental rates throughout the territory.

That is why earlier today, my office submitted to this body the Brian Roach administration proposal for addressing abandoned and derelict buildings in our towns and neighborhoods.

This proposal is rooted in a property conservatorship model that is designed to remedy blight while protecting communities from the ill effects of gentrification.

And let me say that again.

If we wanted to take the properties, we could they owe taxes on them.

We want to keep it in our families, to protect our communities from the ill effects of gentrification.

In developing this proposal, we have gathered public and private stakeholder input.

We have public town hall meetings and both district.

Finally, after presenting the concept, we continue to gather public comments until a final draft proposal was prepared.

I want to thank all the engaged residents who took the time and effort to read the draft and proposal, and formally submit comments.

There were good comments, but the proposal now stands before the proposed proposal, now before the Senate reflects broad input and consensus on an approach tailored to meet our community's needs and concerns.

But before this proposal was even publicly distributed, there were attempts to politicize the matter with misinformation and fear mongering.

Some attempted to put a cloud of suspicion over the proposal and build opposition for the sake of opposition.

However, buried in all of that noise was a real and legitimate concerns regarding potential gentrification of Virgin Islanders being dispossessed of their properties.

I heard that I heard those concerns loud and clear.

I also heard from Virgin Islanders who own property or have property in their families that they would appreciate seeing it restored.

Those who want to do right by the property they have inherited, those who know their siblings will never agree on a path forward or the absentee property owners unconcerned and oblivious to the condition of the property back home.

All of these voices were heard, considered, and ultimately resulted in the proposal, which is now before the legislature.

Someone suggested that this matter is too controversial and complex to successfully build consensus.

I disagree.

We are motivated to solve a problem that is becoming increasingly obvious and persistent.

It's not just a matter of the properties being held up in probate.

Even when ownership is free and clear, we have property owners who are unable or unwilling to prevent their properties from falling into disrepair.

We must find a way to help those property owners help themselves.

Nothing.

Nothing is too complicated is so complicated that cannot be simplified by hard work.

The Honorable Vern had said it, and I believe it.

So, senators, let's get to work on solving the problem of abandoned and neglected derelict buildings in our towns and in our neighborhoods.

I look forward to the legislative hearings to come.

If you need me to come down here, I'm ready to stand by to we stand ready to testify on our proposal and work along with you to develop the best solution for our people.

On July 3rd.

We celebrated the 175th anniversary of the emancipation of enslaved Africans and their descendants in the Danish West Indies.

The Emancipation Commemoration Commission organized a yearlong observance of the events and implications of that historic occasion.

I want to thank the Commission's chair, Carol Burke, Senator Khalid Joseph, and the other commission members for ensuring that all residents of this Virgin Islands acknowledge this critical and momentous part of history and the evolution of our people.

We have certainly come a long way since 1848.

Many of us are the descendants of enslaved Africans that resided right here in the Danish West Indies, on the United States mainland or elsewhere in the Caribbean.

As a people predominate of color, we have progressed tremendously from the inhumane, cruelty and unforgivable sin of chattel slavery.

In fact, we may have progressed so far over the years that we now take some of those gains for granted.

There was a time in these islands when education opportunities for people of color were limited.

That is why I am worried that our residents are not capitalizing on the opportunity for a free college education.

Free college education being provided at the University of the Virgin Islands.

There was a time when people of color did not own property.

Each successive generation of residents of these islands strived to make property ownership much more attainable.

That is why it is heartbreaking to see some property owners demonstrate an absence of pride by allowing their properties to become overgrown or filled with trash.

There was a time when our ancestors were not valued.

That is why I'm concerned that we associate, we associate with and enable violent criminals who similarly placed little value on life.

There was a time when we did not have the right to elect our leaders.

They were selected for us.

So I have grown uneasy that too many of us enjoy the spectacle of politics, but never personally get involved in making this community better for ourselves and our neighbors.

We we have certainly earned the right, through many years of struggle, to choose to have a callous disregard for history and the sacrifices of our ancestors.

But I think we all know that if that becomes our collective choice, then it doesn't bode well for our future.

The government certainly has a role to play, and as government leaders, we must see to the well-being of all Virgin Islanders.

But that does not absolve us from doing our part as individuals.

From my first state of the territory address to this present moment, I remain very optimistic about the future of these islands.

I firmly believe luck is when opportunity meets preparedness.

Over the last few years, our preparedness has met the opportunities leading us to positive outcomes and benefits.

And while we are making great progress and keeping the promises we made to the people of the Virgin Islands, we are still constrained by our resources.

As a result, that progress has required difficult decisions.

Whether you're the head of your household or the head of state like me, leadership requires setting priorities and making uncomfortable but prudent decisions to save the grossest them from insolvency.

We have had to forgo the revenues generated by the rum excise cover over, and the capital projects they funded.

To keep the costs of electricity manageable, we had to forego additional road repairs to catch up on the back of a log of income tax refunds.

We have had to live with a less than ideal budget for facility maintenance.

However, those sacrifices, however, through those sacrifices, our commitment has always been and will continue to be to provide the best possible quality of life for Virgin Islanders and to create abundant opportunities for Virgin Islands prosperity.

Senators, we may not always see eye to eye, but I trust we share a common vision for our community.

Let us work together to connect our people with opportunities that are being produced right here at home.

Together, let's promote responsible citizenship, build stronger families, cultivate a thriving economy, and transform our infrastructure.

Let us continue to be resolute in our pursuit of progress for this territory moving forward.

One step at a time.

God bless you and God bless the Virgin Islands.

Love you.

So.

Please remain in place until the governor leaves the chamber.

Thank you very much, governor.

For your presentation on the state of the territory this evening.

God bless you as well.

Please be seated.

Right now, we are witnessing the departure of Lieutenant Governor Corrigan's approach.

His mother and Senator Carla Joseph is escorting the both of them.

I know on the campaign trail, many refer to Mrs. Roach as Mama Roach.

And, she is always a mainstay and a fixture at her son's side at these events as they're being escorted out of the well.

We are outside.

You're seeing folks from outside of the chambers, and the governor's security is there, and both vehicles are prepped and awaiting their departure to the post state of the territory reception that is taking place at Fort Christian.

Well, briefly, initial thoughts on the governor's speech.

I felt like I've heard a lot of it before.

I just listen to it.

I feel like we're just in this wilderness.

We're led to where we think we're going to get out, and then it's whoops, you got to turn back around.

It's like a journey that, according to the governor, was supposed to take us maybe two years.

Now we're into his sixth year and we're still right where we are.

Not one school have been built.

I've heard a lot of what he's what he said tonight.

He said before just using different words.

Very interesting for some exciting things.

Okay.

When we get into the panel.

Yeah.

Like I was excited to hear about the potential that the not insured.

Yes.

Right.

Have an avenue that they can now get health insurance because that is so yes.

I think that was one of the most significant parts of the speech will come back to you.

Mr. Hodge, initiate initial thoughts on, the governor speech.

I thought it was comprehensive, as can be expected.

It's not possible to speak on every subject matter.

Oh, like, the former US president said we'd be here till morning.

Right.

But but we did get, a good overview of the some of the things I wanted to hear about.

I got a feel for where he's going with energy.

Got a feel for the economy, obviously, where we are with with the unemployment rate being 3.3% or whatever below the national average, which is some more of the indicator, like the GDP growth is what I was looking for as well.

I anticipated a spike after Covid given that we opened our borders for everyone else.

So seeing where we are in relation to that was a good indicator for me as well.

So there's a lot of things that did come out in the in the address that I wanted to hear, and I'm sure we can dive into a little deeper as we move through tonight.

Sure.

Attorney Saint John, one of the things the governor tempered his economic sure is, let's call it that with was that there are still some headwinds that we have to, to make it through.

What do you think?

What did you think about that particular analogy?

That while we're good, there's still some bumps in the road that we're going to come up on?

Well, I appreciate his honesty.

Right.

He could have come in and just put fluff, and try to argue, you know, that things are all great and peachy, but he was honest.

And he said, look, a lot of our numbers are down, right?

Revenue collection is down, hotel rooms are down.

Flights to the territory down.

And so I appreciate that.

I like that he focused in on some of that.

I would I like to see a little bit more detail.

For example, when you mentioned unemployment rate, you can't mention that without mentioning the labor force participation rate.

Right.

How many people have left after the census?

Things like that, to really give it context.

Because if you're saying on the one hand, we're not paying vendors and on the other hand, unemployment is record low, that doesn't make sense because you're not paying vendors.

People are getting laid off.

So I'd I'd like to see a little more elaboration.

But overall, he touched on the exact issues that that we wanted to address, especially the roads, which affects, economic transactions as well.

So that was very important that he had a plan to fix the roads regarding Christians, that because a lot of people wanted to hear that.

Senator Richards, to Attorney Henry's point, I almost felt like having read a couple of these that, there's a template that's being used, in terms of the order that things were spoken about.

Did you get that that feeling at all?

Well, I thought I heard it before, but I think I'm more and more importantly there.

And I want to, to make this, caveat since I did, make that statement, prior to us going to the, to the live, broadcast of Governor Brand's speech where I, made mention of, at times we tend to focus on what the governor did not talk about in comparison to what he talked about.

And I don't want the impression to be left that anyone's impression, opinion, or feeling about what should have been talked about is not important.

But the mere fact that he didn't talk about it is indicative of what the governor's priorities are.

And so that, in the governor's on speech is, his priorities remain consistent over the past 4 or 5 presentation.

What a night.

He has successfully, achieve the goals, objectives and priorities that he has identified on his own through his speeches on behalf of his administration is, something that we will be able to to discuss in detail because I think, although all of us, don't have a bird's eye view of the situation, all of us do have the opportunity to experience and to see what is actually going on within our community.

And I think the responses from our community, our citizenry, speaks clearly about what were the problems that, that they are experiencing and the emotions, are no longer just emotions or feelings.

They have now become emotions of experiences.

I, the governor, ended up his, presentation with, with a little phrase that I just, want to turn it backwards a little bit.

He says, for me, I turn it backwards.

In fact, opportunities do in fact exist.

And I'm turning back what he said.

But it's evident that a lack of preparedness also exists.

And this is what people are, facing, because we have a large volume of opportunity where, the financial resources of the federal government, the ability to, to mold, our labor force and to engage our younger people, all that opportunity exists.

Whether or not we have taken advantage of that opportunity is what is of question in his presentation this evening.

I think, to your point, what happens on these panels sometimes, with political pundits in general, we try to show our breadth and knowledge of a subject matter by saying, oh, agriculture didn't get covered enough, which in this speech I didn't hear a mention of agriculture.

And given the importance of food security, I think that's what happens.

But you make some very valid points.

In fact, in the speech, the one area where I did hear preparedness, well, there were two technically, preparedness for industry, he talked about his cannabis legislation and the fact that they will be moving to finally admit practitioners in April.

And the fact that 50 Virgin Islanders went away, received training.

And he spoke of the various areas that they receive training in to be prepared for the industry.

Now, if you take that approach, what I would have loved to have heard and even in previous state of the territories, especially after the storms, we know we have to rebuild.

So who are we sending to get, construction management certified?

Project management certified?

We should have been doing this from 2017 2018.

The Heavy Equipment Operator certification, the CDL licenses to drive the heavy equipment and all those things that come with rebuilding and the economy.

Those are the programs that should have been in the University of the Virgin Islands in our schools.

I mean, some of them exist now, yes, but that education where, you know, it's great to hear 50 Virgin Islanders went away and got certifications in cannabis.

Fantastic.

But that doesn't rebuild an economy.

And I think that, that level of preparation is what and this is doesn't all fall on governor O'Brien's plate.

But that is where we should have been thinking as a territory.

And I remember being on the radio speaking with Governor Map, let's send our children away from now, because we know it's going to take some time for this money to be spent.

We know it's going to take some time for this recovery, but are we any more prepared now than we were in September of 2017?

And that's the question.

Just a just a quick clarity.

And that I'm not just advocating the, the disbursement of our young people out to the territory for training because we we should find some way to incorporate the majority of the training within our existing structure and system money.

Why do we have book in, in public schools?

Sure.

If we can find a way for contractors to include our vocal students who should be studying, the the principle of, plumbing, machinery, electrical, electricity with all these homes that are in need of repairs.

And so now that is something that I think that we're lacking of how to best utilize existing resources in comparison to the because we send our training when they get good experience and good offers at home.

I mean, abroad, they're not coming back home.

One of the things, Attorney Saint John, that the governor mentioned, I think is so essential, the housing.

I want to talk specifically about housing.

Attorney Saint John, what did you hear that gives you optimism for the future about housing?

Because we cannot return our people to a place where they cannot afford to live.

Well, you're absolutely right.

I have many young professional colleagues who refuse to return home because in part of a lack of housing, I would have liked to see a little bit more discussion of quality of life issues.

Such as?

Such as housing.

Housing is a major one.

You want to know how you develop housing in the territory, you grow the economy, you invite the big tech firms here, you invite the big, professional firms, the Walmarts, the the targets.

You know, you get people here to corporate offices.

Guess what?

Soon enough, the private sector is going to build that condo.

You don't need to do anything.

You don't need to invite them.

Grow the economy.

The private sector is going to see an opportunity to make money.

And those condos are going to sprout right up, grow the economy, grow the tax base.

The housing will follow the solar initiative and the federal funding that's available for the territory.

One of the most interesting pieces of this speech to me was the fact that the governor announced that the, Energy Office is in the process of applying for 100 million, $100 million for solar on individual homes, especially low income individuals.

What does that mean for the finances of Wapa?

Earlier on, you talked about the government, the government subsidizing Wapa through the last year plus and still subsidizing Wapa to make sure that, you know, the rates didn't get increase.

We all know that when people come off the grid and they're not paying a whopper bill anymore, the finances of the authority are hurt adversely.

What does this mean and where is the equilibria we'll have to reach?

Because yeah, it's great to hear that news.

And I'm going to look into that program.

We know the president just passed a of solar stimulus program federally, but how is that going to affect the water and power authority?

The bottom line is that the old model of the of the electric system, that's, our radio system of that centralized plat is no more.

I've been given a speech on on the change and the morph of, of power systems for about 6 or 7 years now, and the day is coming.

So Wapa has to change this model.

The current model is not going to be sustainable as the people that can afford to pay the bill the most come off the grid.

You still have fixed costs and you spread that amongst those who can least afford the better bill.

It's calling our industry the debt spiral.

So what has to happen is the centralized grid has to go away, has to become more, areas of of centralized or decentralized energy and more more of a, less of a distributed system.

It's going to happen because customers have no access to, to solar and different mechanisms that make their own systems more efficient and more affordable.

The price of solar has come down.

Yep.

The price of battery storage has come down.

You're able to build your own systems, and I plan the governor's plan now speaks to the largest bogey out there.

The issue you have had for many years is that everybody keeps touting solar for rooftops.

What?

You have a home ownership rate less than 50%.

So if you have over 50% of renters and lessors, then they don't get access to rooftop solar.

But this plan is being put in place right now.

Has community solar in it.

It has put in plans out in the fields.

And, a renter can own one piece of that and affect their power.

Bill, that's a game changer.

This allows every citizen to get a piece of the pie and access to the green energy and and energy, sustainable energy and energy independence.

So it's going to it's going to require whatever that whopper the Whopper is, is ahead of the thinking.

And that's what I was going to ask you, because one of the things the governor said in every state of the territory and on the campaign trail is that he is committed to fixing Wapa.

My question is, is the fix and the solution for problems that exists today, or is the fix on the solution going to be for the dynamics you speak about, which is probably going to be implemented in 7 to 10 years from now?

That's the question.

I would say most what I have to get ahead of where it's going.

It's like Kodak, you can't sit down there and continue to make film where everybody's going digital.

You've got to get ahead of it and and moving that digital form and what, what has to get out of the model that it has right now.

It has to get more of a decentralized system.

And it has to it should be playing a role as the leading agency.

The way the government is speaking about, if you lead it and you're the one installing, putting in these systems, maintaining these systems, you have sustainable you viability, right?

But if you are behind, you don't attorney.

Henry, I'm going to come back to you, but we'd like to hear from those of you watching us on channel 12, streaming this broadcast on Facebook, or listening to us on the radio at FM 93.1.

Give us a call now at (340) 718-3339.

That's 340718333 naught.

And share your thoughts on the Governor's State of the territory address now to your area of specialty, the the environment DNR.

I thought it was very interesting that one of the most, we talked about building permits that changing, building permits that we've seen year over year.

The governor touted that as a strong economic indicator.

That was all that was good to hear.

It is at least good to know that we're going to be steady in terms of private development.

And for all intents and purposes, it seems like the economy of construction will continue on the commercial and residential side within the territory.

But one of the things I consider to be interesting, I might be boring to people, is this hoopla program that he discussed that will give Virgin Islanders access to books through their library card.

Are you familiar with the hoopla system?

As a former commissioner of the department?

And what do you think about the, library system in the territory right now?

Well, I know that this is the plan that we were looking to initiate under the previous administration.

We weren't calling it hoopla, but when you look at states, when they able to, for example, say we have a library collection of over a million books, the reason why they able to see that is because it's a system where they are able to collaborate among their counties and, and the various jurisdiction to have a system that if you have a library card in at one library, you can utilize it throughout the system.

And we were looking to, merge, if you will, the University Library System, DPI Honors Library System, and the Department of Education's library system into one system where people were able to utilize the entire Virgin Islands library system.

And it seems to me that this is what hoopla is trying to do.

So I think it's an excellent idea.

Especially I think that a lot of students this is now over on the Saint Thomas side, still have issues with accessing the Charles Turnbull Library based on where it's at.

We've been able to get bus service there to, to to accommodate students a little bit more.

But we know that the library, at least when I was there, was able to shift the hours to 6:00 and the goal was to continue to move it along, to have it open more in the evening so parents can come and participate with their children.

So to me, a system like this, you can go to Uvi.

That has better hours, but still be able to access books that Uvi may not have, but they might be at DPI Honors Public Library system.

So I think it's an excellent idea.

I just, if you may, I agree with with what?

Mr. Hodge was talking about energy security.

I think it's just it's so important, Leslie, in that one of the things that we have done very well is be the leaders in the this concept of residential, having a system.

It has saved us over and over again, especially during hurricane to remember in Puerto Rico.

They didn't even have water to drink.

Yeah, but a lot of us still had access to water through our system.

Our systems.

We're going to talk about water and the governor's comments on the water crisis here in Saint Croix in a second.

But we have a retired educator on the line from the island of Saint Croix.

So let's go to that individual.

Good evening.

You're on the air, caller.

Good evening.

Good evening sir.

Yeah, this is Basil Williams, retired educator on the island of Saint Croix.

Thank you for calling, sir.

And I just want to emphasize the need for us to pay more attention to education at this time.

And, sir, I absolutely agree.

In fact, we were just talking about the library and access, and I wanted to tie it in to our standardized test scores in the territory.

And the fact that I'm learning is so important.

I'm also at UVA instructor.

And it's appalling.

The numbers that we see as a relates to students entering UVA.

I that are not prepared for college level mathematics and English language.

And, we could talk all day long and all night long about different things and in the realm of economics.

But if you would go back to education.

Yes.

I don't feel that there's a serious effort to mitigate the deficiencies we have seen in the educational system.

We need to drop everything and talk about education and do something about our educational struggles, because it's scary.

I've been in the system for 30 years.

I'm still in the system, at the college level.

And it's not unusual for the Vo and some other school to also, have to take skills courses at the university.

I've heard that, sir, and I absolutely believe you.

And it's so your your call is actually perfect timing because I was going to segue our library conversation into education, reading and standardized test scores.

So I appreciate your call.

Okay.

Finally, more troubling is that because of the lack of opportunities locally, the ones that are doing well tend to relocate.

And, well, the ones that are struggling tend to be, and, you know, I have no choice but to stay and therefore we end up having a population of essential employers that may be left unprepared.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much for your call, sir.

You have a great evening.

Thank you for calling into the program.

Senator Richard, to the caller's comments, I saw you shaking your head and you might even know, our UVA instructor that that that called and what what are your thoughts?

Well, we both grew up an up on the hill.

In fact, I said, you know, in between the graveyard and Hospital Street, but, Principal Williams, hit the nail on the head and that was what I was, making reference to earlier when I was speaking about, opportunities and putting more focus into the education.

At that point, I, we use vocational education as an example of how best to make sure that we prepare students within our school system in comparison to setting them a few of them away for some training, and a few of them may come back or may come back, but the majority are still, left within the structural system that we have.

It is I'll be quick on short.

To the point on, Principal Williams position is, fundamental in my mind.

Correct.

If we're not educating and that means not only the formal education and training and preparation of our human resources, our manpower.

Yeah.

To maintain what we would like to, refer to as our Virgin Islands.

Boom.

Now we are in great trouble.

And so even the economy, as you mentioned, any one of those items.

We have to do something about that.

Hugo, I'll come to you.

I see you wanting to add something to that conversation.

The education thing I can talk about all night, because it's a passion for me.

But let's go to this caller from Saint Thomas.

Caller.

Good evening.

You're on the air.

Good evening.

Good evening.

His phone.

Good evening, good evening, good evening.

Be good to you.

Thank you, Mr.

Governor.

You know, intelligently more than me.

What bother me?

You know what bothers me a lot here?

You know, Livingston grows over 40 years, you know, I mean, but in a West school, it was a you watch you graduate the same time and not as gone.

Henry.

Well, many years.

The crime in the village.

Violence is outrageous.

You talk too much.

That, I mean, I mean, I mean, it's like every time you look at somebody shooting the ball over the years of that, that somebody don't get shot.

I mean, I mean, where are we going to make a change in this in this group?

I mean, they've been down in the 70s and 80s.

The crime was never like that, never like that before.

Well, you do I did with the bent on a Long Island and I take him in a lot of different places.

I think what have been done for me for the time I you because you see the police ever everybody is it no matter Donald I did not you know, that's just the police problem.

I mean, what are we going to do?

Okay.

Are we going to do let me have the panel address that.

Thank you so much for your call.

Education and Cramer, cousins, brother and sister.

If we don't address our education issues, you know, all the I think almost every one of our issues in this territory stems from education.

Education is the foundation of it all.

Go ahead.

You go.

We must take a step back.

Do we have an erosion of the family structure?

Oh, yeah.

And the family structure.

Erosion plays a role in everything we're speaking about.

The school system has their role, but the household has their role as well.

And many times we go in this conversation about crime, about education and all of these kin topics, and we don't go back to the root cause.

I'm an engineer by trade and in engineering school we learn to do root cause analysis.

And when I look at what's happened to the home structure and I know what came from it as far as education, as far as what we put up with, with what our kids bring into the house when we were growing up, you couldn't bring in a bracelet from somebody that was outside your parents that you take advice.

Absolutely.

I didn't buy it for you.

But now we have an erosion of what's taking place, and we're putting all the onus on the government.

The government has their role and a significant role at that.

But we have to accept our role and how we fix this society.

Absolutely.

That's a great point that you make.

To Mr. Hodge's point, Attorney Saint John, the we didn't hear about programs for that type of social building.

In, in the speech.

And again, up to Senator Richard's point, we don't like to harp on what wasn't said.

But if you're going to reverse engineer programs, since you go as an engineer and get to the root cause, I think that we're hitting on points that, we see the manifestations of this daily.

And, some people may feel it almost it's fluff or individuals that are policy makers might view these things as fluff, but to the point, Mr. Hodge, me, your first teachers are in your household.

Your mother and father are essentially your first teachers.

And when we have parents that don't put enough value on education, that teacher could work as hard as they want, be as innovative as they want.

If what is happening in the classroom is being reprogramed or on program at home, or not supported at home, you're not going to see the level of progress and students that you need to see.

And if, to our point about reading, if the love of reading and a thirst for learning in general doesn't come from that home originally teacher could try to do what they want.

It's not going to work.

What do you think about that?

Yeah.

So I actually served as a prosecutor, historically, and I got a chance to work with a lot of the young men, in the community.

And one of the points that I always saw, I mean, sometimes I would see a juvenile come in and say, man, this juvenile is something's wrong with this kid.

And I thought he was bad.

And I till I saw the mother working, and I and I say this to say that I never saw almost never saw fathers.

So that was completely didn't happen.

So going to the point of the of the family being completely getting, gotten rid of in our, in our community, I think that's on point.

We have to revert back to the nuclear family.

It's probably too late to do that.

I don't know how you reverse engineer a time right after somebody grown.

You can't just pass a law to reinstate the family unit that it didn't have.

I agree that with the caller that there's been a lot of crime.

I think the nature of crime is changing.

I think crime is becoming a little more flagrant.

People are gunning down police officers.

Well, the governor, they said there's a lot of angry young men in this territory when talking about crime and how we resolve our conflict resolution.

He mentioned the Office of Gun Violence and the fact that they have intervened in violent crimes, which is good to hear.

He mentioned six incidences of retaliatory crime in the last year, that he knows for a fact that the officers intervene and help to resolve, which is great.

He also spoke about YRC essentially being an overpriced babysitting service.

That's a word that words that he use, to demonstrate that it is no longer effective.

What I didn't hear was a thorough alternative to YRC, but we have some callers, so let's go to them.

Caller good evening.

You're on the air.

Yes, I'm good evening.

I was just given a call that's wanting to find out what's the process of the the sadness excuse me, of the envision program, because, we have elderly people that have been trying to get their roofs done and their homes.

And here is the hurricane of 2017.

Okay.

I'll have, a member of the panel try to address that program.

That's a good question.

I didn't hear very much about the invasion program, so, I, I'm hearing laughing at you, but with you, because, the point that I was making is that, those things that this state of the territory address did not address by the government, those things that they clearly understand, not being done and have not been prioritized.

I mean, the the education.

And I wanted to chime in on this, subject matter of, families in regards to, to, to, to us, sitting in the pew but not in the pulpit and speak to the, the, the fact that, the problems that we have with our children is because of a family, but it's not because of the family that we have prior to it.

What we have is a society, yes, and a structure that has not been designed to enhance and utilize the family structure that we knew of prior to being brought here, and the family structure that we knew of in our early 50s, 60s.

And so that has diminished.

And so we have a system of, of materialism.

Capitalism.

I before you let's one up each other another collective system of how best do we utilize it?

And we back to, to what principle we want to talking about it starts with education.

Yeah.

You look at, school size.

We've we've now we move, to a, which is junior high school, which was set in a community and based to do with a particular community center, supposedly to put it in the center, the island, move it out of that community structure.

We had gone breaking and we so started.

But the point I'm making is that schools have to be come a part of the community of where they're at.

And and I'm speaking from experience, I've been and PTA is for for every single school that my daughters went to here on Saint Croix.

I, I've worked with, putting together USVI Parent Teacher Students Association as the coordinator for that whole effort.

So that could be part of the National PTA.

But we have to find some way to have the involvement.

And all of us are not the same.

So all the mothers and other fathers and other parents are not going to be saying, but we have to find some way to build them up so that they could be also part of this community.

I believe we may have a member of the legislature on the line.

Good evening, caller, you're on the air.

Hi.

Good evening.

I thought you kind of identified Gregory.

Good evening.

Senator.

Thank you for calling into the program.

Okay.

What are your initial thoughts on what you heard from the governor?

State of the territory address.

And what for?

You stood out the most?

Covered, the economy, roads, the disaster recovery, education, health care, spoke on crime and gun violence, touched on housing.

You're breaking up a little bit, Senator.

Your reception is a little bit off.

Can you hear me?

No.

Yes, I can hear you.

Could you hear me better?

Yes.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

So it was very, One of the things that definitely stood out is the discussion around where are we going with the economy and the fact that, we, we see the, jobs come online in 2023?

We had an increase in building permits.

And then we didn't.

So until we've seen the rebuilding in new hotels in, Saint Thomas in particular, this my hope that we will see the revenues come in as a result of, you know, those projects, we should see an uptick in our economy.

We see that in the beginning of this year, 2020, seeing that increase in the, in our revenues over the last fiscal year at the same time.

So that was encouraging.

But we have to continue to push in order to ensure that we continue to see the, the uptick in our revenues.

What what is of concern to me, and it remains a concern is our ability to move our disaster projects along.

His importance.

He did share with us his plan, to move those disaster projects along.

He didn't really think that would come online, but I'm looking forward to seeing that because it's a component that's tied to our fiscal year 24 budget.

So the expectation is that, I didn't hear that, the the, the, the, demolition of the Marley High School, which is very important to us as, you know, in this particular district.

But we did hear that they was live in Saint Croix.

So there's a lot there's a lot of work going on.

But my primary focus is how do we ensure that we are able to, you know, cover our resources, our expenses, rather to support the initiatives that we passed in our 2024 budget.

So I'm looking, with regards to Wapa in particular, to the chair that there's a lot of, projects that's coming along the wind power project, the solar, the solar power system project.

He was definitely short on not sharing when we would be able to see the some, level of reduction in our utility expenses.

So I'm looking forward to working with the administration so we can really bring a lot of these things to fruition.

He did close by saying, look, in order for us to get these things done, we have to work together as a, as a virgin island, the Virgin Islanders as Virgin Islands leaders.

So I'm looking forward to definitely working with the governor and his team to ensure that we are able to get a lot of these things done.

There were things that were promised last time that, you know, we didn't really see, that there were some funds set aside for the purposes of, of, of, be moving each of us highway, Senator, you're, breaking up a little bit.

Hello?

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, I'm going to what I'm going to do is we have some other callers, and I think we got the gist.

Unfortunately, your transmission wasn't 100%, but we got most of what you were saying.

Okay.

Thank you.

Brett.

What what matters here is that we work together collectively to get these things done.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

I think that's a demonstration of one of the frustrations that Virgin Islanders have been dealing with in terms of our infrastructure, our communication infrastructure in the, in the 21st century.

But we have another member of the legislature, we believe on the air.

And we'll like to try to get them out.

Caller.

Good evening.

You're on the air.

Yes.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Yes.

I'm calling about the water situation.

Okay, then.

Go ahead.

Sir, you're on the air.

Okay.

Good evening.

My name is Everette Goodwin.

I live in.

Go ahead.

You ever take a shower in rusty water?

I thought I. Yeah, I took a shower in rusty water last night in Glen.

Rusty.

Rusty water.

The water was turned off in two days.

I was using my system.

I got I turned it over to water.

Water?

Right.

How?

Clear water was stated to me by my sister.

Yes.

Well, I turn on the waffle water, wake in the shower.

To my surprise, when out caught my eye.

You don't want to see the water, so let me let you.

Rusty, let me ask you a quick question, though, as it relates to the governor's state of the territory address on what he said regarding water, were you, what what what were your impressions?

What did you think about what the governor had to say?

I actually I didn't get a part, I'll be honest with you.

I didn't I didn't hit upon.

Okay.

What we're trying to discuss what was specifically, in the speech.

But at the panel, he did mention the water situation on Saint Croix.

So I'd like to take that conversation to members of the panel, if you don't mind.

Okay, okay.

But I'm the same.

We're okay.

Before you go.

Yes?

Can I carry I born to water.

Can I take it to tomorrow?

I would recommend you finding a lab, perhaps in the phone book that you could get it tested at.

And that's the best recommendation.

Or you may contact the Department of Planning and Natural Resources and see what information they could give you about testing and the content of your water.

Okay, one more question.

Where does the seal for us reside?

I don't know that, sir, and I can answer that question for you, but have a great evening and thank you for your call.

The water situation.

During the speech we were discussing what the governor said and, specifically and I don't have the text in front of me, but it didn't sound like there was a crisis.

And essentially he said that.

What were your what was your take on that?

Well, regarding the, the rust brown water, he made it clear that the solution to that is to replace the piping system.

And he said he said it's a 25 rusty water for 20 years, basically.

So it's kind of like, okay, well, yes, accustomed to it.

So yes, we don't really have a crisis.

You think that's the reality though, listening to individuals like that?

Absolutely not.

It's it is a crisis.

Because if it was that simple, we would have already because listen, DNR, we get through.

I don't remember the exact name of it, but it's the drinking water funding that helps with, giving portable water, clean portable water, and wastewater.

And we get millions every year.

There was a point where DPI and I was holding close to $30 million that was available to the authority and to waste management for replacing this infrastructure system.

So again, it goes back to it's not just that we don't have the money.

There is an issue that has been going on here in the territory about implementation, doing what we are supposed to do with the resources that have been given to us so that more can come in and we can just build on it.

When he talked about, the issue with the LED for me, what was what was good was that we didn't have the lead crisis that they told us we had.

But now, as a citizen, I have to know, walk backwards and say, okay, so the government put this fear in the community to the extent that the president declared an emergency because we had lead in our water system.

And all of that was not true.

So how do we have the US EPA on ground DPI, non grown, water and grown and they deploy the wrong testing method.

They were testing as to why the water was running brown.

And they use that testing method to say there was a lead throughout the system.

When the protocol is when you're testing for lead, you have to go to the tap.

And when they eventually did that, they had to now reverse everything they said to the community.

We move all of this scare and say, oh, by the way, all the homes are clear.

It's only three.

One of the two of them, it's really at the meter, and the other one is probably because of the brass fitting in that particular home.

You are extensively and intimately, you know, ingrained in this issue of water distribution.

What were your what's your takes on how things have unfurled with the the lead scare that, Commissioner Henry just mentioned and where we're at now and then how do we fix issues like the caller that just called in?

Well, first, let me start by saying I didn't take the 20 year conversation about 20 year existence as, what?

So what kind of thing?

I took it as a, as a problem that we've known for quite some time.

And it's not a $30 million problem, it's $1 billion problem.

So it's we've had some limited funds here and there, but I know when I was in the at the helm, we, we projected about $1 billion to eradicate the issue by changing all the lines, that the lines are rated for about 30 years.

There.

Anything on the ground has a 30 year life expectancy.

We have lines in the ground that are 80 years old, 9075 years old.

They used to the technology at, that was the best practice at that time was ductile iron lines with a lining that is no longer was used.

PVC is used with extensive but a ductile iron.

The lining is now gone.

With that gone, there's rust.

There's rust throughout the system.

And it was one thing I guess say was a challenge that I just had no way of eradicating during my tenure.

Was that all rusty water issues?

Because it takes funding.

But but it's decisions that we make as a government.

That, that make that more exasperating.

But for example, what was a standalone system?

It's not allowed to charge a customer charge by law.

Senator, change that.

That made it a law that it can charge a fee to be on the system.

Okay.

It's all new revenue.

It's when somebody uses it, whether it is a crack in the system or whatever the case may be.

Up until 1987, it was locked to have your own system.

System.

The law only was modified then.

If you didn't live on the system, then you could do a house without.

If you live on the water system, then you can do a house, a system.

Not much construction has taken place in those areas since that time, so pretty much every house has to have a system.

So you have a standalone system that is funded by use whenever the customer wants to use it.

You can't project revenue, you can't go to the bank, you can't get financing.

So it's not a situation where you got $1 billion problem and no method of of getting financing to, to fix it.

And it's just a daunting task.

Let's get back to some of the callers.

Caller.

Caller, good evening.

You're on the air and good evening.

This is a Principal Williams.

Calling back real quickly, he says, so we could get some other callers and I wanted to highlight the problem we have in education generally in that once students get, you know, even though education is free, you be out.

The enrollment has been dropping.

That indicates to me that people have been struggling in the K-12 system, don't want to struggle any further.

Who wants to struggle for free?

Understood.

And that's a good point.

And we'll talk about that real briefly.

In recent kids Count numbers, we see that the population of students in the territory has been halved since the storms.

And that point that was just made about participation in a, in a higher education, if you're struggling in K through 12, why are you going to go to UVA to struggle?

And I understand that.

And although the education is free, if you don't excel and don't feel good about your education in the system, once you oh, you like, thank God this is over.

You know, that's how a lot of students feel about school.

So why would I go back?

Yeah.

Why would I go back?

How do we.

Let me ask you, Attorney Saint John, how do we remedy that issue?

And do you think you heard tonight the components that are necessary to remedy that issue?

Well, this is a truly vexing problem.

You have a couple issues here.

First, the point was made that students who are struggling in high school don't want to struggle in college.

What's interesting to me is as low as the test scores are, we're not seeing lower graduation rates.

I think we actually have a higher graduation rate.

So.

Which is interesting is they're not performing well on the national test, but in fact, people are graduating.

The governor said the graduation rate has gone up by exactly four percentage points from 74 to 78%.

I remember him specifically.

So how does that track?

Right?

Also, if you look at the graduations, I was at a recent graduation, a large portion of the graduating classes are honors.

Interestingly, the graduating with honors.

So I don't think the issue is that, well, they're obviously not performing because we have objective criteria, but they're they feel as though there's an honors grad to the honors graduate.

So it's I'm not sure that it's tracking that they're not performing.

So they don't want to go to college.

I think a lot of them are applying and they feel as though they're doing well, even though nationally, the studies aren't there.

But it's a truly vexing problem.

We need to work, with the teachers to figure out what the problem is.

You know, this has been done in other jurisdictions.

We're not the only jurisdictions have test scores, crises and have them improve, figure out what works, get the smart people on the ground, and let's do it.

So there.

Richard's to attorney Saint John's point.

We have our standardized test scores that are appalling and quite frankly, scary when you read them.

But yet we have all these undergraduates, 74 to 78%.

I don't know about y'all, but that was a seeing it when I went to school and scores weren't acceptable in my house.

So I don't consider that to be something that is an achievement per se.

If we're in that upper 89, mid 90 percentile where we should be striving for, then I'd say, you know what?

Hip hip hooray!

But that's not the case.

What do you think about that paradox that we have there that we're graduating people that think, yeah, I'm an honor student.

But as, Mr. Williams said, when they get to UVA, you have a valedictorian, solid tutoring of a core of a school in the Virgin Islands, a high school in a Virgin Isles taking remedial courses.

I'm going to be begin where?

Tony Saint John, I'm left off because I, I wholeheartedly agree with him, but, what we're doing, this evening as we discuss education, and I think a lot of us in the territory, not only do we may have had bachelor's and master's and PhD in this particular subject, which is, pointing out shortfalls, I mean, know, that's a that's a thing we master in, in the Virgin Islands.

The subject matter that we now need to take up is, how do we address shortfalls?

How do we come up with, programs redesigning, refocusing, the educational system, if we don't want to, to to enforce, laws, that speaks to, to who we are on Virgin Island history and culture, the history of us as a people, how do we make education meaningful to students that are in our communities?

And I, I don't have a quick example.

Just the other day, I heard, if I'm a member of the legislature, he was on a talk show, and he spoke to the fact how he had designed a DC educational complex for students from both public and private and parochial schools, and not a science program.

But the former senator, then educator, and also with individuals from the Department of Education designed that.

But that program was the impetus of the legislature, because I introduced a piece of legislation that put aside monies for both District of Saint Croix and Saint Thomas to create a summer program and in math, science and environmental science so that they could be able to attract students to this for, as a matter of fact, the program implemented at Saint Croix Educational Complex, the students got a summer stipend.

For attending.

And so we have to find a way to pull our students into areas that we know that they need to be in order for us to exist.

And last as a community and to, what you all call it energy, sustainable energy.

You know, you want sustainable education.

Let's go to Senator Bulc is senator.

Good evening.

You're on the air.

All right.

Good evening.

Welcome to the program, sir.

Thank you for calling in.

What were your impressions of the governor's state of the territory?

This evening?

Well, the governor started out, sort of, you know, gloomy, but sort of came up on a higher pitch.

But what I believe is that we're feeling the impacts of the localization of the federal funds that have been, throughout the territory.

And, of course, that coupled with inflation and the cost of living.

So there's a lot of work to be done in order to balance that out.

Let me ask you something.

The governor has spoken about money that's been obligated, allocated, etc.

and these are terms that, get thrown around.

And the community in general, sometimes doesn't grasp what that all means.

But when you hear the numbers that have been spent, what it says to me, being a neutral observer or trying to be a neutral observer is that there's a lot of money still to be spent that has not been obligated as yet.

Did you here tonight the things that you think would be necessary to get us on the ball, to spend those funds?

No.

Because I believe that the problem that we're facing right now are three problems.

The government needs to enhance their collections.

They need to augment the way that they collect or upgrade the way that they do collections.

They need to figure out a more streamlined procurement process so that the funds can be spent or allocated, you know, more timely way.

And, of course, the reconciliation of bank accounts and funds.

We found out that our government has not been able to reconcile funds and bank accounts for quite some time.

So if we're able to fix these three issues, I believe we'll start to see, a lot more progress in a sense of our economy.

Senator, any last, and final points before we get to our our next caller, you know, the governor indicated a number of things.

I would have liked him to speak a bit more about progress on Saint John.

You did mention the school, of course.

And he mentioned the the basketball court and the tennis court.

But there's a lot of other issues that have been on on the island of Saint John that require, some attention.

So I hope that his administration, adheres to that and are able to pay a bit more attention to some of the infrastructure needs of the island of Saint John, because it is, by by cutting it up by GDP.

We we, support the tourism product, with, with just all around the year, tourism, attraction and revenue generation.

So, we really we really need to make sure that the infrastructure of Saint John gets the adequate attention that it needs.

Well, thank you so much for joining our program.

Senator Baucus, we appreciate your call.

Thank you very much.

And have a good evening.

Thank you.

I'm going to go to I will come back to the panel.

We have Senator Capehart, I believe, on the line.

Good evening.

You're on the air.

Yes.

Good evening.

Senator Capehart, is that you?

That is me.

Thank you for joining the program.

You're on live.

What was your impression of what the governor said this evening?

And give me the three areas that stood out the most for you?

The three areas that stood out to me.

Well, you know, I didn't know that the territory was going to be receiving $1 million in opioid.

I think it's very important that we address these kind of epidemics that, you know, nationally that's affecting many people in the States that is trickling to the Virgin Islands.

So I'm happy to hear about that.

I'm happy to hear that things are doing well in the tourism industry.

We have a new hotel that's coming on Saint Croix.

New hotel on Saint Thomas.

I'm happy about that.

So the opiate, the opioid crisis assistance and tourism are two of the areas.

Give me one more area that stood out for you this evening.

Another area that stood out positively or just that you find most important?

Well, education, education and crime.

You know, you spoke you did mention about my my recent bill that was passed.

And he signed it into law, which is the real time crime center, which is that helps give the police department the tools that they need.

It's like the icing on the cake of all the different technologies coming together in one.

So I'm happy about that.

For the Virgin Islands Police Department, you mentioned about that.

So I'm happy that you mentioned it.

So the territory can even hear about this, education.

There's a lot of school projects coming forward in 2024.

And all the three islands.

I'm happy about that.

So they're positive things that I took.

You know, the horse track is coming.

And Saint Thomas, I'm looking forward to, accountability on Saint Croix with the, the I g l to make, as he said, make good commitments.

So those are some of the things that stood up for me.

Well, Senator, thank you for taking time out to join us here on the program, on that.

Thank you for having me.

All right.

I'm going to come to you the panel.

We heard from Senator Baucus, and we heard from Senator Capehart.

Let's start with your impressions on what was said.

I think the key word for the general public that we need to pay attention to is spent right now, according to the last, hearing that we had on Friday, for example, they're saying we got $541 million in Arpa funding, and they've obligated 438.

What does that mean?

Yeah, obligated just means they have assigned out X amount to this agency or X amount to this project.

But the money has not been spent.

Yeah.

And it's the same thing with the recovery.

We have these billions of dollars.

We know we're getting them in tranches.

But what we have received so far we have been spent.

And what I heard the governor talk about that he's looking to do regarding the recovery, is he wants to get like the heavy lifters, the big guys from the States, maybe 3 or 4 of them, to come in and bid on all of these huge projects.

He wants to, bundle them, if you will, and give the big projects to these state side companies.

And they're going to bring in the manpower and they're going to be able to get this recovery going.

And it goes back to what we were discussing here in the panel, where we knew from back in 2017 that we needed to start within our community to build the labor force, to train our people to meet this demand today.

So once again, here we are, where our young men and women are going to be really losing out on this opportunity, because we have to now bring people in from the state to help us with our recovery.

Attorney Saint John, your thoughts on what Senator Baucus and Senator Capehart had to say this evening?

Well, I think they they made some very good points.

I like Senator Kay parts mention of her crime bill.

I thought that the real time crime, initiative, was important.

One of the major things we need to improve as it relates to crime in the Virgin Islands is, statistics.

We need to, be able to look and see what the results are.

It's 2024.

I don't know if anybody on the panel could tell us how many homicides we had in 2023.

If you if you can, that's great.

But, you know, in other jurisdictions, you can get online, you can actually do statistics on men.

It's by map.

You, Matthew.

This one right here every day.

Yep.

You know, we have a right to know we're paying the police department for services.

We have a right to know things like this.

So I like that initiative.

And, what Senator Capehart has done and I'd like to see more movement, to modernizing that.

So her points on crime, I think we're approaching Mister Hutch.

Yeah.

I would say that the the obligation part of the process is huge in federal, procurement.

That's when you actually have to go ahead to, to start to do the activity.

You just spend the money until is obligated.

They don't they haven't come from a project for you whether they're going to fund it.

But a super PMO is what they're talking about.

And a super, super PMO is going to have billion dollar projects.

So you want to bundle projects together.

You have $1 billion worth of project in certain parts of that islands, I think.

Or you might take on three sectors, do all of the, the school, infrastructure and everything totaling a be in a more in that area and get it done.

By large entities with the involvement of some of the local companies.

Ideally what I want to see local small, contract is to get all the work, no doubt.

But there's no way that we're going to get all the money spent if we if we continue down that road at this point.

So the support we have always.

But the the only way I see it's feasible to get the $1,215 billion spent right now in a timely manner doesn't result, a result of us giving it back to the federal government.

We're going to try and get some more feedback from our elected officials.

But, quickly, Senator Richards, would you just heard from Senators Capehart and Senator Baucus?

Their response to the state of the their territory?

What what are your thoughts?

I was going to ask you if I, if I could just be be nice and that you take please be some some more calls from the senators because I, I want to make a comment particularly to, to those members of I think sometimes they forget that they are a separate branch of government who are now often do commentary.

So I will I will remind you that I did yield.

Okay, caller.

Good evening.

You're on the air, but I don't the caller you're on the air.

Is that okay?

Richards is speaking, right?

No, you're on the air, sir.

Well, no.

Up the pleasant.

Good evening.

Yes.

This is being land from Saint Thomas.

Yes.

Go ahead.

I didn't hear anything about agriculture.

Time for our economy to grow.

We have to be able to sustain ourselves.

Conceding ourselves.

Oh, all our money goes back out in feeding ourselves.

And without agriculture being addressed and promoted in a country.

Okay.

Well, thank you for that observation.

And we mentioned that earlier on the panel, I believe, of Delegate Plaskett is on the line attempting to get in.

Let's see if I can connect her.

Good evening.

Delegate.

You're on the air.

Hi.

Good evening.

How are you all doing?

Very well.

A lot to digest in this state of the territory.

But I'd like to ask you for your initial thoughts on what the governor delivered in his sixth state of the territory address.

Sure.

I, I can't believe I feel like a veteran in the room I've been at, like maybe quite a number of them now.

But, I'm grateful for for the ability to serve the people and be there.

I think one of the things that you have to give Albert O'Brien is he is continually very resolute.

He is very resolved about ideas and opportunities and his willingness to see the optimistic side of things and how things can be moved forward.

I think that came across in this one as well.

And so I'm grateful to have a governor who does think like that.

It were, some areas, of course, that I felt a sense of pride in myself in the work that our team has done, particularly when so much of the discussion was around federal funding and worked that over the years, my office has been really key in bringing whether that be the disaster recovery funding or the Arpa funding during the pandemic, the Covid, pandemic funding as well, HUD funding.

I'm really grateful for that.

Whether that came through the work, through the, use of Cdbg funds for the water leases, as well as with the veto discussion using Cdbg mitigation funds there as well.

And so in that respect, I think that we have huge opportunities here in the Virgin Islands.

I will have to say, when the governor talked about the $8 billion that's been obligate ated, we recognize my office recognizes that, that 8 billion that's been obligated, only 3.1 billion has been utilized to date.

Much of that was during the initial phase after the hurricanes, with the emergency recovery and administrative costs.

So of that obligation, we still have $5 billion.

That is not actually on the ground.

That's got to get there.

And the governor talked about five potentially 15 billion being used for whether it's our schools whether it's to the hospitals, our roads changing our sewer systems, etc.

and many of us are aware that there will be a need for a 10% match, which comes to approximately $1.5 billion.

Some time ago, I talked with the governor about changing his request from a complete waiver to waiving those things for critical infrastructure.

And that would be our schools, our hospitals, police stations, and things of that nature to make that ask of the administration, because we recognize that the reason that administrations have a match is because they want to make sure that, the cost do not become unnecessarily bloated, that people have something in the game that they're utilizing.

And so to hold them accountable to.

So I think that one of the things that the governor talked about, which was really key, was a comprehensive long term cash management strategy.

I think that's something that will give the feds comfort that we're utilizing our funds appropriately.

And it's something also the people of the Virgin Islands will be able to look at and see transparency in government.

But of course, Leslie and your panelists know it's all about the details of that.

It's going to be the key and what's most important.

Well, thank you so much for calling into the program and sharing that information.

Some of the points that you mentioned, we've discussed here on the panel, and we'll continue to discuss those, after your call.

But thank you for taking time out and joining the public.

Sure.

But, you know, the governor talked about was, sola sola for all, just reminding people that that's a competitive grant as well, part of the competitive program.

So I'm crossing my fingers and hoping Kyle Fleming, I believe, wrote an amazing grant request.

Our office really pushed forward, and we're having discussions to make sure that he gets that full amount.

Because that will be transformational.

But there are other things that we're working on as well.

Two weeks ago, the governor and I, a week ago, the governor and I sent a joint letter to the secretary of energy to Granholm to come to the Virgin Islands.

I've had discussions as well with, the white House and John Podesta, who's in charge of all of the Inflation Reduction Act.

And listen, the president said that he wants some of this money for alternative energy, moving things to alternative energy and places that are underserved, underrepresented and impacted by climate change, majority minority communities.

And that's us all over.

And the owners of the refinery let me offer thing.

I'll get to it.

But the new refinery in Port Hamilton have said that they are interested in recognizing that fossil fuel refining cannot continue forever and that they're willing to work with the administration, work with us and developers and financiers to move that, facility into, some other type of alternative energy, project as well.

And so we're all working together on that, and I'm hopeful that something's going to come out of there.

Well, that's good news to hear.

Thank you so much again for calling in.

We're going to get to some other callers.

I believe we have Senator Gittens on line three.

Good evening, Senator.

Thank you for joining the program.

How are you?

Good evening.

How are you?

Welcome.

You're on the air.

Thank you.

Good evening.

To the people of the Virgin Islands.

And good evening to the, panelists there.

Senator, let me ask you a litany of different issues were brought up.

If you could give to us the three issues that stood out the most for you and you think would be the most impactful that was discussed this evening in the state of the territory.

We'd like to hear them.

Well, first I want to say that the, I do believe that the governor's speech was, upbeat.

However, for me, I just thought that it lacked, a couple of, timelines, with some of the initiatives that he spoke about, like with the roads, the, the build up schools, our hospitals and even with the, the Whopper project, with, with the new generators and the renewable energy system, I would have just like to know that, that we had a little, timeline, with, that was also, disappointed, well, from last week to know, why the retroactive moneys weren't paid when the legislature actually appropriated $25 million, towards this, to have it done by December 31st, 2023, and to find out that only 2.5 million was used out of it and the other monies were spent elsewhere.

Very interesting point that you bring up.

But you had the governor's financial team before the legislature on Friday.

Were those issues that you brought up with?

Our OMB director and the finance commissioner and the other representatives there?

Well, OMB, I mean, the OMB director was there.

Yes.

Oda was and but yet these, things were brought up.

And what was the response from the team just for the listening audience?

Right.

I'm just saying, though, that, this evening's, address that was my only, drawback that it didn't, have timeline.

Okay.

All right.

Anything else that stood out for you in this evening's address?

Well, additionally, I like the fact that we're we're looking at, addressing our abandoned, dilapidated buildings in the downtown area.

And I just want to add that on January 30th, I do have a bill coming forward.

That will address the, historic preservation in our downtown areas.

And it's a two pronged, approach where we will ask that the Historic Preservation Commission, simply identify properties within our downtown areas that have significant, a historic significance to it and allow for the other buildings or properties that are just simply old to be able to maintain the facade and the outside and to lease them from that strict, preservation.

So hopefully, we could get some movement on this.

Yes.

Like the governor said, also, you know, this is just, it's just not one thing that will address this problem because he also mentioned even the probate cases and whatnot.

But let me ask you something real quickly.

Have you reviewed the legislation that the governor sent down, and how is your legislation different or enhances his, proposed legislation?

And is there a possibility that they may be combined because I understand that Senator Donna Fred Gregory also has a piece of legislation addressing the same issue.

Right.

I don't think that it would be able to be combined.

However, I have, that, we do, have some more conversation on this to see how we could, work things in to include, the Fred Gregory who has, something as well, and I believe one other senator.

I can't recall who it is, but if we could, I'll come together and see if we could make it.

One approach.

We can do that.

But the conservatorship is is, a real concern?

To many.

So I'm just looking at this, closely.

All right.

Well, thank you, Senator Gittings, for giving us a call on.

We appreciate you taking time this evening.

And thank you all so much for bringing this forward to the people of the Virgin Islands and educating them as well.

Thank you so much, Attorney Henry, your thoughts on what you heard from Delegate Plaskett and Senator Giddens.

So with, Senator Giddens, you were asking the question about the, the 25 million that the legislature, set aside for the government to use for the retropie.

And according to the OMB director, only 2.5 billion was spent for that purpose.

And they said they had to use the 22.5 million to pay payroll.

So that's where the money went to put.

Thanks for answering that.

The payroll people wanted to know.

Yes.

And I think with the delegate she brought up something that, we have heard about for a very long time, but the issue still remains, which has to do with the matching to be it for us to be able to utilize this HUD funding and a lot of the to move the, recovery forward.

That is something that has plagued us, even though we have, on the one hand, nine, ten, 11, $12 billion.

The federal government requires a match in certain instances.

And we just didn't have the funding and we still don't have the funding.

So that remains an issue that we we we have to get resolved.

I, I definitely like the part of what she spoke about, the potential of the refinery being used for something other than refining, because the the world is moving away from fossil fuel, whether it's through what we're talking about here, renewable energy, efficient, electrical cars.

We're just moving away from fossil fuel because it's not a renewable source.

It has an infinite, amount.

And we recognize the, the, the environmental impact.

So this is something that was being pursued before.

So I'm happy to hear that this administration is looking into alternative, for using that refinery space, that it wouldn't wreak as much havoc in the environment.

And to the people of I think the inclusions deserve that, I think absolutely.

Senator Richards, have you had a chance to think creatively and outside the box about this 10% match that we're obligated to?

And there's a lot of historic issues that have led us to this situation.

And the delegate mentioned about, you know, the federal government wanting to see accountability and us having skin in the game, but we have not been able to tackle this issue.

How do you see us and what could we do to get over this 10% matching fund that seems to be, you know, the 500 pound gorilla in the room, and I apologize.

I don't mean to be looking at you as if you're crazy, but I was doing that because I'm going to be short and in response to your question and come back to retrieve my time about the senators and the commentary and, the commentary by Delegate Plaskett, was right up the alley in regards to what I spoke about at the beginning of the program, about prioritization of projects.

And, I mean, if you said priority, you could determine whether or not, how much money you could get up in this particular fiscal year to be in the matching or whether or not these prioritized projects can be meeting the request for a waiver.

Yeah.

So that is my my quick response.

And then, I was getting ready to say, I don't know if it's fortunately or unfortunately, I had, 12 years of catechism for going to school.

And, you know, cat is like Kumbaya.

And in listening to to the senators, from the first one that spoke right down to the last one that I've spoken is this evening, and it, it concerns me because the first statement was, I'm glad that I heard the governor say that we all work together, and we all should get along, and it has come by.

Yeah, but it appears that you understand the structure of the government that exists in the territory of.

That is, and one of the number one responsibility of members of that legislative body is checks and balances.

Attorney Henry was just given the explanation that, the legislature passed a law appropriating $25 million to pay retroactive salary increases.

The executive branch, whether through OMB of finance, broke the law by taking more than 7,580% of the money and spending it for some other purpose, actually does.

It took 90% or whatever it was?

Yeah, let's call it 90.

Yeah.

It isn't right.

Because if he took 2.5, 0.5, that's 10%, 10%.

See, I don't need the remedial classes at UVA, but go ahead.

So whatever percentage the fact is that you not you're right.

And then right there is also a law and it's going back to attorney.

I'm saying, John, he made a point that is that it's so important because when I work in a government which from 1977 to 1995, in the executive branch of government departments were required to develop and submit to the legislature and publish to the general community annual report.

Like for health, you are the ten leading causes of death.

Yes, you had these kind of Kennedy the post audit, which is a requirement by law for the legislature is also supposed to give a report, an accounting and a report to the members of the Finance Standing Committee and its membership.

For what?

Anytime, where the executive branch failed to follow the financial and fiscal reporting and requirements of legislation, passed US law.

And here it is.

They were told attorney Henry hold them till I went down there to hear it live.

But they didn't start on time.

On Friday morning they were told that, where we broke the law.

So what are they going to do?

What the legislature is going to do about enforcing the statutory responsibility of the legislative branch of government for check and balance and oversight of the budgetary fund?

And this this is what we're suffering from in my last commentary, real quickly, because we have Senator Johnson on the line.

I'd like to get to you.

He'll be ready when I done the, my last commentary is this that, the the subject matter of, let's work to get it.

And it gives a bad public impression about the function of government.

Here it is.

The governor held a meeting in government House with only the Democratic members of the majority to discuss the financial team spitting in the face of non Democratic members of legislature.

Who are we?

Representatives of you and I in the body and you speaking about and working together and having respect as an institution.

And none of them would any mind like me here.

I'm making a noise about I don't know the I day in there.

And as a senator you meet with everybody else but me.

Everybody in the Parliament will know.

Absolutely.

And that's leave the clear impression is what he's saying.

And that is why, you shouldn't be afraid, Calypso.

So you you, Mr. Song from, Lady Mac.

That is why the governor considered that he, in the interview, would you consortium that he expect to get whatever it is he want when you go before the legislature?

Because this is how the institution is being run, as if it is a, you call it a whirlpool or a bathtub for any amount of water to be dumped on them.

Sorry, I didn't mean to speak at length, but I think I need to make those points.

Yes, I'm going to come back to you, Mr. Hyde, but let's go to Senator Johnson.

Senator Johnson, good evening.

You're on the air.

Hey.

Good evening.

How are you doing?

Thank you for calling in.

Let's get your first impressions of the state of the territory this evening.

And what are three areas that stood out for you most?

Well, you know, the governor always talk on the upbeat, and that is way of doing things.

I clearly think he was on a different page of music with his financial well-being.

They say one thing to us that last week and he's saying a whole different page, so that has great and fun for me.

There's a few things that really stood out to me that I really wanted to hear about, that investment program with these homes that are being left in the condition that they're in from hurricanes, that's number one.

Spoke a little bit about the prison might continue saying that every time we send our prison oil, which we just spent about 22 of them away, we're investing in a next community.

I didn't hear much about Polly Joseph or Lionel Roberts Stadium, which would be sports tourism.

That would generate a lot of money for us.

And we're not pushing these projects, but those those three things.

And then our seniors sitting here, nothing has happened, doesn't exist.

Our senior homes are closed and we didn't have any conversation about that.

And last and I think I went past three was the learn loss.

What are we going to do to get the insurance put up to date with the loan loss?

Well, thank you so much.

I think you highlighted some very critical areas.

Let me ask you about items that the governor may have presented this evening that you thought were well executed or well done.

That at again, I didn't hear you.

I said, let me ask you about areas that you think the governor presented this evening that you thought were satisfactory or well done, or that you were happy to hear about?

Well, I'm from the western part of the island, and I'm pleased to see that benevolence.

I we definitely get them taking here, but I have to drive that route every day.

But that was true.

I'm happy to see because for years though, we're going with the highway not being lit.

Most of it is already lit and I can see progress on that road.

I see progress when it comes to the water lane, but I still believe that they should, aside from the next end of the island.

But the progress with the water line being buried also can Brickell.

I saw some progress on some of the roads that are in bad condition but don't care about.

I'm a little pleased with, but there's always room for improvement.

Okay, well, thank you so much, Senator Johnson, for calling in.

Are you still there?

Yes, I am, I we appreciate you, spending your time and shedding light on things that you thought the governor should have addressed and things that he did that you were, satisfied with.

Thank you so much for tuning into the program and giving us a call this evening.

Happy New Year to all of you guys on the panel.

Thank you for being here.

Mr. Hatch.

Yes.

Let's let's go back to the comments from Senator Gittens.

Delegate Plaskett and there and now commentary we got from Senator Frankie Johnson.

What are your thoughts on what they have to say?

As I dive into it, I chuckle when I hear any one of them make it seem like this administration has been anything close to rubberstamp from this legislature, because there's not been that kind of party that they have not had.

A great relationship for the entirety of his time there.

And it's been indicative in all the major initiatives.

I usually see that every legislature, which is every two years, has a major initiative that come in front of them, and none of them have went smooth.

None of them have gone for how the course was designed or to take place.

And they've all been really bumpy roads.

I haven't seen any rubber stamping or anything close to that nature taking place, but the envision program that was mentioned by this I and a couple other callers is one that, you know, we have we have programs that are modeled from things that take place in the States.

And, and they're a little different here and in our territory.

This is the one where you have, I think, $350,000 for the repair of homes from the hurricane.

But what has to happen with each home individually?

Here you have to get a structural engineer.

You have to get a design for that home.

It's not like we have 400 homes that are all the same.

So we make the design and we don't do one cookie cookie cutter and fix all of them.

Each home design, structural engineer fund and move on.

So it's a very lengthy process.

Unfortunately by the by the nature of it.

So but let me ask you something real quick, a very lengthy process we're here at now, a very lengthy six and a half years going on, seven years since the storm.

How have we not been able to figure this out?

You know, I don't think the original program was the wrong footed that it started.

And can it maps administration.

But the program I think the implementation of it didn't take place afterwards.

Well, I know that in the map administration there was a misallocation of funds on, well, let me not say that people had questions about funding that was spent on marketing to the program vehicles for the program before the force even got put on.

And so I think, look, the feds looking back at us, if we're spending money on, four wheel drive jeeps and advertising, but not putting roofs on homes, you can still fly over Saint Croix flyover, Saint Thomas and Saint John and see blue tarps still on people's houses.

Sometimes every time it rains, I think, oh my God, there's people still out there living in a portion of their homes.

This is one of those low hanging fruit that we were talking about earlier that you get this done.

People feel good.

I mean, a roof on your home.

We all know if your roof goes, you're in a storm.

That's it.

That's your first line of defense and the most important line of defense.

You know, some water could come in, but as long as I got a roof on my, we can sweep the water out and keep it moving.

When that doesn't happen, you know, people lose confidence in our ability to get things done.

And I hear what you're saying.

You go, yes, these things can be made complicated, but by God, six and a half years on, it seems like, what do we say to these people that have been every time a rain got to mop up or a bed get wet, or they lose appliances and have to go to go buy a new stove or a new fridge, because something with that, you know, what do you tell those people?

I mean, I don't know if the complexity of things is is holding water right now with folks.

And I think, that's why we have people calling in and asking about these things right now.

I need to get to, Senator, Francis Heilig or Senator Francis.

Hi, lager.

You're on the air.

Hi.

Good evening.

Good evening everyone.

Good evening.

We were just talking about members of the legislature that are in the minority.

And you are in the minority.

And discussions held with the governor and his financial team, which you and others in the minority in the legislature were not invited to the table to speak.

How do you feel about that?

And what did you think about what the governor had to say this evening, particularly, since the governor's financial team was before the body just last Friday?

Well, I am not sure about not being invited.

I guess if you don't know, you don't know.

But one of the things that I recognize is that.

So I just want for clarification, put out just several bits of revelation that took place at that hearing on Friday.

I was encouraging the public to tune in because the governor was advocating and requesting a line of credit that in order for them to continue to balance how they're spending and getting access to cash when the revenues are coming in.

Initially last week, when the message was being put out to the public, it was being shared that the numbers were way below from what we had received in the previous year.

Some 179 and believe that, we were at 150, and then at the hearing it was changed to 171.

But my concern was how we were looking at the numbers.

If you were to do the math, if I reset, they brought in 174.

If property tax and brought it 8.3.

We heard that we made that DPA not in their files.

I mean, dealing with that public process brought in another set of millions of dollars.

I was confused that the how we are getting all of this monies, but still having that issue with how we were spending.

And I do agree with the governor, a lot of our issues is a management problem, and the fact that there was over 70 plus million dollars that we could have access that that we're having a difficult time drawing down.

Part of the problem in our government is people are not being held accountable for not doing their job well.

Let me ask something just to clarify.

You're saying if you didn't know earlier in terms of that meeting with the financial team and the governor to the with the meeting with the legislature to discuss the financing, you're saying that you weren't told at all?

No, no, no.

What's meeting I have no, I you said the minority was not invited.

That's what I think I heard you say.

Yes.

Yeah.

Well, I if we were not invited, I wouldn't have known about it.

I just, I just want, I just wanted clarification.

It was discussed here on the panel.

I find it ironic because being the author of the piece of legislation to alter, the line of credit in order to give the governor, this access to $60 million, I think it would have been prudent if he didn't discuss it with the individuals that fighting really hard to understand, because when you're telling me we're not making money, but then I'm hearing the numbers coming in different at the hearing, but then I'm supposed to just come forward, no questions that just offer a piece of legislation to give you access to $50 million upwards to $50 million, and they're not having any discussion with me.

Who actually who was the authorship for that piece of legislation?

I just think it's not working together.

And as much as he said that he would like to work together with this institution and some of the members, I don't always see that happening.

Well, I certainly appreciate that.

Perspective.

And is there anything else you'd like to add before you jump off the air?

No.

I really would have liked the governor to speak a little bit more dealing with our children.

I think that aspect of it, where you have the report, of course, that came out that said that 33% of our children here in this territory are living in poverty.

That is the state of our territory.

And when we have situations that we're not really focusing on, addressing those things was never even discussed.

I see that as a major problem dealing with our educational system.

We never heard anything about senior.

So, a lot of things like this, that was I felt a little bit disconnected from the speech.

But at the end of the day, I like to look forward and hopefully through discussion and dialog, we could work out a little bit closer to make sure that we do what that's in the interest of the people of this territory.

Well, thank you so much for tuning in and giving us a call here on tax.

We appreciate your calling.

You have a blessed day.

So we hear we're hearing the same things from different.

And I know they didn't coordinate that night.

So when you hear that what do you think.

Let me come to you Attorney Saint John.

When you hear the same things coming from, different senators, you know, seniors, education.

What would your advice be to the governor this evening?

Well, I would say, you know, I think the governor has tried to develop a cordial relationship.

I would agree that, they have not just been rubber stamping.

You could correct me if I'm wrong, but the marijuana bill took several tries.

The land swap bill took several tries.

I don't think this has been a rubber stamp legislature.

Legislature.

But I would say, to the point that about checks and balances, this is a structural problem.

When you look at our organic act and you read that document, there's no way a political science nerd or a constitutional law nerd would be able to look at that document and say that that was ever intended to be a separation of powers structure.

For example, the legislature lacks what is the greatest check the legislature has against the executive, the impeachment power, the legislature.

The version has lacks any impeachment power against any executive official.

They don't have impeachment power against judges.

I mean, it's insane.

You need a document.

There's no separation of powers.

There never was intended to be that way.

And we do need to change that as well.

Members of the legislature can recall any elected official with, three quarters vote in that so they can impeach the governor, lieutenant governor at any time.

Now, we normally take that step or a member of the body, as they have in the past.

We normally take that step very quite seriously.

But if you read Organic Act, there's actually a legislative way to remove elected officials and a way of, recall that is by petition that can be orchestrated by citizens.

I thought the two thirds had to go to a vote.

Yeah, a vote of like of the public.

No, we know what the law states in the Organic Act is that if the individuals that organize a recall, they have to collect signatures, of, I think 75%, I might be off on a percentage, but it's a percentage of the votes, the whole number of votes cast for that particular office.

So you could sit down and, you know, do the math on what it would be per election and those amount of, signatures are required.

But in the organic up recall, removal by the legislature is the first item that's listed and then recall by citizen petition.

So then there's, there are record.

There's a recourse.

I'm not saying it should do it, but if it exists in the Organic Act then there's a request.

And if there's a legislative decision not to pursue, request a judge.

Let me just say, for the record, checks and balance and adversarial aren't synonyms.

Yeah.

They're not.

So that's does not make it sound like to give checks and balances have to be adversarial to you.

And we have to be at war.

That's not how to work.

We can still work together.

That doesn't mean that I'm I'm just going to call saying everything you bring.

I assume that it means that we're going to take to this process of having checks and balances.

We're going to find something that works for the benefit of the people, the ones that we all elected to serve.

I mean, when I hear the commentary about breaking the law, with making payroll, okay, the the law was passed as such.

What are we saying?

Let's arrest them for making payroll and and paying that, the the other wages a little bit later down the line.

I mean, what does that do to the economy to miss payroll?

What does it do to the to the all the government workers out there?

It doesn't make sense.

Let's make sense of it.

Right.

Yeah.

We have $25 million.

We're at risk of missing payroll.

We pay some of the retro.

We pay the payroll.

We're going to get more funds coming in.

We're going to pay the retro.

I mean, I don't I can't I can't advocate to say I'm not going to make the roll.

I'm just going to pay all the retro and let the I less pay to take blue.

Sure.

But then you begin a slippery slope of unaccountability.

Of of in essentially doing what you want.

And so I respect it, I don't think, I don't think what Senator Richards was in implying was trying to make clear what it is.

Okay.

I don't think he was saying, let's arrest the governor, or even remove the governor.

We said, but we have to ask.

We have to ask for accountability because where does it stop?

I saw that you had a point you wanted to make real quickly.

And as the second lady on the panel, I'd like to let you get in here.

No, I think the issue of the accountability is important because I know, again, during the hearing, one of the things that the OMB director was emphasizing was that there legislature passes a balanced budget, and after they pass the budget, basically what happens along the way in their business because they pass a balanced budget, the legislature is not supposed to go and, try to appropriate the, oh, spend any other funding to meet any other community needs because there's a balanced budget that has been spent.

And I think that that is false.

And when you look at this same issue we're talking about with the $25 million, I think that knowing that is a line item, it's specifically for this use.

They administer nation had a responsibility to at least notify the legislature.

We are in this position.

This is what we are wanting to do with the money.

At least that not after the fact coming down, telling them like it's none of it's none of their concern.

And then when you ask, so how will you now going to pay to read through.

Oh well, we're going to pay 2.5 million every pay period.

And then OMB director say, oh no, no, that's not the plan.

Because that would take ten months.

So even among the financial team, there was not even a concrete understanding as to how they are going to meet this obligation that the money was already put there to meet.

Very simply, we only got five minutes left.

So let's get this caller in real quickly.

Caller.

Good evening.

You're on the air.

Okay.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

We only have five minutes left.

All right.

Go ahead with your questions, ma'am.

Or comment.

All right.

Good evening.

I appreciate your panel.

But.

It was touch on vacation schools.

I think that these, vocational training would serve our community very well.

I saw a lot of good weekends, a lot of, people from Dominican Republic after, the big storms, the twin storms in 2000, 17, building, and repairing and the like.

Now, if we beef up our vocational schools, we can have our population here, attending to, and building up our community, building new, Are you still there?

Caller yes, I have okay.

Or have you, could you wrap up your comments?

Because we're just about to sign off.

Okay.

I also have another comment about homeless people.

Okay.

A lot of this and, the disabled persons who have the.

Okay, the violence and call and contest facilitate with nurses, etc.

and educational like in Braille, etc.. Well, thank you so much for your call.

I appreciate that, folks.

I'm going to give you 30s each and I'm running my timer.

Final thoughts, Senator Richards, because we got to stay tight on our schedule.

Go ahead.

I believe Madame Attorney Saint John and Mister Roger.

Well, he did say he's the engineer.

So yeah, you did state earlier that that was your field of study.

I not only do I have understanding of the legislature, been.

Allow me to go for ten and work as a researcher for another ten years in the legislature.

When we speak to the the subject matter real quickly, I understand the time, but it's important because the listening audience and the viewing audience are being misled by the subject matter of, accountability checks and balance in section title.

Title two.

Title two, chapter ten, section two and three speaks to the acts of public officers of malfeasance, misfeasance.

And it's not whether or not you're going to arrest them.

Is that the statutory.

There is a law that requires them to do as required.

And my last comment really quickly, if they wanted to change the use of the money, it is incumbent upon them to come back to the legislature to get approval and authorization for reprograming money already appropriated.

I'm going to let you have the final one.

You take up everybody time by going right up in my hands.

Well, we understand it, but I love you for making that point because it's a very honest lie, and I don't want to say it has truly been a pleasure sharing this evening with our our panel here in the studio and with you, the listeners and viewers at home on behalf of all of us here at Leslie Commission, good night.

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Hey there book lovers.

Get ready to embark on a thought provoking and exhilarating literary journey through the writings of local authors.

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Each week as we delve into exciting, mind bending and controversial works and learn more about the author's creative process.

Let's explore the treasures of the bookcase, leaving no page unturned.

Tune in to the bookcase on Mondays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 4 p.m. on TV channel 12.

Come in this way, but here, viewers can expect a lot more of what they've loved from All Creatures Great and Small.

Fun, laughter and also really touching moments as new characters.

And there's new animals.

Beautiful.

And there's an air of uncertainty.

We're now into 1940.

The war is becoming increasingly underway, and we see the house in a bit of chaos.

I never thought I'd admit this, but we're missing Tristan.

We're a man down.

Plus, all the farms round about us, shorthanded as well.

We see James knowing that he has signed up and could be called upon at any time.

We find Helen at the start of this series.

Coping.

Look at the little faces.

They're excited.

Both of them discussing having a family.

And then.

Well, what happens if you're not here?

Don't you wish there wasn't a war on?

Helen's chomping at the bit.

We said we'd wait.

I know, I'm just not sure what we're waiting for at the same time.

Derby is in some ways quite unaffected by the war.

So life goes on.

Mrs. Pompey's got a war garden going.

Gerald's got his potatoes and Mrs.

Hull's still making sterling meals for us on the rations as well.

Interesting flavors.

No, I didn't like it before.

Gerald still there?

He hasn't gone off to see his sister.

Mrs. was slightly having a cake and eat it.

I think we have a new apprentice.

And that's my character, Richard comedy.

He won't last.

James thinks it's a brilliant idea to get a young.