On this episode of Comes With the Territory.

A recent crime wave on Saint John has sparked anxiety and concern in the small community.

Police Commissioner Ray Martinez is here to tell us what's happening and what's being done to keep St Johnians in safe.

The only way to eliminate the exposure is not to consume the water.

The water crisis continues on St Croix with extremely high levels of lead and copper contaminating the potable water supply in certain areas on the Big island.

It's called due process and justice.

Former at large Senator Steven Payne Senior is suing the 34th legislature, claiming it did not have the authority to remove him from office and proper procedures were not followed.

We'll explore the basis for Payne's lawsuit.

Plus, I win all the time.

Governor Albert Bryan Jr sounded off on everything from school maintenance response to illegal immigration and even the state of his marriage.

During a recent one on one interview with the Virgin Islands Consortium will unpack the governor's blunt statements and find out how the community is responding.

And joining our power panel to analyze these and other political issues are Ernice Gilbert, founder and publisher of the Virgin Islands Consortium.

Former Senator Neville James, host of wt jx at Channel 12█s analyze this radio show and prominent Saint Thomas attorney Adriane Dudley, founding partner of Dudley Rich LLP.

Comes with the territory starts that.

A happy Sunday to you.

I'm Lesley Comisssiong welcome to another edition of Comes With the Territory.

Today we have a very special guest.

We are privileged to have Police Commissioner Ray Martinez to speak about recent developments in the community.

Commissioner, welcome.

Hey, happy Sunday.

Thank you.

I'm glad you took time out because I know VIPD has been very busy and we got a lot to talk about.

Let's get down to business.

First of all, the recent crime wave in Saint John, Saint John residents are very alarmed about these home invasions, especially considering the time of the day.

Some of them are happening in the middle of the night, people at home.

Let's talk about how the department is tackling that situation.

Well, again, I mean, very simply, Leslie, we take this stuff like we do all our crime over the.

We take this to heart.

You know, Saint John has always been this sleepy little community where technically crime doesn't really occur.

Yeah.

And but for us to have these types of violent crimes, because that's what they are, the you know, we've already started to engage not just with the officers that are there, but also with our intelligence unit, with some of the community members, as well as with officers that are there providing us with hits and tips as to who these perpetrators may be simply because it's an ongoing investigation that we don't want because these individuals pay close attention to the media as well.

Yes.

Hoping for us to slip, make the mistake to advise the community that we know who they are.

And, you know, so as we continue to investigate this, what I can share with you is the fact that our intel has been really, really good.

Unfortunately, we had another incident.

Again, I have.

Deputy Chief Brown here will give you a brief update of what happened.

Actually, last night.

Last night, at approximately 945, a taxi driver was operating his unit.

He had two passengers.

He was traveling towards the Westin Hotel villa where he was in the parking lot.

As he was turning around, another vehicle came and blocked him in.

Several individuals got out of the vehicle and robbed those individuals with five men all dressed in black with mask and gloves.

They took the money and got back into the car and left the area.

Unknown direction.

we've got a pretty good idea that the perpetrators are not all from Saint John.

We will see it.

We can see that much and we just continue to investigate it.

Again, it's about keeping our community safe.

You know, this is our product, you know, whether it's our tourist product, whether it's it's keeping the residents of the island safe, you know, because everyone's up in arms right now.

That's what's kept me up for the last couple of weeks, you know, is how do we jump in to tackle this situation without causing harm to the to the rest of the community?

has there been a directive from you to increase the number of police or the hours of patrols on seeing Saint John?

Well, not a directive that speaks specifically to increase in the patrol function that they've always do.

So, you know, Saint John has a 24 hour patrol that, like all of the other islands, What we are doing is utilizing a lot more intel to try to bring this stuff together.

Would not could we just haven't had those home invasions.

We've had blatant robberies of individuals.

The we've had businesses that are that are robbed.

So we're paying particular attention now to exactly how our detectives are moving towards these investigations.

folks would tell you where you had a robbery.

Just go ahead and send your special operations center and additional officers to Saint John.

Well, it doesn't work that way because when you do that, then those individuals who are engaged in this type of activity, what do they do?

They just hang out for a week or two.

Yeah.

So it makes no sense.

And I'm not that type of person that really wants to just be working our resources like that.

What I want to do is ensure that we have a plan.

We put the plan together.

It has to be quick, but it has to be effective as well.

And it has to to where there's longevity to it.

Because again, the very same bad actors that you see now, even if we arrest them, someone else has been watching.

Yeah, some other bad actor has been watching and they're going to say, well, hey, you know, these guys did this and they got away with X, Y, and Z, so I can do the same thing.

So we have to be able to to have a plan that's really going to be effective and efficient and be able to, you know, to assess just all of that over time.

I know that several officers in both districts have been fired upon by criminals recently.

And as a result, different measures are being taken to ensure officer security.

And with the recent debt of death of Officer Phipps, I'm sure that for the entire Department, everybody's on alert.

And the community, quite frankly, the friends and family and relatives of individuals that serve.

So let's talk about what the PD is doing to alleviate this situation and to mitigate, well, mitigate the issue and making sure that our officers come home safe every night.

Well, the for starters, you know, you, myself included, all of our personnel took this job to protect and serve.

And many times and we expressed this to our officers as well and even to their families is often times we've had the conversation regarding just, you know, just how dangerous this law enforcement is.

And so with this recent these recent callous, you know, effects by individuals who just don't who don't want to pay attention to tell us, who have absolutely no respect for the law, what has happened.

And of course, now a lot of it has to do with mindset.

If you take a look at what has transpired over the last couple of months, you see that we've had increased traffic stop.

We have increased traffic initiatives.

You're seeing officers out there a lot more.

And as a result of this, this nets those types of individual, those who are traversing our roadways with illegal firearms, with drugs in their cars.

And once we start to make those stops, these individuals do not want to be arrested.

They do not want to be caught.

And for them, it's take shots at police officers and, you know, it's about keeping the community safe.

And if you look at it, our guys have continued to pursue them.

We've caught many of them.

The those that have gotten away, we had and the officers had the opportunity at times to maybe even return fire on them.

But it wasn't safe.

Yes.

And as a real so you hear some community members say, well, you know, you get these guys fire at you, you chase them, they abandon their vehicles, and you always lose them.

And that's not a fair assessment, first of all, because the we have we have a number of arrests in these cases.

But also it's not about the officers jumping out of their vehicles and just willy nilly, for lack of a better term, returning fire.

Yeah, this is a community and I think a lot of us, a lot of people in the community get their perspective sometimes of law enforcement from what we see in television and movies.

Right.

You know, so it goes beyond just returning fire.

Well, let's talk about those roadway stops for a little bit, because personally, I like to see them.

I look at that as a clear indication to the community that VIPD is doing their jobs.

And because they yield illegal weapons and drugs, it is a mechanism for the department to keep the community safe or however we know that people like to disclose.

I see people on social media saying, they'll be for winds or they don't even belong so that you don't like it.

And almost, it seems like would rather aid and abet the criminals on.

And then you have individuals that say, well, Whitey pulling people over for marijuana, marijuana illegal.

I mean, these kinds of things are being said in the community.

Let's talk a little bit about the legality of stopping people, especially when an officer suspects that, you know, smells marijuana or is sees paraphernalia in a car.

And you know how those work and why the community should not be alerted, individuals to the fact that these road road stops are out there.

I can tell you that 99% of the stops that we make, that yield arrests, that yield illegal firearms standard testing court So obviously we're doing something.

We're doing something right.

The it's a simple way to stop guys, folks, the individuals who are traversing our roadways are moving throughout the islands with illegal firearms.

They're not walking.

They're driving vehicles.

So that is the quickest way for us to get in and make those stops.

In addition, it's not simply the fact that we're stopping vehicles looking for the illegal weapons.

That's just a part of it.

A lot of it has to do as well with folks like you and I who are driving vehicles and their licenses are expired.

Yes.

Their cars are not insured.

Their vehicles are not licensed.

And and I've been out there throughout the years and even up to today.

When you hear, folks, we stop folks.

And the first thing they say is what?

Well, you know, why aren't you all day harassing at the border?

Yes.

Okay.

It starts with you.

The murderer, while they committed infractions of the law, when you don't register your vehicle, when you're driving without a license, without insurance, that in itself is an infraction of the law.

And I'm not saying that you're on the same scale of someone who had taken somebody's life, but the fact that it matters, you two must abide by the law.

You're just as culpable as anybody else.

And that's why we make those those stops.

Now to the second part of your question regarding the, you know, just what comes out of them.

The it's it's amazing where you see folks that are how many tickets we've issued, how many weapons we've confiscated, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, for instance, when it comes to tickets, can tell you that there's been an increase in the amount of tickets that were issued traffic.

Several weeks ago.

Our traffic enforcement conducted a one week trial of real, I want to say, a real hard push of traffic enforcement we issued on his island of Saint Thomas.

We issued 600 citations in a week, 600 citations.

Now, there are two parts to that.

The first part is that we have to, as far as the VIPD have to take responsibility because we had not been enforcing those traffic citations and enforcing the traffic laws as much as we should have been and as a result of that unit, 600 tickets, but also on and unfortunately, it goes to show as well that our people sometimes just don't give a hoot and want, you know, and they continue to violate our laws as simple as it sounds, with, you know, with traffic violations, if you're going to drive on our roadways, you must follow the law.

It's that simple.

On cold cases, we had a great show, a great production here on TJX under your leadership that talked about cold cases that have been some as many as 30 years back looking for the murderers of individuals in the community.

Where does the process stand with cold cases and is it an ongoing push under your leadership of the VIPD to try to solve some of these unsolved crimes?

And how can the community help?

Well, yes, the short answer is yes.

We're going to continue to push the on the cold case.

I think that the with the partnership with WTJX in short order, you know, you're going to see us yield some arrests.

We've already had detectives based on tips after those the air in of those cases who have already traveled to the mainland, interview individual individuals that are incarcerated on the mainland, individuals who have moved away, family members, you know, possible witnesses to crimes.

And so, yeah, it was extremely successful.

Where you haven't seen a specific arrest thus far is that it takes a lot more than than that.

You know, we still have that because at times you're talking about cases that are five, ten years, even longer than that.

And it takes time Once we receive those tips to now build the cases.

And then from the cases, of course, now we got to put affidavits together for arrest warrants and stuff.

And unfortunately, also some of the perpetrators of these very crimes that we received tips on, they themselves have already made their their untimely demise.

Yeah.

You know, so that's real quickly interrupt you when that does happen.

Does the department announce that make a formal announcement that this individual perhaps was the perpetrator in a particular crime and so therefore the case is closed?

How does a department handle that?

So in prior years, we didn't do a good job at that.

We just administratively closed cases and that was it.

You advised the family members, and we know we never really went public under my watch.

It's going to be a little different.

I think the public in and of itself deserves to know that We went ahead, we investigated this case, and we closed this case administratively.

And of course, we don't just get to close it administratively just based on our position.

It actually goes to the attorney.

All of our findings go to the attorney general's office.

They take a look at it and from a legal perspective, they then approve for us to close cases administratively when the perpetrator is no longer with us This time goes quickly.

We only got a few more minutes under your leadership.

Let's talk about the statistics, crime statistics, especially as it relates to homicide, which I think is a major statistic that everybody looks at and initiatives that you have implemented and things you'd like to do down the road.

Okay.

Well, Leslie, I mean, the you know, they say when you're at the top, it's it's sometime appears to be all on you.

But I can tell you that the success of that, we have experience really has a lot more to do with the officers.

Okay.

My detectives, my officers, the supervisors, just, you know, the entire team as a whole, when we start talking about the the what we've done so far, as far as initiatives, those weren't just the three Martinez initiatives I came in.

Everybody knows I has a I have an open door policy.

Officers stopped me in the hallway and they're like, hey, you know, commissioner, I think we should do X, Y, and Z, and and, you know, we listen to them.

And so as a result of that, what happened is when I took over in July of 2021, the we changed up the we changed the way we did business and we dropped a number of we were able to drop our homicide rate just for that half of the year to reduce it by I think it was like maybe six or seven homicides as compared to that stretch from July to December and previous years.

And last year in 2022, we went and while it's still unfortunate, we ended up with 37 murders over the overall three islands, which of course was like some 20 odd percent reduction in previous years, So that 37 was the lowest it's been in 15 now and the second lowest in 20 years go out this year.

Again, we you know, we're off to the doing well as far as having the statistics a little lower.

But, you know, one murder is just one too much.

Yes.

Thus far this year, I think we have 31 and with two and a half months to go.

And it's not just about trying to keep the murders low.

Violent crime is going to occur.

I don't care what we do on.

And I think that's something the public needs to understand.

Someone is going to lose their cool and take somebody's life.

So a lot of times why we try to look at those from a statistical standpoint to say, well, it's lower for me.

It's more that when it occurs that we close those cases by arrest, that's that's huge for me.

But again, the initiatives we continue the initiatives I know board chiefs Phillip and Chief Santos are really the ones that push these initiatives.

A lot of it falls on them.

And again, we got we have to run, unfortunately, we run out of time, but please don't be a stranger.

Thank you for joining us on comes with the territory.

Coming up, this week's power panel joins the conversation.

But first, a rundown of other important news in the territory.

The water crisis continues on St Croix and things have only gotten worse.

There is no cause for panic At a press briefing last week, Governor Albert Bryan Junior joined the Virgin Islands Water Power Authority to warn residents that high levels of lead and copper were discovered during water testing in some areas.

On St. Croix Wapa█s said the contamination was discovered as they were addressing the brown water issue.

The crucians had long complained about.

The governor said safe water was being delivered to Alfredo Andrew's Elementary School.

This inquiry educational complex in John in junior high school, all of which use potable water for cooking purposes.

In the meantime, Senate President Novelle Francis presented a bill seeking to allocate $150,000 to supply bottled water to crucian households affected by the crisis.

At large, Senator Angel Bolques Jr. called for a water price freeze to address the water crisis as well.

And St. Croix Senator Samuel Carrion continued his calls for a state of emergency.

Samuel Carrion wrote, For two months now I've been saying that this water was undrinkable and that we were facing a crisis situation.

This is why I called for a state of emergency in early September.

The results are now in, but how long will it take to address this issue?

Truly?

A hearing is set for early next year to decide the next steps in the federal case against Alfredo Bruce Smith, The former Charlotte Amalie High School coach who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing underage male students.

A judge recently deferred a decision on accepting or rejecting a plea agreement Smith signed last month, admitting to all 20 counts in the federal indictment, including rape, coercion and production and receipt of child pornography.

The charges stem from incidents that occurred during the 15 years Smith worked as a hall monitor and track and field coach at the HS.

Prosecutors said Smith used his position to entice minor male students to engage in sex acts in classrooms and offices on campus during and after school hours.

Under the plea agreement, Smith faces a maximum sentence of 35 years of imprisonment and a minimum sentence of 30 years.

A hearing to decide whether the court will follow the sentencing recommendations is set for February 9th.

It's called due process and justice.

Therefore, colleagues, I'm asking you all to vote a resounding no to this unethical resolution.

That was a birth from lies Vote on Fox and Fox alone.

Despite his passionate pleas on the Senate floor, all 14 senators voted last year to expel at large Senator Steven Payne from the 34th legislature amid sexual misconduct allegations.

Now Payne is suing his former colleagues, claiming they did not follow proper procedure and had no authority to remove him from office.

And his lawsuit is moving forward.

A judge rejected the defense's argument that Payne's lawsuit is moot because the 34th legislature doesn't exist anymore.

Payne and his attorneys contended that the issues in question extend beyond the 34th legislature.

The lawsuit is asking the court to declare that Payne's removal is unlawful and to mandate that Payne be awarded damages and compensation for the time he was denied for his expulsion.

It also seeks a declaratory judgment that the 34th legislature and all subsequent legislature have no statutory authority to expel duly elected members of the legislature.

Seemingly self-confident and assured, Governor Albert Bryan Jr sounded off on several issues during a recent 1 to 1 interview with the Virgin Islands Consortium.

Popular topics addressed in the wide ranging interview included school maintenance issues on Saint Croix, which prompted widespread protests by teachers and students.

The 10% max required by the federal government to fund disaster recovery projects.

Senate support for his plan to address derelict buildings in the Territory.

And the status of the governor's relationship with the First Lady.

I get it.

People are upset.

It's hot.

But the thing for me is, is nothing they're protesting about is going to be fixed tomorrow.

Well, the department of Education has come out with a plan stating that they're going to fix all these issues in 30 days.

Right.

And I don't know why.

Well, I mean, I think that there's a there's some things that they're going to fix in 30 days to try and impossible to fix all those.

I mean, come on.

How so?

With what crew?

With what?

Construction team?

With what supplies?

You know, the 10% situation that the federal government has so far refused to.

The wave to wave.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's.

That's a real threat for people who are watching.

So it's good to have a $50 billion recovery, but it means that we have to find $1.5 billion.

One of the things we're saying is, okay, don't don't pay for everything, but just pay for the critical projects, the hospitals and schools on the ground.

But even with that, we're still going to have to come up with about another extra 500 million.

Are you going to pursue the derelict building situation?

You know?

Absolutely.

The legislation is finished.

The first draft is finished.

We're going to have that out in circulation.

You think you're going to get that passed?

Yeah.

You know, the one thing I know people know me, right, is three times I went for the GERS, you know, people protested against the john.

We got that they ramshackle about $150 million in the legislature to the for the line of credit.

I got that.

It's like I win it all the time.

Am I being affected by personal matters in my life?

You know, I don't think so.

I mean, I'm in a good place mentally.

I think I I'm getting my rest.

I'm doing a lot of the stuff that I couldn't do in my first term because I've been married for 27 years.

And I always tell you and I said, I'm married to the people of the Virgin Islands for the next week when there is an official statement to be made, I will make a statement because to your point, I mean, the people not only need to know, but there are people who are concerned about things that are going on in my personal life.

But what I'm saying to people is, you know, that's not the issue with me.

I think we're moving along at a good pace.

We're having a good Joining me now to unpack that interview, the Payne lawsuit, the water crisis and other issues of the day is this week's power panel, which includes Ernice Gilbert, founder and editor in chief of the Virgin Islands Consortium.

Prominent local attorney Adriane Dudley, partner of Dudle Rich LLP and former senator, now host of WTJX█s, analyzes the best radio talk show in the Virgin Islands.

Neville James joins us virtually from Saint Croix.

Welcome, everyone.

Senator James, we're going to come straight to you because the first topic we're going to discuss is, of course, Senator Payne and being a former senator.

The legal argument here is whether or not the 34th legislature had the right to remove a member in the way it stayed.

That's what's being debated by his attorneys.

And of course, his attorneys are saying the only the revised Organic Act gives provisions for a recall of the senator.

What's your take on that?

Well, you know, first of all, let me say that my and it's a pleasure to be here with this power panel.

And actually, Lesley is the first time we're working together.

And so I'm excited to be excited about that.

So let's yeah, let's also let's let's get that clear.

I'm actually dumbfounded as to why the court has actually dismissed this case.

We have history that actually speaks to what Senator Payne went through.

1989, the legislature expelled then Senator Kenneth Mapp because he had a registration issue where he apparently registered to vote in the state of Georgia and then ran for office during the same term, the same time frame was successful in 1988 and then subsequently removed by the members of the eighth legislature.

That's number one.

Number two, are we in the 32nd legislature?

We refuse to admit Senator Kevin Rodriguez under the same premise where he had filed for bankruptcy in Tennessee and then ran for Senate within the same time frame.

In other words, he claimed residency in the state of Tennessee and ran for Senate in the Virgin Islands.

So I'm curious as to why this case was not actually dismissed before.

Now, I'm hearing that because I did my research and I when you asked me to come on the issue, I got to do my research.

I'm hearing that the case went forward on a procedural argument, not necessarily the merits.

And the judge hasn't ruled with respect to the merits.

So we'll wait to see how that pans out.

But frankly speaking, I believe the legislature, pursuant to the revised Organic Act, has the ability to remove members from the legislature.

And I want to explain the timeline with respect to candidates seeking public office.

From the time you'll find your petition to it, to the time that you're putting it to the window of when the election is certified, your candidacy is under the jurisdiction of the Board of Elections.

In between the certificate showing a window and when you swear in your your potential serving in the legislature is in the courts.

Upon convening the legislature and swearing in, then the legislature is the sole judge of its members.

And I believe Senator Payne was a senator at that particular time.

And the legislature had the righ Attorney Dudley, we're going to turn to you for the finer legal points in this matter, since you're the only attorney on the panel.

The Senator just mentioned legal precedents with the removal of Senator Kenneth Mapp in 1988.

Then there was the Senate's judging and ruling out Kevin Rodriguez to be seated in the next legislature with his residency being contended.

So clearly, this we have legal precedents for this.

What do you think Senator Payne's attorneys are legitimate points going into courts are you know, is it are in this case?

Well, I think there are a couple of points.

First, both Senators Mapp and Rodriguez went.

They didn't protest.

They didn't sue.

They just said, okay, fine, we're going.

Senator Payne, on the contrary, has said you have no right to do this.

So his counsel brought a lawsuit.

The interesting point about that lawsuit was that one of the grounds on which the court found and which the judge found that the police that the court that the suit lawsuit would proceed and not be dismissed was that the situation was capable of reoccurring.

So the fact that it occurred before and it's occurring now and the court rejected the argument that, well, the 34th legislatures dissolved, the 35th legislature can't do anything.

However, because the situation is capable of repetition, which it clearly is, the court found that it was worthwhile to support the lawsuit.

Now, where it goes from here, because that was, as quite rightly pointed out by Senator James, forgive me, a procedural maneuver.

This is now where we start to look at substance and the merits.

And I think it's going to be very interesting because how do you compensate a senator who's been expelled when the time of the legislature in which he was to serve or did serve is is expired?

And I don't have an answer for that.

Very interesting.

Ernest, you broke the news on the senator's arrest in Florida recently, and that came as a shock at the time.

The senator had allegations levied against him by several women in the community, but there was no arrest that had been made.

We didn't know of any legal proceedings going forward on the behavior that landed him in this position.

Now, while we're talking about in these, of course, it's an arrest.

So of course he's innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

But with the arrest coming at the time that it did, what do you think the community's view is now of the lawsuit and the decision that the legislature made?

And is there vindication now for the 34th legislature?

Well, somewhat.

First, good evening, everyone.

You know, it's a pleasure to be here.

I agree with the senator, former Senator Neville James.

And relative to what is happening in Florida now.

You know, the consensus within the community has always been, you know, that the senator needed to go.

You know, you look at you know, we look at the numbers, we look at the data, and you could see an overwhelming amount of individuals was, you know, he needs to he needs to be gone in terms of the suits and and, you know, as attorney immediately.

So clearly stated, I think, you know, there must be there must be times when whether you are elected or not, you you could be out of office.

Right.

And someone got it.

So what if, for example, he had shot someone and killed someone, for example?

Mm hmm.

Because he's a senator, he remains.

You know what I mean?

And again, precedent had been set with with the former Senate, the former legislatures expelling other senators.

But I think, you know, the idea that, you know, a senator cannot be removed from office no matter what just because he was elected, you know, I don't think that that's going to stand.

There's a point, however, and I'm not taking sides here because even as counsel for Senator Payne said, we can't really comment at this point.

We sure don't know where this is going to go.

But think for a moment about the rules that the Senate has for the conduct of its affairs and the ways in which it can remove or seat senators.

One of the points that was made was there was no citation to any rules.

And if that is so, if we just spontaneously decide, even though this was a dramatic occurrence, clearly that this senator, we don't like any more, we're going to expel, then you're violating the people's rights to elect a representative.

Another topic we mentioned at the top of the show and similar behavior, but I think to a much more atrocious level and one that I've stated publicly really bothers me, especially in the context of the Jeffrey Epstein situation that has plagued the territory.

But our children, our local children were involved in this.

And I think the breach of trust that, you know, took place with a teacher, a hall monitor excuse me, and coach someone that had authority over these teach these children using their power of influence and access to rape and sexually abuse dozens of our children.

I think that we have seen not enough coverage on this.

I think that not enough parents have spoke out about it.

I think there has not been enough assurances from the Department of Education that the proper measures have been taken to make sure that this never happens again.

And my problem right now is with the investigation that was announced two days after the initial arrest of Mr. Smith.

The Department of Education said they were going to do an investigation.

Several months later, it was turned over to the Department of Human Services.

To this day, despite conviction and pending sentencing that neither the Department of Education or the Department, the Department of Health and Human Services has told this community what the status of that investigation is, and most importantly, the fact that administrators at this school were aware of the situation, were briefed.

Complaints were made and they did nothing.

Senator James, I'm going to come to you first on the island of seeing Croix, because I know you've discussed this on your show.

I would like to hear what you think at this point.

The government of the Virgin Islands owes to the students and the people and most importantly, the victims.

How do we make it right for them?

Because we're talking about we're hearing about settlement dollars for Epstein victims.

But what about our children?

Well, you know, this is a very disturbing topic for a number of reasons that you clearly articulated.

However, what is totally, you know, just unacceptable for me is that we are we were talking about behavior in a school setting and the notion that this type of activity, this idea, you know, the belief that this type of activity was taking place in a school setting for so long.

Leslie Ernest, Attorney Dudley is totally mind boggling.

That's number one.

Number two, the penalties have to be severe and they have to be beyond the perpetrator.

I'm sorry.

You know, I tried my best, you know, not to get into the finger pointing thing because we're all imperfect and the eyes are the most high.

But what was done to these children, to me, is beyond criminal.

We are talking about long term trauma that a number of these all of these children are going to be subjected to.

And clearly, I believe what we're seeing here is the judge is not comfortable with the plea conditions that were agreed to, and that's why they pushed it on down the road.

I believe you mentioned a January decision, a final decision.

I'm sorry, but normally I don't really take this role.

But some heads are going to have to rule if they really want true justice for what happened to our children and not just our children, our community.

Because as you mentioned, we were, you know, totally stunned by the type of behavior that was taking place over that little Saint James.

And it looks like this was taking place right in the confines of the small Virgin Islands, in this case the islands in Thomas.

And then, you know, he not only was a monitor, he was a track and field code.

So clearly there's the thinking that this activity might have taken place when they were traveling to track and field competitions outside the territory or gosh, Lesley man, they've got a limit to what they could expect us as Virgin Islanders to stomach.

This is bad.

There's no other way to put it.

Attorney Dudley From a legal perspective, teachers, administrators are mandatory reporters.

What legal action could be taken if indeed it is discovered that administrators at the school found out had complaints and did nothing?

To the extent that the administrators and teachers are unionized.

The stipulations are going to be in their union contract.

I am not familiar with any provisions of law that actually enforce the mandatory reporting reporting situation.

I did have a case involving this at one point in the distant past, and there was no penalty for failing to report and there was no being called before the court or anything like that.

And I was I was surprised there may be a statutory penalty, but it's not observed.

And it's it is it's disgraceful, frankly, that there would be no reporting.

But this is this is not unusual in all of the athletics situations that have been encountered in the news over the past few years.

Larry Nassar being the most prominent of those with the Olympic athletes.

Everyone goes along to get along.

Nobody wants to make any noise.

Nobody wants to be the person that sticks their thumb in the air and says, Listen, we have a situation here.

And what it's to me, it's almost criminal knowing and not reporting and allowing these children to be victimized unnecessarily.

Well, I could not agree with you more.

In the Virgin Islands Police Department noted in the days immediately following his arrest that nobody reported to them.

So I do believe there are provisions on the books in the law for the administrators and or teachers that may be aware of the situation.

But we have to move on because our time is rapidly going.

Earnings Major interview with the governor recently.

And you covered a lot of topics.

First of all, let's we talked about the governor's confidence.

You've interviewed him several times.

Do you think he was probably at the pinnacle of his confidence in that interview?

So the governor loves these interviews, by the way, You know, have to make it known sometimes.

You know, we talk and say, you know, let's let's do it.

Most of the times I'm like, it's been a little while.

In this particular interview, he came off, you know, ready to talk, you know, ready to share.

And with a level of confidence to show his opponents is what he calls them, that, you know, he's winning and he's succeeding by.

But in this particular interview, you know, he humility would have been very good, a little bit more humility.

You know, the governor I try to get a lot of answers from him relative to concessions, you know, relative to some of the things that are happening in the community.

So we have the school maintenance situation, probably a little concession there.

You know, say, well, you know what?

We made some mistakes and we're trying to, you know, rectify those.

None of that, you know, is the schools are 40 years old.

You know.

What have you seen Bad schools.

You know, from topic to topic, the governor took the stance of defending every situation.

And I think as a community, we have very much forgiven folks, a lot of individuals who could say, you know, own up to a situation, I made a mistake.

And I think that is beneficial to politician.

But in this particular interview, the governor was straightforward, confident, his head high, you know, and he went with it.

Senator James, we're going to come to you on saying I'm sure you've seen the segments of the interview.

Which portions of the interview you found most interesting.

And with the school situation that garnered the protest on the island of Saint Croix, especially to nip to Ernice's point bad schools, have you seen them?

What solutions, other than we have federal money and we're going to be rebuilding schools.

Do you think the governor could have offered up?

Well, first of all, honest, that's the goal.

For your own sake.

You said, I'll play it out.

We're all here.

All here.

But what I see, the governor was in full flight and you didn't want to stop the governor.

So I think you got what you wanted.

What it was.

All this is your fault, not.

No, I'm just.

I'm just having some fun.

No, in all honesty.

Right.

There's two sides.

There's.

There's two sides to this.

Lesley, Ernice and Attorney Dudley, Number one.

Right.

The governor mentioned the election done right, which seems to me that he is speaking to his opponents.

Now, we live in a social media era.

So I believe the governor was responding to statements that he was hearing from the the the senators in this case.

I was Senator Kurt Vialet and Se Janelle Sarauw was the the team that the most competitive opponent for the governor, even though the Bryan Roach administration won in Arizona, they matter.

So, you know, the governor made some statements like that.

I always win.

Yeah, you always win.

And maybe so.

But you've taken some lumps along the way.

You know, Ernice spoke about humility.

This is year five of the Bryan Roach administration.

Clearly, the governor very, very happy that he was real.

He and a lieutenant governor wrote to his administration, was was reelected, feeling good.

Sometimes you catch people on a good day.

You can see from how the governor was sitting when he was speaking with honestly, he was very, very comfortable, what have you.

But Ernice is correct, though, as you age in that position, he is in year five, Right.

Supposed to be a little bit more reserve, a little bit more calm.

You know what?

You're not winning, Governor.

You want there's no more elections.

You're termed out.

Now it's time to perform.

We got a lot of recovery money.

I think he mentioned $50 million, of which a number of it has to do recently with waste management money.

So we'll see how that pans out.

But clearly, the governor, governor, feeling good and about at the end of day, he's going to be judged on his performance, not his interviews that he has with, you know, great interviewers like Ernice Gilbert.

I'm going to come to you, Attorney Dudley.

But Ernest, I want to come back to you.

I like how you segmented and a long interview like that.

It was over an hour.

You want to, in the social media age, break it up into pieces.

What portion you receive the most feedback from the public on the one with First Lady Yolanda Bryan and his responses to that?

Also, education and the derelict buildings in that in that honor.

Okay.

And so, you know, people are very much interested in the relationship between, you know, the governor and and the first lady.

You know, some folks, you know, there was a long debates on consortium, you know, with folks saying, you know, well, it's not our business.

Some folks and what it is.

I tend to disagree, by the way.

I think it is a business to not know an elected official in the world in a situation like that where it would not be reported.

So you have every authority to ask that question, I think.

And did it did you look like you said, you know, you look all around even recently with the Canadian president?

Yeah, basically.

Justin Trudeau Yeah, yeah.

And you know, the governor's responses, you know, obviously he couldn't he didn't want to divulge, divulge much.

He said when there's a statement sure to be made, it would be made.

And he also said he's married to the people of the Virgin Islands, which was an interesting statement.

A very interesting statement.

You know, I wonder if Barack could have said that to Michelle, you know, back in the day.

But it was a very interesting statement.

And, you know, the governor said he's going to see more when there is more to see.

Obviously, he did not see that everything was he did not cast me aside.

He did not really get the issue like unless you're talking nonsense.

We agree we are good.

You know, you know, you and this is a rumor just he said when there was something to be said, it will be said.

And so we'll see what happens.

I think it's, like I said of interest to the people of the territory, she's the first lady is the governor.

We want to know what is going on, especially when, you know, part of the governor's platform when he ran was the whole the whole idea of a family member having a level of decorum to government house.

That brand certainly was sold on the legal aspects of the derelict building proposal in the debates in the community, the town hall meetings.

A lot of people were concerned about the conservatorship just really briefly, how would that structure work?

The governor said he's sending them his legislation to the legislature.

He's ready, and he's confident that it's going to pass.

So how exactly, based on your understanding of the governor's proposal, would that work in the community?

Well, to be honest, I have not seen the governor's proposal.

What I have seen are documents related to the way the derelict buildings are supposed to be treated and the kind of land surrounding them and landscaping that's going to be required with respect to a conservatorship in general.

That means that a third body, a third individual or panel of individuals will, in fact, administer funds and directions and design and construction and so forth.

And the conservator will be responsible ultimately for the expenditure of the funds and the way in which they're spent.

And I think that's a good idea.

The question is who?

Sure.

Well, the governor mentioned nonprofit organizations, and we're going to come back to you on Saint Croix this week.

The governor had a press conference with fire TV director Daryl Jaschen and with WAPA, the head of distribution of the water system on Saint Croix.

So very alarming news was announced to the territory in the highlands of Copper and Lead have been found in the water in a state Mon Bijo Colquohoun estate, diamond and Castle Burke, all which are centrally located on the island.

There's a lot of fear right now.

And while the governor, I think did a good job in explaining how the government is going to approach this issue.

What are you hearing on the island of Saint Croix and how are people reacting to this news?

Very good question, by the way.

Very important question, Lesley.

I was fortunate to have the water and power authority on and I analyzed this.

We had the power hour the first Friday at a month.

I believe that was October the sixth.

Water and Power Authority gave us an update with respect to we're dealing with.

And of course, the audience can see exactly what's going on here on Saint Croix.

I had the Waste Management Authority on my show, I believe it was October 18th.

And I want I want to make something perfectly clear.

We are fortunate from the standpoint that money is not an issue at that at this particular point.

Our issue is bureaucracy.

Things are taking too long for the permitting process, contracting all that stuff, all the administrative work that's necessary before we're going to address the current situation.

That is that is dire.

Now, there is some work being done.

I can't deny that.

Right.

But let's face it, Lesley.

Territory wide, more in Croix than on Saint Thomas.

Our aging infrastructure is the issue.

And we've got these old rusty pipes, corrosion, what have you.

So let's hope that the administrative aspect of this process, of course, I'm looking at Sargassum as well, that that plays that plays a part in what we're dealing with.

But, you know, hopefully, you know, we can get the administration aspect, the bureaucracy behind us.

We have a lot of federal money.

I know that we have an issue with respect to the match, and that's a big concern.

But the reality is our Lesley, and this is a concern that I've had from when the previous administration inherited, I worked hard to get the first $8 billion.

This notion that the Virgin Islands had the ability to put in place a 10% match is totally ludicrous.

10% of $8 billion is $800 million.

Lesley.

Our our budget is between 800 million general fund between eight and $1,000,000,000.

We don't have this kind of money.

They need to be sensitive to what we're dealing with, you know, as relates to what we're hearing on the ground.

Yes, people are frustrated, but we are resilient people.

We've gone through a lot of hurricanes.

We know how to adjust.

Senator Francis had, moved legislation to address 150,000, I believe.

I believe we could double that number.

But we're going to be okay, you know, but we just need to know a timeline with respect to when they're going to get to work, get the bureaucracy behind us and the people are in critical get a sense of mental relief.

Everything is physical.

A lot of it is mental as well.

Absolutely.

Attorney Dudley, there are already talks about lawsuits and people are scared quite frankly.

We look to Flint, Michigan, and what took place there years ago.

And that's an issue that has not been resolved yet.

And individuals are still using bottled water to bathe, brush your teeth to cook.

How do you see us moving forward?

Normally with WAPA power is the issue, but now water.

So we've never really had concerns about water until recently.

How do you think this is going to affect the community and do you potentially see a class action or a march toward that may take place in the future?

There are pens scribbling and fingers typing as we speak.

I'm virtually certain with respect to actions, but those legal actions are not going to bring relief.

Ultimately, sure, there will be compensation, but right now what we need is relief.

And I think here we have a failure of priorities, executive and legislative priorities.

Money is received from the federal government.

It is supposed to be spent on A, B, C, There is so much money purely for infrastructure, purely it hasn't been spent on infrastructure.

We repair and we repair and we repair.

We don't replace.

We have the ability to replace.

The federal government has declared many of our institutions and systems to be so bad that they're more than 50% deficient and therefore can be replaced.

The money is there.

Why is it not being spent?

The fact that there is a match is the subject of a dispute and a continuing argument with the federal government.

But that is no excuse for allowing this system situation to remain unaddressed because it's a it's unacceptable.

And there's no reason for the people of the Virgin Islands to accept it.

EARNEST One of the things the governor said in his interview with you and I've heard him say publicly is we don't have enough people to rebuild schools.

We don't have enough people to work on the infrastructure.

Do you think that is a legitimate issue?

And if you were governor, how would you address that situation?

It's a difficult situation, and I think it's a legitimate issue if you don't have individuals to work.

And this is not only a problem that is unique to the territory, you see this across the mainland as well.

The governor has resorted to, as he says, illegal immigration, get folks from whether they are legal or not, get them from the eastern Caribbean, bring them here and provide basic ID and let them work.

Right.

If I were a governor, it would be something that I'd be I'd be focused on, obviously, because the funds are there forever.

You know, if we don't spend them by, I think 20, 26, you know, they're gone.

And there's high demand for federal dollars with the amount of disasters happening all across the mainland.

So it is a difficult situation and focus on try to find and identify how to solve it.

But mostly you'd have to find people from outside, make, you know, give incentives to have them come work here, raise the pay of individuals.

But it is something that is difficult.

You know, he he resorts to eliminate illegal immigration.

That's how bad it is.

And so it's something that must be addressed.

Attorney Dudley, you wanted to make a point.

Yes.

And that is that when I talked about priorities, we're not just talking about executive priorities, legislative priorities as well.

The agencies that serve to implement the design and the plans to correct the situation so ensure that they don't happen in the first place are grotesquely understaffed.

And there is there are vacant positions.

But what happens?

The cash for those vacant positions is reallocated to something else.

So even if you could find a person, are they going to be able to take a job that will pay a comp or a comparable salary to a position they could have somewhere else where the cost of living wouldn't be so expensive?

We have to face the fact that we can't keep dumping on the government to do things if we're not going to treat the government the way we expect a private business to behave.

We have to pay people.

We have to train them.

They have to have skills.

They have to have a reason for longevity.

There are businesses that have people who have been with them for 20, 30, 40 years.

Why they treat the employees well, they have good pay.

They have good benefits that doesn't happen.

Sure, the benefits are great, but look at the cost.

Look at what's happening with GERS.

We don't have people because we don't incentivize the people who could come to come here.

I got to go to never.

Real quickly, in 30 seconds, Neville.

How do we remove the bureaucracy that you think is holding up spending in the territory where they're going to take longer than 30 seconds?

But I know you know how it is with time.

So this is the problem we are dealing with for a lot of years.

But the reality is we are in a year five of the current administration.

This is the 35th legislature.

There is a legal branch of government to provide interpretation from time to time.

We got a lot of money.

If you need help, reach out to the federal government.

That's what they're there for.

I believe that we have a friend in the White House and President Biden.

We need to take advantage of that to the best of our abilities.

We're dealing with a political dynamic right now.

And, you know, hopefully, you know, got the money.

Resources is not a problem.

Yes.

Man and woman, power is a problem.

We got to, you know, beef up the recruiting, get that that skilled labor here, that attorney Dudley and Ernice spoke about.

So we can, you know, take advantage of this once in a generational window.

That's what we're dealing with with this kind of money.

And the culture is absolutely correct.

It's about replacing.

Right.

Replacing not, you know, bad dating.

Replace what needs to be.

Let's start brand new.

That's my take.

Well, I'd like to thank you all for joining us on this show.

This went by really fast, but this was a really good power plant.

That's all for the show we have today.

Be sure to tune in next Sunday at 1 p.m. for an all new episode of Comes With the Territory.

For your news updates, tune into TJX Newsfeed every weekday at 5 p.m. on 93.1 FM or by downloading the WTJX app.

I'm Lesley Comissiong for all of us here at WTJX Channel 12.

Have a great Sunday.