On this episode of Comes with the Territory.

A major sewer line replacement project in downtown Christiansted is causing disruptions for those living and working in the area.

We'll have more.

We'll tell you how the conflict in the Middle East is impacting the territory's effort to secure a waiver that could free up hundreds of millions of dollars for critical disaster related recovery projects.

Plus, I am not going on with a meeting unless Rey Martinez and his team is subpoenaed.

Senators lambasted Police Commissioner Rey Martinez and voted to subpoena him, to compel him to appear at the next committee meeting on Homeland security, justice and public safety hearing.

We'll tell you why.

Joining this week's panel discussion to analyze these issues and more are St. Croix Avis reporter Lasiba Knight.

Radio talk show host Jamila Russell, and Shomari Ayinde Moorehead, president of Our Town Frederiksted.

Comes with the Territory starts now.

Hello thank you for tuning into Comes with the Territory I'm Lesley Comissiong coming to you from the WTJX Studio on St.Croix, just up the road from downtown Christiansted, where the streets have been in disarray for months, courtesy of an ongoing sewer line replacement project.

As the holiday shopping season looms, fed up property owners are seeking clarity on a timeline for completion.

Ongoing construction as part of the Christiansted sewer line replacement and manhole rehabilitation project has sparked heated concerns among residents and business owners, with complaints ranging from noise and dust to potholes, traffic congestion and torn up roads.

Frustrated residents recently voiced their concerns at a heated meeting at Government House with the Waste Management Authority, the entity overseeing the project, the potholes are six inches deep and people are killing their cars.

They were first doing a job right in front of my building and they were using the hydraulic jackhammer and shells came crashing down in my building.

Media access was restricted at the meeting, with organizers permitting the recording of audio, but no video.

Waste Management Authority engineer Ron Phillips described the project in detail.

Right now we’re actually embarking on the Christiansted Rehabilitation project, which entails replacing the sewer lines that have been installed for approximately 60 years...

The project entails replacing close to 33,000 linear feet of pipe.

The only street that we’re actually not going to replace any of the sewer line is on Company Street.

Phillips said the initial project started on July 15th, 2022, with contractor Marco St Croix, Where was he supposed to be now based on the projected time frame?

Well the thing about it is right now, he’s farther ahead of the schedule because Marco is actually working on what we call parallel streets.

Like for instance, one time he was working on Church Street, And then at the same time he was working on King Cross Street.

So why doesn’t he pave the roads as he completed those roads?

Marco St. Croix owner Sean Baptiste claimed he was owed millions from Waste management for garbage pickup and said the authority has delayed his payment for the Christiansted project as well.

If Waste Management was doing what they needed to do, by December the roads would’ve been finished.

The job would’ve been complete.

Okay?

So who here can tell us why waste management isn't paying the bill?

The bill has been paid.

All the invoices from the contractor that was submitted have been paid and the contractor submitted the last invoice on Friday.

that's six months after, Griffith.

That's six months.

I been working how much months, and i ain’t been getting no money.

So don’t say that the bill has been paid.

Despite the apparent financial dispute, affected residents demanded action.

Your problem with not being paid is not our problem.

We pay our taxes.

We pay our gross receipts.

We are the ones who are suffering So what I would like to know, like all the people here is you know if you’re going to dig up a road, dig it up.

Don’t throw the pipes on the other side of the road.

There's a lot of disrespect for people's property in Christiansted right now.

It hurts my heart to see it.

I'm now joined by St. Croix administrator Sammuel Sanes and two downtown Christiansted business owners Shane Kuhlmann and Matthew Ridgway.

Welcome, everyone.

Administrator We just saw a very interesting clip and I can understand the frustration that both residents and business owners are experiencing right now.

Give us a brief overview of the project.

Well, as the as Ron Phillips stated earlier on, It's basically a project that will replace all the sewage lines except for one street.

I believe that's Company Street, and that's the simplicity answer in terms of what the project is all about.

The according to the the gentleman, Mr. Marco.

Baptiste really.

That’s his name.

Mr. Baptiste.

He is ahead of the schedule, but the dispute is whether or not he's being paid on time.

The fact of the matter is that unfortunately, Mr. Baptiste keeps bringing on to his own millions of dollars from his operations in terms of collecting garbage.

Let we distinguished this.

We got to we got to separate that what he’s owned in the past should not interfere with what he is doing now.

Okay.

He has a contract to do the sewage lines, period.

If he has some type of dispute or or he wants to be paid for past allegations, you know, he's he has every right to bring it up, but it should not interfere with the current project.

And so this wasn't discussed prior to him getting the contract for this.

I mean, you know, you have to think that there might be some some friction with someone that's already currently owed cover up, owed money by the government.

And we know the history on that with vendors getting paid on time, etc., etc..

But to have such an important project held up due to the possibility of not getting paid on time seems like something that should have been thought out before this project was important, according to the engineers and according to the administration.

In terms of waste management.

Yes, it was discussed and it was made clear that this project, which is a $8 million project, was all about replacing the sewage line.

It has nothing to do with past projects.

So they went away.

But that premises, they went ahead with that premises that he is going to stick to the contract.

That was signed to replace the sewage line.

But now that that's obviously not happening, how is the government going to fix this issue?

Well, what we're doing right now, we met with the gentleman several times.

As a matter of fact, we met with the last meeting.

It was with the business owners up in Government House.

But before that, we met with him several times to discuss payment.

According to CFO, Mr. Griffin payments is up to date.

But Mr. Baptiste is claiming that it's not.

So there is a dispute going back and forth.

we are going to review all the paperwork.

We are going to try to come to some type of resolution.

But it seems like every time we have a meeting, we really don't move forward.

But hopefully we do have the light at the end of the tunnel.

the light at the end of the tunnel.

Mr. Ridgeway, let's discuss some of the issues and concerns that Christiansted business owners have regarding this project.

Well, Lesley thanks for having me.

The concern is that it's really the same concern that Marco has.

He can't pay his people from his accounts receivable.

He can't hand out an IOU on Friday.

We're in the same position with the streets in the condition that they are.

We can't generate the revenue that we need to to pay our people at the end of the week.

So anybody that knows me knows that I love St Croix to a fault.

I'm one of its biggest champions.

But when you can't afford to pay your employees, you're forced to be more critical than you have been in the past.

And right now, it looks like there's a lot of blame and enough for everybody to go around.

Shane, you own a business right across the street from Government House.

How has your business been affected?

It's been a very slow summer.

It's been the slowest in a long time.

And people are just complaining they don't want to come to town.

They you know, somebody's always been in complaining about parking, but now there's no parking because half the streets are tore up and then it's not really safe to walk around on the street because people are scared they're going to fall in a hole somewhere and hurt themselves, basically.

So, administrator, when you hear these concerns from these gentlemen, it seems like we should be working on directly addressing those.

How is the administration working with local business owners?

Are there is there any kind of relief deferments on taxes that are being considered to help assist?

No, not at... Not at this time.

It hasn't reached that level.

We're probably going to have discussions about that.

But what we're trying to do right now is that we have now the board chairman, which is, as you know, Mr.. Gregory He he is he had a meeting yesterday with the governor, he had a meeting with the governor, and we decided to move forward and talk to Marco directly and find out what can be done to expedite this project.

So that's what we're doing right now.

There's some complaints that people have had about how the project was rolled out, and you would think that something that is this large of an undertaking, you know, you'd have more advertising, there would be a lot more order.

It's almost like saying, you know, from this date to this date, we're going to be digging up this street.

This is what the community should be aware of, and we're going to try and get things done right away.

How would you rate the government's performance on the execution of this?

So it's not every day that I get to hold WAPA up as a shining example.

But when we put the power underground and Christiansted the contractor moved street by street, they completed the work, they came back in, they paved, and the interruption to business was, in comparison, quite minor.

So it's hard for waste management to come up with an acceptable explanation for why this contract does not require Marco to go street by street paving once he's complete.

You mentioned that there's difficulty finding places to park.

There's also been reports of increased citations.

Police are giving people tickets because, of course, with no place to park, we get creative with our parking.

Have any of your customers complained about that or have you encountered that personally?

Yes.

That's always a complaint, though, because it's difficult to park in town.

So people will just pull up on the sidewalk or park in the taxi zone and things like that.

So that is that's always a challenge.

When they took out Christiansted parking lot street where no one could park there, that was an extremely stressful week for everyone because people were parking five, six, eight blocks away to try to get to their appointments and classes and such.

Yeah.

Administrator What's the line in the sand on this?

When does the government decide, Okay, enough is enough.

We have to take a different route in how we execute this project.

I do believe that in the past couple of days we have decided that we are going to enforce basically the contract.

And we have met.

We have met with the contractor.

We have met with members of our waste management, the engineers, and we have told them to come to an agreement, bring all the paperworks up to date and see if we can accomplish at least the streets that are going to be used for, I believe jump up for the festivities, see if we can fix those streets.

Do we have a date on that?

Do we have a have any deadlines been established by when we expect to accomplish this by.

I'm going to I'm going to take the responsibility the full accountability on it.

I believe that we're going to try to accomplish this before the end of the month.

Getting back to the meeting that took place at Government House and all the complaints that were launched, from a business owners perspective, what recommendations would you give to the government of the Virgin Islands to improve the situation right now?

You know, it's it's not my place to tell the government what to do.

And it's not actually, it is because you're a business owner, you pay taxes and every citizen has that right on an individual level, maybe.

But what I do know is it's not CRA's job to try to resolve a contract dispute.

It's our job to encourage our elected officials and our commissioners and everyone that's working in government and their contractors.

In this case, Marco, to do their job.

And that's what we're asking.

So if you play the audio from the meeting, CRA has decided that we will file an injunction, which will be followed by a lawsuit.

And I don't know what we're going to find in discovery, but there's really no excuse on behalf of the waste management, on behalf of Public Works or Marco for leaving Christiansted Looking the way that it does.

Somebody is going to be held accountable.

What drove your organization to decide to take a legal... Go the legal direction on this?

It was not our first choice.

This is our last result.

We don't have any other way of convincing people to do what they were supposed to do in the first place, then to find a legal route.

Shane, are you in agreement with the decision that the CRA has made in terms of, you know, going the legal route, filing an injunction on this project?

Yeah.

I mean, if you if you look at the streets and it's every single street, it's not just one street.

Had anyone paved the street when they were finished, nobody would be complaining.

Everybody be happy because, oh wow, we got you know, they fixed the problem and you can drive down the street now, but you can't pull down any single street without just going all over the road.

Yeah, I drove around downtown, Christiansted prior to coming and we have an employee that got ran over and ankle broke because of things like this, because you can't you know, the sidewalk access is kind of sketchy sometimes in spots, but when people are just looking out to, Oh my God, I can't hit a pothole or I’m going to tear my car up and then they’re hitting people because... they can't, you know, there's too much to try to pay attention to everything.

Administrator So when is the paving going to actually take place?

Good question.

I am to be honest with you, I'm hoping that hopefully by by next week we'll have an answer to that.

I truly believe my opinion now, this is this is citizen Sanes speaking.

Not the administrator.

Not... That's fine.

My opinion was like was mentioned earlier.

Why can't one street be fixed and paved and move on?

I've always wondered, asked about that.

No one could answer my question, but that would be the logical way of proceeding if that was done that way.

I don't think we would have this problem that we have right now.

So let me ask you this.

Who's going to be the contractor that's going to be selected or is there a separate bidding process or was it incorporated into the cost of this project?

It's incorporated into the cost of this project.

And is there a separate company that doesn't have a long standing disagreement with the government or is owed money that may use the same tactics that are being used now to defend the extension and the condition of the roads?

I do believe that we we could come to some type of agreement, hopefully in the next few days and hopefully in the next few days, we have a timeframe that we will be able to complete the roads.

And is the administration going to come out and meet with the business owners and let them know that, like you said, you mentioned something earlier, which I love accountability and I think it takes, you know, a good leadership to stand up and say, hey, this is the date.

This is when we expect to have this done and then have it done by that date.

How do you expect to interact and inform the community and the business owners and the residents of Christiansted once you once these factors are decided, we're going to have another meeting.

I was the one that organized the meeting at Government House with the help of a couple of business individuals.

We are going to meet with them.

We're going to explain to them how we're going to proceed.

But the fact of the matter is, is that I'm basically everyday walking the streets, walking, St. Croix, talking to people.

I just don't stay in my office.

I mean, I've met I met with Matthew basically almost every week.

We bump into each other.

I go talk to the business individuals there.

And it's not just the business people that are suffering.

We have to consider the the owners of those buildings because where consider the work is being done.

It's affecting the infrastructure of those buildings that we have in town.

So there is a lot of issues that we have to consider, not just the roads, but also our buildings.

I know you're not a contractor by any point of view, but you're also a business owner.

If you were to make recommendations to the government of the Virgin Islands, specifically to help assist business owners that may be suffering or experience decreased business as a result of this project, what would they be?

maybe just you know, I mean, the thing is it's it's kind of hard because you can't go back and get those sales.

You can't go back and make a good impression on people who visit the island when they come in and look and go, Oh, this is really weird, but it's basically just fix it and don't mess up again, You know?

I mean, it's it's if you pave these things, I'm assuming it may take a day or two to maybe pave one of the streets, start doing it, just do one, get some progress.

Right.

See one doing, and then maybe do another one the next day.

I don't know.

But the thing is, is it just it really needs to be fixed before we really get inundated with visitors this season.

Yeah.

And season is right around the corner.

It's actually here.

And then when the president comes, that's huge.

You know, let him drive through some of those potholes.

Mr. Ridgeway, same question.

So the way I look at this is St. Croix deserves better.

And it's not just for our visitors, it's for ourselves.

We we allow people to treat us in ways that I don't agree with.

So right now we're here talking about roads.

But what's a bigger crime than that?

Lead in the water.

6000 gallons of fuel being dumped by WAPA.

These things are unacceptable.

Yet I haven't heard anybody start making amends for it.

I haven't heard anybody being held accountable for it.

So Sanes touch on this earlier...

I think the biggest problem is you can't blame you can't blame the governor.

You can't blame one single agency, but you can't blame one thing, and that's the lack of accountability.

And so we as Crucians started holding ourselves accountable and start holding one another accountable for whatever it is, I think that this is going to continue.

And personally, I would like to see a brighter future for St. Croix.

And yes, having new sewer lines is a good thing in the long run, but how you get from A to B matters.

And in this case, we failed ourselves.

Gentlemen, I'd like to thank each of you.

Our time's up for joining me here on the panel.

Very useful discussion.

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

But first, a quick look at some other important news in the territory.

I know that there's billions of dollars being allocated or being requested for the war in Ukraine.

The war in the Middle East.

So I don't know how that will impact this... Funding request for the wars in the Ukraine and the Middle East will have a significant effect on the territories.

Chances of getting a waiver of the local matching requirement for the remaining federal funding from the 2017 hurricanes.

That's what disaster recovery director Adrian Williams Octalien told lawmakers at a recent Senate committee hearing.

It has a tremendous impact because it's really about funds and whether or not the availability of fund and where the priorities go for their existing dollars.

So, you know, the territory, we're very, very small.

We don't have that much in leverage.

I like the word leverage, and we will, but we're not going to stop.

They really don't want to set any precedents in terms of waiving this 100% as it has never been done.

But Congress gives them the right to do so.

So we keep talking.

Governor Albert Bryan, Jr. has persistently lobbied without success for the federal government to exempt the Virgin Islands from the 10% local matching provision for numerous public assistance grants,.

A move that could free up billions of dollars needed to finish critical disaster related recovery projects.

At a press briefing last month, the governor said the local match far exceeds his administration's initial estimates.

At the beginning of the storm, we thought it would be anywhere between five and 700 million.

So we put aside the CDBG money, 500 million to make this 10% match.

So the Virgin Islands gives up 10%.

The federal government gives them 90%.

Well, that that recovery has now grown to 15 billion.

So we need 1.5 billion money, but $1.5 billion in order to participate.

So that means if we don't find the 10%, then the projects can get done.

To put that in perspective, our total economy is only 4 billion.

Our annual budget is not 1.5 billion.

So it's a lot of money for us to raise if Congress, if we don't get a successful waiver of the money requirements what are our alternatives as a territory?

And how does that impact our ability to really rebuild?

Well, it definitely does, because we don't we then wouldn't have the full amount for contracts to be able to pay.

What we've done is to identify those projects that we know are moving forward, for instance, like Charlotte Kimelman.

The amount of funding that's left available for CD... with the CDBG funds will prioritize those funds.

And we're looking at those funds that will, those projects that will be completed before 2026.

The short answer to that, we may have to go out for bonds, leverage bonds so that we can get financing for some of these bigger projects.

We're really looking over projects at $700,000,000.

$800,000,000.

Even up to $1,000,000,000.

So we have to be very strategic about the resources that we have and we may need to borrow in order to meet some of those requirements.

At a recent Senate committee hearing on St. John, multiple residents took to the floor to express concerns about escalating crime on the island.

It's at an all time high and it is scary.

Armed robbery.

The things that really scare us.

These happen including one in broad daylight at a prominent jewelry store in Cruz Bay last season, right in mid-season, apparently with the getaway car.

How could they not have been apprehended?

Given our limited road system.

We all wonder.

And some night a go one of my driver and the passengers get hold up at gunpoint.

robbed and everything, and up to now... nothing do about it.

We got robbed right here next to this building.

High day.

with the same legs that we put up.

Nothing.

They thieving cars.

People are still leaving keys in cars, and they doing robberies with stolen cars.

So it's a lot of things.

And it's not one taxi driver that was robbed on St. John.

It's two actually.

There was one sitting on the lookout and he was robbed.

So it's really unsettling what's going on.

on St. John.

Residents found it particularly unsettling that the hearing lacked any representation from the police department.

I am not pleased that there is not a representative from the VIPD present.

That's one of the reasons why people don't give the VIPD feedback in certain things because you know you have to become a team player.

It is disheartening and a bit dissatisfying to not see a representative from the Virgin Islands Police Department here.

This is disgusting.

It's disrespectful and it's dangerous.

Senator Franklin Johnson directed his criticism towards Police Commissioner Ray Martinez and his leadership team.

Ray Martinez live right across there and he can show up to listen to the residents of this territory when crime is ramping all over this place.

It's a shame.

You have a commissioner.

You have two assistant commissioner.

You have two chief.

You have a deputy chief.

You have a two captains.

And you tell me not one person in this chamber.

Not one.

It's a disgrace.

When the leader of the police department don't even send one representative here.

It tell me we need a new commissioner.

In a letter to the Senate, Martinez explained his absence, citing a scheduling conflict with BIT’s Internet For All Workshop.

Pictures of that event were posted on social media.

Johnson urged his colleagues to mandate the presence of the police commissioner at future hearings.

If we going to call any more hearing with Commissioner Ray Martinez, it has to be by subpoena.

Second.

Let's make the motion.

Let's make it happen.

The senators ultimately voted to issue a subpoena for Martinez and his staff to appear at the next scheduled hearing for the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, Justice and Public Safety.

Joining our panel for this episode, we have Jamila Russell, host of the popular radio talk show Just Jamila.

we have Shomari Moorehead, president of Our Town Frederiksted.

And Lasiba Knight, a reporter for the St. Croix Avis.

Lasiba, let's start with you.

You were at the meeting at Government House.

You heard the concerns of the residents and business owners.

in Christiansted.

What do you think that the government can do differently to help improve this situation for Christiansted.

Well, listening to it from the contractors perspective, the biggest thing that they could do is pay on time.

One thing that he said that really stuck with me was the fact that he went six months without having any money coming in from that contract and speaking to the engineers at Waste Management.

They're actually rather pleased with the progress of the job.

It's ahead of schedule and he never paused work.

The one thing he didn't do, and you get the sense that it was to kind of hold on leverage for this moment is reframe from paving.

So they dug the trenches, they laid the pipe, but then they left it open because, you know, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

So, Jamila, we're looking at a series of once in a generation projects that we have the opportunity now since the hurricanes to fix.

What lessons do you think the government can take from this experience?

with Christiansted and moving forward and implementing better procedures, policies, communications with the public to not have this frustration because we can expect this in the future with other projects that are going to happen throughout the Territory.

First and foremost, they need to communicate with the public.

I think there was a lack of communication when this project started.

The the timelines that would be involved, the inconveniences that one would experience.

And then on top of that, the government needs to have somebody.

managing the project.

You need somebody on site from the government's side making sure that when one road road is paved, when one road is dug up, it's paved, and then you move in.

Simple things like putting up signs that lets the residents and our visitors know, pardon our appearance where under construction.

You know, just give the public information so that we can better plan and businesses can move accordingly because we have businesses downtown that suffering.

However, this project has to be done, but I think the communication and the management of the the resources that we have, which is very limited, has been poor and we need to tighten that up as we move forward with a lot of these federal projects that will be coming online.

Shomari, you’re a business owner and you heard Mr. Ridgeway and Mr. Coleman talk about be a little reticent to mention that the government should be assisting businesses in a situation like this if there's not some sort of subsidy or allowances or extensions on filing of taxes or paying taxes outside of that, how can the government better work with businesses so we can all get through this together, other than including let's just say some of the things that Jamila just mentioned?

I think the biggest part, you know, is the communication keeping businesses up to date on what's happening, staying informed, you know, putting up signage, you know, waiving penalties on parking, waiving penalties on, you know, late filings.

You know, I went to the post office in Christiansted and the one of the agents jokes, she's like, what street did you go down the one way?

And we laughed about it.

And I was like, what are you talking about it?

She said, Come on, you had to have gone down a one way street the wrong way.

Nobody can just drive through the way, you know, town is setup right now.

She was right, actually reversed down a one way street just to get to the post office because the streets were blocked up and it was either drive around and around to get to the post office or reversed down a street.

So, you know, luckily a police didn’t see me, but if a police did you know, I think it would be appropriate for them to make exceptions for these kind of things to happen.

Someone talked about, you know, tickets and stuff like that.

They're out there giving tickets.

I used to work at the RT park on Church street and you see that happening.

So making allowances for, you know, late filings of businesses in Christiansted.

You were affected because you know it takes long to get out.

It takes long to get back in.

There's no online things that you can do.

So you've got to get in person.

You got to mail and stuff like that.

So I think definitely making allowances for businesses to park, you know, working with the the fort to extend hours with Brooklyn Park there as well because they don't open till nine and they close at like four, 430.

So yeah, that's impractical.

Yeah.

So, you know, these are things that need to be done to help the business community in Christiansted.

Let's go to Frederiksted.

And you're the president of Our Town Frederiksted.

Activities for tourists.

We have new agreements that have been completed with our Port Authority to attract more visitors.

But there's a cart and horse type situation where we want to bring people in, but then things for them to do and sprucing up Frederiksted.

To make its natural beauty even more appealing for visitors.

What ideas does your organization have that could that can be implemented to help better the tourism product in Frederiksted?

So one of the things that we did prior to me joining Our Town Frederiksted back in May was the the board at the time did a survey of residents in Frederiksted to find out hey, what are the things that are passionate about for you as a resident, as a business owner in Frederiksted, and so we got a lot of feedback from the community about things like, you know, cleaning it up.

One of the things we're looking at is working with waste management, and Public works to... maybe do cleanup days where we put bins out so that we can get people to volunteer and help some of these abandoned properties, board them up, beautify them, paint them these kind of things to help the place look a lot better.

This Christmas season, we're working on brightening the town, so you'll see a lot more lights on Strand Street and King Street.

This Christmas season.

So we're starting small and trying to get things to get going.

We need people in the community to do activities, to create activities for visitors and for residents, right?

So we don't want to just do, you know, tourist seasons.

November to April, May, which you want things people to do in a community year long.

So one of the things that we have is Jungle James in La Grange.

Havving people do things like that.

And then you know the role of the government can play in that is making it easier to do business in the Virgin Islands, you know, making it easier to get a business license, making it easier to file your taxes.

Economic Development Authority has funding options for businesses, in Frederksted.

finding opportunities to partner and really help the business community, help people who are, entrepreneurs who want to grow, who want to do things, give them the training to make those things happen.

Let me ask you something, Jamila.

Two things actually moving the legislature from Frederiksted to its current location.

Do you think that was one of the factors that have helped to, you know, reduce traffic in and further take away from the appeal of Frederiksted.

and the governor's derelict building proposal?

Oftentimes in the discussion you hear the governor specifically mentioning the buildings in Frederick said real quick fixes.

And I've seen technology use in other locations where there's, you know, inexpensive print material that can be put over buildings and kind of you wrap them, they wrap the building materials.

Why are we implementing things like that here that can be done and aren't super expensive and could immediately have an impact on the esthetics of Frederick said, I think sometimes we lack innovation.

We have been doing things a certain way for so long that whenever you ask somebody to think differently, they're resistant to change.

Everybody wants a problem fix, but nobody wants the change that goes around with addressing the problem and and the the work that goes into making the problem go away or fixing the problem, so to speak.

However, the the move from from Frederiksted to Christiansted of the legislature that was a tremendous blow.

As a native Frederiksteder I felt that.

But I think that there's so much opportunities in Frederiksted We do have a lot of businesses, and I think that the government you know, to a point shamar made, the government has relaxed the the the restrictions or the process in getting a business license you can apply to get an expedited business license.

You don't have to present a tax clearance letter for your your initial business license.

No for your business license renewal.

So the legislatively the government has tweaked processes so that you can attract new businesses to the territory.

However, there is the educational component where there aren't enough education on programs, the Economic Development Authority.

We don't hear them promote their products.

We don't hear to the RT park.

If there is availability at the park, they they target outside entities.

And there's nobody cultivating from the inside.

And so we need to start educating our locals about how to become entrepreneurs and guiding them towards those agencies that have funding to help them start businesses.

I hear you say the government the is derelict, abandoned and derelict properties proposal.

However, I work in the legislature and the person that I work for has had that legislation from the 33rd legislature and we've been working on it.

It's a huge measure, but it requires working with the probate division of the court system, and you can't address one without addressing the elephant in the room, which is the probate matter.

We have 800 plus probate cases in the Territory, 475 in Saint Thomas about, and about 350 something on on Saint Croix.

And until we can clear those probate matters in the court, we're going to have a lot of problems with those properties that are abandoned and derelict because a lot of them are tied up in the probate court.

Absolutely.

Lasiba.

one of the recent impediments to our recovery process that we're now hearing from the administration is the fact that the crisis in the Ukraine and now the new Israeli-Hamas war may present our US government with financial challenges and naturally with upcoming an election in 2024 presidential election, the potential of leadership changing the spending priorities of the Congress may change and people start to look for pockets of money and unspent money.

Are you quite convinced those specific instances or crises will affect our chances of getting the funding that we need to put for our matching funds that we need to get some of these projects going?

You're talking about the likelihood of Congress being willing to embrace a 10% a waiver of the 10% match rate?

Correct.

You know, I never really saw that is very likely.

Congress really likes to maintain these provisions.

And I don't I don't I just don't see the the fallout from Ukraine and Israel muddying that or, you know, being the reason why we don't get the match.

I just don't think Congress would go for it in the usual course of business.

Same question, do you think?

I mean, when I heard it at first I was like, wait a second, Hamas is going to affect us in the Virgin Islands.

This has been an issue we've had even before this crisis erupted on October 7th.

Are you believing what we're being told?

No.

You know, Congress likes to set precedent, Right.

So if they make an exception for the Virgin Islands, Whats to say that Florida is going to ask for the same exception?

or Texas or Louisiana, Alabama and New York.

So, you know, it's just not going to happen.

You know, I don't see it happening.

Like Lasiba said, you know, I just don't see that happening in the Virgin Islands.

But Congress has a responsibility to the people of this territory until we can change our status with the United States.

Congress has a responsibility as our colonial leaders to ensure that we have the resources necessary to be able to rebuild and strengthen our infrastructure after the storm.

We are their responsibility.

They want to treat us like children.

Then they need to take care of us as parents, take care of their children.

We're not adults like states.

We we can't move independently.

And so therefore, the Congress is aware that they haven't returned our excise taxes on gasoline, something that I think that we have been owed billions of dollars on.

And we haven't been able to get an extender on our rum cover over which rum that's produced in our territory.

And they know that we don't have the resources, the revenues, to be able to rebuild.

And so it's either you give us the money to help us now, you know, old people say you either pay for it at the front end or you go to pay for it on the back end.

So they're going to have to make a decision on whether or not they want us to rebuild or we're in a hurricane zone, wait until the next hurricane, and then that the bill is going to be compounded and they have a legal responsibility as our parents to take care of us.

But I'm going to push back on that a little bit.

These issues in terms of our financial health as a territory have been around, as my grandmother would say, since Rock of Ages was a pimp.

Mm hmm.

And we have constant examples of where we have mismanaged funds and we know this.

And it's not the elephant in the room because you've listen to our talk shows, you, I'm sure, deal with it ad infinitum.

When do we prove to our colonial parents, Let's just see that we can handle business here.

Because if I were the parent looking at our performance, I'd say at some point you got to grow up.

And at some point you've got to start being able to take care of business and show me that, you know, You ready to take on the status debate or ready to gain that independence is like when you want to take the keys for your parents with the car for the first time.

Are you responsible enough for that?

And we haven't shown that.

And going back to this project and Christiansted is a fine example of that.

If we're not handling those small things, how do we get to the bigger piece of the pie that the development that work that you talked about that we need to put in to actually see the change in this territory?

I think part of that is, you know, really, really looking at who we have in positions.

You know, I go back to old daily news articles from the seventies and eighties.

A lot of the issues that we had then are the same issues we have now.

Absolutely.

WAPA, education, the cost of groceries, cost of transportation, education.

So, you know, if we recycle, if we change people in government house know Governor Bryan was probably even born in the seventh the early seventies right.

Who's to blame that right.

We as as citizens of the Virgin Islands, as you know, the shareholders are the owners of this community.

We have to take responsibility.

We have to demand the things that we want.

We want better.

We have to demand that.

We can't say, oh, you know what, waste management into this or WAPA into this.

We have to start demanding the things that we want.

And there's enough of us that know better that can have the conversations.

You can call people directly and say, hey, you know, what have you thought about doing things differently and not just chastising it?

Because one of the things I realize in the Virgin Islands that people have a hard time with not even here.

People have a hard time being chastised.

Everyone wants to be respected.

Everyone wants to be treated as an equal.

So I can't expect them to know everything.

I can't say, hey, have you you know, they haven't done this because they don't know.

Correct.

But I think in having a conversation, we learn from one another.

So it's like going to, you know, directive of warfare, you know, commissioner of education saying, hey, you doing these things?

But have you thought about doing these things differently?

And a lot of times we find that it's like a light goes off.

Yeah.

You know, I didn't think about it.

And I've experienced I would put people in education, people in in finance, people that EDA and it's helping them.

And I think we need more of that happening versus the traditional.

You know, writing an editorial chastising, getting on a radio, chastising them with it's not we need to see some action.

We got to move on.

Ray Martinez recently stood up the legislature and I'm going to come to you, Lasiba with this.

What's your take on that situation and what happened?

And are you familiar with the dynamics and the meeting that he offered to a miss?

Let me sit in that.

Let me not to avoid, but miss his appearance before the legislature.

Yeah, it's not it's not a great look to blow off the legislature to go on a conference.

You know, he said he had a preexisting scheduling conflict, but you would think that you would prioritize a meeting about crime when crime is kind of running rampant on Saint John right now.

That would be your main focus.

But, you know, maybe the tickets were nonrefundable, Jamila.

But, you know, open disclosure, I work in the institution and a lot of times what people don't is some committees invite you to appear and if you get invited, you can decline an invitation.

And sometimes a committee chairs work around your schedule.

Typically, the people I work for, we require you to appear.

So there's a slight difference in in your wording, in your in when you want somebody to come before the legislature.

That being said, I don't think that anybody should disrespect the institution.

I think that if you're invited, you should accept the invitation unless, you know, he said he had a prior engagement.

Normally, chairs work around your schedule.

I don't know what happened in that instance, but most typically, most people, you know, accept your invite or they appear when asked to appear.

The issue I have, you know, I'm from Saint Croix and I haven't heard a hearing being scheduled on Saint Croix to address the slate of violent crimes on Saint Croix.

We've had young men killed in on Saint Croix.

And, you know, nobody had a hearing on seeing Croix immediately convene to address.

While I feel for my Saint John and brothers and sisters, they experience three robberies and they wanted to you know, they demanded a hearing and have Ray Martinez to appear.

Where is that vigor and zeal?

From my elected officials in my district, when we have young men being on the streets of Saint Croix, I would like to have a hearing on that.

And I would like to hear what Mr. Martinez has to say about that.

We have had in the last we have 23 students up for expulsion from the St. Croix educational complex.

And we didn't convene a hearing to address from the police department the violence that's occurring in our school system.

And so while I feel for Saint John, it begs the question about whether or not that the zeal was for which which set of Virgin Islanders.

Very interesting.

But to the point you just made, we have to demand accountability.

And so it looks like the demands are there.

Because to Jamila’s point, I agree.

And the murders did just start.

They've been happening.

But are we asking for those hearings?

Are we the people demanding that we need to talk about this and this is important enough?

What do you think about the whole dynamic with Saint John demanding, you know, hey, where's the commissioner?

We need to talk about this for three robberies.

No, they're doing exactly what they should be doing as constituents.

And I think that's what's happening or what's not happening in Saint Croix especially.

We're not demanding that these things happen.

You know, we're not holding people accountable the way we should.

And, you know, if Mr. Martinez can't make it, he's got, you know, assistant commissioner, that could show up in his place.

You know, I have a lot of times where I can't be in two places.

I can't attend to client meetings, but I'm not going to stop business and say, well, and I'm going to this one.

I will send someone my pleas and say, Hey, can you take care of this meeting while I do this?

And so it means either him going to the conference and someone going to the legislature or vice versa, he or the legislature somewhat supports the conference.

But with that, I also say, you know, the legislature has a duty to be more respectful in the way they treat the people that come before them.

And that's been a sore point for me because I've seen it before.

I seen, you know, different people in the legislature and it is going in front and it's just like a so just that willingness to chastise people and to really get on them and not have a respectful conversation.

So I can see why people blow them off, because, you know, who wants to go in front of a group of 15 people just to be chastised?

The governor spoke publicly about his marriage during a wide ranging off the cuff interview with the Virgin Islands consortium last month.

Let's take a look at what the governor said.

I've been married for 27 years and I always tell Yolanda and I said, I'm married to the people of the Virgin Islands for the next eight 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 year.

I almost hate to have to talk about this to be honest, but the governor is the governor.

He's a public figure.

I think it comes with the territory, to be honest and Lasiba as a member of the media.

I'm going to ask about your reaction to all of this and the news that was published recently about the governor seeking to seal his divorce.

What's your thoughts on this whole process?

Well, I know it's not something that a decision that could have been come to easily or lightly.

And I really you know, I feel for them because they're both like nice people I've met them in professional capacity numerous times.

And you would you just hate to to know that they're going through, you know, the dissolution of their marriage.

Shomari I think that people, you know, we know people get divorced all the time.

It happens unfortunately, but it's going to be a topic of conversation when somebody like the governor is involved.

It's the president.

If it was the president of the United states or a governor of another state in the union.

There's no question the media is going to be involved.

I think that when this is story broke on the consortium, a lot of people were saying, you guys don't have the right to cover that.

It's a private matter.

I kind of disagree with that.

I know there's a limit with what public officials have to disclose in their private lives, but this, I think, is fair game.

How do you think the community reaction has been to it?

How do you feel about the coverage and what we're hearing, the conversations that we're having?

And then I think that what do you think the decision to seal the divorce hearings, as has been reported in the media?

Well, I haven't been paying attention to the streets and haven't been paying attention as much.

I think, you know, it's a it's a difficult choice for them.

I think for them it's I agree with the choice to seal it.

You know, it's a private matter.

It's a family matter, I think.

Why should we be involved in their personal lives?

Why she has a you know, from time to time she would, you know, do photo ops with the governor.

But he has his job to do what happens behind closed doors is is there the point where he decides to speak about it?

That's for him to decide to do.

But for us to, you know, meddle and, you know, make assumptions of, you know, what he did, what he didn't do.

You know what's happening with her.

You know, that's not for us.

You know, if you know, I'm married, I have a wonderful wife and four kids.

No one needs to be involved in my my personal matters.

You know, if I talk about if I post something perfectly fine, but everything else is is off the table to me Jamila from a political perspective and being a strategist of sorts, right.

When it comes to this matter, the decision to sue, do you think it made people it will make people more inquisitive or should it just have just people get divorced all the time?

People file for divorce in the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands every day.

We don't go looking into the divorce settlement.

Had the decision not been announced that it was going to be sealed, you think it would have just flown under the radar?

And it's just like, okay, they're getting divorced and people wouldn't want to know.

I think, strategically speaking, whoever advised them did a poor job.

I don't think that their marriage, the dissolution of their marriage should have made public, should have been made public through the court system.

I think that they should have issued a joint statement because it's clear that both have agreed to the ceiling of the document and they should do like celebrities do.

We have We have this is a joint my wife and I have decided to separate.

And as a result, we ask that you give the give us our family the appropriate time and privacy as we deal with this matter internally.

We have our children, although they're adults to think about.

But I think that whoever advised them and allowed it to come out and for them and for the public to create the narrative around the dissolution of their marriage was poor advice.

I would have done it differently and I would have advised the governor and his and his and his wife that in order to protect your family, in order to protect your children, you need to put out a joint statement announcing that you're getting a divorce and work out all of the material, all of your stuff, file it and have it be dissolved.

That's how I would I could not agree more.

Lasiba you wanted to add one more point.

Yeah.

I just really don't think that it should be sealed.

They're public figures.

They both work for the government.

They the transparency is always the best policy, especially no one else's Divorce is sealed and you can look them up.

Yeah, it shouldn't be sealed.

I was just going to ask, what is the threshold for sealing legal threshold?

What's the process?

Anybody familiar with what takes place when you do that?

Well, I don't have an excuse behind my name.

I have a sister for that.

But I know that I know other people who have requested, especially when they have young children involved.

And there were issues with the custody and arrangements.

They have requested that the divorce settlement be sealed to protect their families and court sometimes granted, and it's ultimately up to the judge.

But if two people seeking to dissolve their marriage ask for it to be sealed, I don't see why a judge wouldn't.

Granted, unless their marriage or something within their marriage is is worthy of being publicized.

I don't I don't and I don't think this is this is the first time a Virgin Islands history we've had a governor, a sitting governor filed for divorce.

We in the country, in the country, you know, I'm sure it has happened.

It has happened somewhere before.

But guess what?

Our time has come to an end.

Time runs when you’re having fun.

That's all we have for 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 WTJX’s News Feed 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 W TJX Channel 12.

Have a great Sunday.