It's 2026, an election year and time for the League of Women Voters.

Meet the candidates forums.

I'm Doctor Gwen Marie Moolenaar, president of the League of Women Voters, and joining me as co-sponsor.

I'm very pleased to have doctor Mark Wenner, a faculty member at the University of the Virgin Islands.

Over the next 90 minutes, we'll speak with five candidates seeking to become the next governor of the U.S.

Virgin Islands.

We're glad that you could be with us.

Viewer.

Yes.

In this program, five candidates will make their case for your vote.

So listen carefully as to how they answer these questions.

We will ask on your behalf your future and that of your children, family, neighbors, job, and the community's safety will depend largely on who next occupies government House.

It would also depend on you holding that person accountable after the election.

So listen carefully.

Welcome, candidates, and thank you for being here.

Let's begin with brief introductions.

Please state your name, political affiliation, and ballot number.

Starting with candidate Donna Stork.

Hi.

Good evening.

Good day.

I'm running with positive to net.

Governor, Lieutenant governor of the Virgin Islands.

And we're number one on the ballot.

Thank you.

Hello.

My name is Warren Mosler.

I'm running with Colin Robertson.

We're both from Saint Croix.

We started the Green Party earlier in the year.

However, we will be on the ballot as independents because the Green Party has not yet gotten ballot status.

And we are number two on the ballot.

Thank you.

Hi.

Good day.

I'm Stacey Plaskett.

I'm running with Milton Potter.

We're number three on the ballot.

Your Democratic candidates for governor and lieutenant governor.

Thank you.

Good day.

My name is Oakland Benton, and I'm wondering, with a mr.

Merwin Potter as independent candidates.

Are.

I'm very pleased to be here with you this afternoon.

And your ballot number.

Ballot number?

Number four.

Thank you.

Good day.

I am Gustav James.

I am running with Mr.

Randolph Bennett.

We are number five on the ballot, and we would like to ask you for your support.

Thank you.

Candidates.

Although we have 90 minutes to speak with you, that is two little time to cover every issue, to engage or to engage in a debate.

So here's our plan.

Consider this event a job interview for the position of governor of the US.

V.I., your specific employer is the voter of the Virgin Islands, and you will focus in these 60 minutes to convince your employer of the of of of for the Virgin Islands your with your fitness for this position over four blocks of questions we will just we will do just that.

Block one questions will focus on your qualifications, on your character and experience so that the voters, your employers, can assess your readiness to lead the government.

In block two, we will focus on your vision for the future.

In block three, we will ask about your priorities for action.

And lastly, in block floor we will block forward.

We will ask.

We'll ask you to address some topics that are of concern to the community.

So candidates with just 90 minutes, please be mindful that this job interview does not allow for rebuttals or referrals to the other candidates for the position.

Each candidate will focus on their own ideas for change.

The voter.

Your employer will be the judge to see if your answers are thorough to the point and realistic.

So, candidates, as we begin, could you please affirm that you have not been privy to our questions and that you will adhere to the conditions for this interview?

Could we begin candidate Donna store?

Could you indicate whether you that you affirmed that you were not privy to our questions?

Absolutely.

Firm that I was not privy to any questions?

Mr.. I affirm that as well.

I affirmed I have firm that I'm not privy to any questions.

Thank you.

And that you will adhere to the rules and regulations that we've said forward.

Thank you.

So, let's begin with the job interview with our block one questions, and we will start with candidate number one.

And we'll ask Senator to begin with the questions.

Yes.

Good day.

Once again I'm Adler.

And sit down and talk of the team down in stock Nelson.

Number one on the ballot.

Okay.

Great.

So our first question is this.

And you all have a chance to answer it.

What are the three most important qualifications that you bring to this office.

And what evidence shows that you have them?

So each of you will have 60s to answer these questions, that we will focus on your qualifications and the supporting evidence.

Senator Donna Stewart, you begin.

Yeah.

Thank you.

A major part of the qualifications is your ability to make decisions.

Good judgment.

But if you delve into my background, you know, a master's in public administration, a certification in city management, and next years of experience working in the legislature, the Virgin Islands and understanding laws and policies.

I think I'm fit and qualified to, in fact, be governor of the United States Virgin Islands.

Thank you, Mr.

Moser.

Yes.

Look, I run as a matter of conscience where I put my proposals out for voters to decide.

And so the question is whether or not I'm qualified to follow through on the proposals that I've put out.

And I believe I am.

You can read my proposals or on my website.

I've been broadcasting them.

We'll be talking about them tonight.

And each proposal carries its own set of qualifications for that proposal.

I've got a long history of capital markets experience, experience in numerous businesses and numerous enterprises.

And they will all come to bear on my ability to follow through on my proposals should I be elected.

Thank you.

Candidate.

Plaskett.

Are you married?

To focus on the evidence for your qualifications?

Yes.

I think one of the primary qualifications in a leader of this territory is to be a public servant.

And I have dedicated my entire career practically to being such a public servant.

I've had the honor of representing the people of the Virgin Islands for the past 11 years in Washington, which I believe I have done effectively, doing the job that has been put forward.

I'm also a problem solver, and I think that we have a lot of problems that require an individual who is able to bring lots of people together, negotiate, and get problem solved.

And I think my record and accomplishments show that.

And then the third qualifications, I believe, is believing in us and seeing the unreal and what people think is unrealistic become our reality.

I think that through my time in Washington, breaking barriers and moving the ball forward, allowing us to receive funding that we didn't have.

I've done that.

Thank you.

Candidate number four, Mr.

Benton.

I've always been a public servant.

From the time I was a young man from Eagle Scout.

Boy scout.

The police.

An individual who learned what meant but talked about diversification of the economy.

An individual who placed himself in a position to bring developers and investors to the shore, where the government slated a scoring and shown them and slated them and chased them away.

I know what it takes to move on economic society to move and robust economy where the micro, the macro economic become the fundamental of growth in any business in this territory.

I know the business partners and owners, I know the developers and investors.

I know the industry.

I'm also a person of transparency, fair and concise and delivery, and a person who understands what it means.

What we speak about loving our community.

And I am, in fact, a community oriented child by many who was raised by a village by the name of Campo Rico, who made sure that I followed the trend of trading, that I am, in fact, a leader in this community.

Thank you.

And finally, Mr.

James.

Yes, I am an engineer by profession.

I have worked around the world.

I've done project management and company management in different places around the world.

I believe that the Virgin Islands needs better management.

The biggest problem I find with the Virgin Islands is poor management.

And so I am offering to bring my skills to the table.

We need to have things happen.

What my career has done is I have always had to deliver.

I have never had a job where they were not deliverables.

I mean, I'm not knocking the legislative branch of government, but I'm saying that when you've been a legislature, when you've done nothing but legislation, you are not accustomed to have to deliver.

However, in my business, we've had to deliver.

I've had to manage hundreds of people, up to two people on very large projects.

And so the experience that I have, the knowledge that I have, and especially the problems that the Virgin Islands face, is something that I can deal with, something I can handle.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Candidates.

Now, going to our second question for all to answer.

The governor wields broad executive power and controls substantial public resources.

What specific evidence from your public, professional, and personal life proves that voters can trust you to use that power?

Honestly, ethically and accountable.

And our first responders, Mr.

Mosler.

I in my career, I at one point was the top money manager in the world for our fixed income clients.

And I, I was the only one that was fully transparent.

Everything I always did was fully transparent and accountable.

When I moved to the Virgin Islands, I had a furniture auction early on, and in that auction, the governor paid for his furniture with $39,000 in cash, in $100 bills with rusted paper clips.

I took a picture of it to posit in the bank, and a few days later that picture was deposited, was published in the Avis.

And that was full disclosure of corruption, you know, early on.

And I've always been a full disclosure person.

I don't intend to be otherwise.

Thank you.

Yes.

Although individuals primarily know me as someone who has been their delegate to Congress work in Washington, I've had a full career even before doing that.

My first job out of law school was as a prosecutor in New York, upholding the law and fighting for individuals rights that were wronged.

I also worked in management consulting, where I worked on mergers and acquisitions of large banks, doing a study for the Federal Reserve.

So I do understand finances.

And then I served as council on the congressional House Ethics Committee, the U.S.

House of Representatives investigating financial wrongdoing and wrongdoing of other members.

And I've worked as deputy general counsel over a fortune ten company, which had over $400 billion in revenue per year.

I understand what's necessary about a holding the law, as well as managing large receivables and revenues.

Thank you.

Mr.. I'm an individual who, by way of many individuals who saw something in me, became a leader, chief of police of the U.S.

Virgin Islands Police Department in Saint Croix, etc., or the District of Saint Croix, and an avid and a staunch direction leader when it came to taking the stand and issues, which affects us as a Senator.

I remain postured in my representation in delivery, and the facts that actually encompass engulfs this territory.

I'm a visionary.

We see things before it happens and would ask and just push for our members of this community to join me in making sure that we don't begin to become the end of suck and salt.

Most of my words, most of my direction suggestion went and deaf ears.

And today, this territory faces a margin where the federal government is pretty much superseding and all that we do in our Attorney General's office.

It is the US Department of Justice now that we're local attorney General's office, taking care of our issues.

I'm also a person with the vice president of a telecommunication.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.. Mr.. James.

Yes.

I believe the question was about the awesome power bestowed upon the governor of the Virgin Islands, and that is what I'm going to address.

The governor of the Virgin Islands has more power relative to the government, to the Virgin Islands, than any governor in the United States has relative to his state.

The governor of the Virgin Islands controls more than any other governor.

And because we don't have that same structure where you have elected mayors or you have council people from different counties, no, we have one person in charge of just about everything.

Our governor assigns the boards for the agencies.

Our governor signs every note for the government employees.

And so I am accustomed to having the pen.

When you have the pen, that's an awesome responsibility and you have to take it seriously.

You cannot allow yourself to be influenced by the many people that will try to influence you.

You have to make decisions according to what you know is right, and I've done that in my entire career.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Mr.

Donald Stark, thank you.

Donald Nelson I'm a one on the ballot.

I think of all the candidates that sit on this platform this evening.

I'm the only candidate that has experience in balancing a Virgin Islands budget.

I served as chairman of the finance committee, and I successfully passed two budgets successfully.

So understanding the responsibility of a governor on the Organic Act of the Virgin Islands and his executive powers vested in him.

It is my understanding.

And of course, I think the ingredient missing here is that a governor must have a level of sensitivity and sensibility in governance and understanding, in theory, how public administration is supposed to run.

I think that I would be in the ideal position or have the qualifications to, in fact, execute all the responsibilities vested in a governor of the Virgin Islands.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So our third question about your qualifications and your character.

What experience do you have candidates in leading and managing large organizations, complex budgets, large numbers of personnel, and balancing competing constituent and stakeholder interests?

And there's a part B that we will have.

And what experience do you have in reforming and organizing and changing institutions?

Please address each area beginning with candidate Plaskett.

Well, I think that's a fantastic question, because the Virgin Islands government right now does require not just leading what is there, but also restructuring it, because we recognize and everyone recognizes that things are not working well.

The government is not functioning and serving the needs of the people.

As I've said previously, I've worked on mergers and acquisitions.

I worked on turnarounds in New York of large corporations and how those need to be managed.

Removing components and adding components.

At the Department of Justice, where I served after September 11th, I worked on very complex issues regarding the victims compensation fund and how to disperse large amounts of money to the families that needed it most.

Additionally, I served oversight over thousands of attorneys working under the Deputy Attorney general.

And so I do have the experience.

I think people are looking for empathy in managing those resources.

And I have that.

Mr.. Enter as an individual in the private sector.

I manage over 4000 individuals nationally and internationally, bringing a company into a consideration frame of operation.

In mergers we remove throughout the Caribbean, South America, Europe alike.

And with that, it came with understanding what it means, where you're running the agency, where you are actually in charge of making sure the proceeds are handled appropriately.

See, I look at unified governance.

Like in the private sector, where you control the operation of every segment of a government, where you're managing thousands of people and making sure that they have a daily bread every single day that the services have thought about it provide gets to every single household of far as employees we have.

As a chief of police, I manage not only the 200 plus officers in the District of Saint Croix, but manage the safety of every citizen on the other side in the number of of thousands of people overnight, while many asleep concerned for the safety of the others.

So when it comes to managing and moving a government, I am qualified.

Thank you, Mr.

James.

Yes, I was very fortunate in my career.

From a very young age.

I was put in charge of many large projects and by having to manage large projects, I had large numbers of employees.

I had to manage the budget, I had to manage the schedule, I had to adhere to the technical specifications.

And so I've always had to manage people.

I've always had to accomplish things with people that are needed.

Leadership.

In some cases, I did not have the authority to hire or fire certain individuals that I had to manage, and I had to learn how to work with people to accomplish the objective without having to terminate or or replace them.

And so I learned a lot of personal working skills.

I've also run a big company inside the refinery.

I had over 450 people working in the history.

So when you have to have structure like that, that's the way the the Virgin Islands government is set up.

You have a large cabinet.

I've also been a commissioner of public works within the Virgin Islands government.

So I've I've have more experience than most when it comes to managing people.

Thank you.

Mr.. Historic.

Yes.

Thank you.

Nelson.

Number one on the ballot.

I had the privilege of actually serving as president of the legislature of the Virgin Islands.

And prior to that, of course, I served as finance chair.

But I also recognized that the concentration of public administration a governor has to have the ability to supervise all the leadership team in issuing or establishing a standard, which each one of your leadership team understands what it is to conduct a organization biography where you identify strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in respective government departments, and that that expectation would establish in 100 day report upon assuming office, that you would ask each Commissioner to conduct an organization biography so they what all the deficiencies that exist in that department.

But it's also a governor's responsibility to manage the leadership team.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next question for all is in the event you are successfully elected to you as a matter that I'm sorry.

Okay.

If you want to skip.

No, no.

Mr.

Moser.

Okay, look, I I've successfully managed number one investment company in the world Bank for 20 years.

And insurance company A developed a top performance sports car in the world with my car company, the ferry that's going back and forth for the last ten years.

It was unheard of here.

But I also recognize that the governor needs to be has needs to have a Senate that he can work with as a team.

There's nothing more important than working as a team with your employees.

You cannot have confrontational relationship.

It has to be cooperative.

And I urge you to vote for the independent senators so that should I get in, I have a team that I can work with to expedite all my proposals and get everything done that I've proposed to you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, now on to question for if you were elected governor, to what extent would your attorney general be independent and empowered to investigate and to prosecute cases of corruption, whether they involve members of your own administration, your family members, close associates or campaign donor.

And their first responder is Mr.

Bento.

Thank you.

I'm a person who have experienced a shortfall of government or governance operation, which came to come to New General.

One of the things that should have happened was through the Virgin Islands Legislature.

As we have proposed many years ago, we are to the legislative process and individual of this territory, voting on a process to help our Attorney general be elected.

One of the things that happened over and more time over is that the general of the Virgin Islands is pretty much an employee of the executive branch, thereby at the well of the executive branch, if not by way of what's required of acts of them terminated.

I believe in pushing the legislation to the delegate to Congress office so that they can bring it to the forefront of Congress, which, because of where we fall under the revised Organic Act, we can make that adjustments and have that become a elected position, just like we did for governor and lieutenant governor of this territory in 1968.

We can do it.

And that is one of the only mechanism as far as independent leadership in the Attorney General's office.

Thank you.

Okay, great.

Mr.

James, yes, I am totally in favor of independence of the Attorney general.

I don't believe that you can have effective governance and enforcement.

If the Attorney General simply reports to the governor.

Now, the governor is is in the system that we have, the governor is able to hire and fire the attorney general.

However, if that is changed, if we have a different mechanism for selecting and maintaining an attorney general and attorney general, I would be in favor of that, because I am very much in favor of that position having independence.

We cannot, for example, address some of the issues that that we have when that attorney general is looking at the person that has to approve their employment, and that person may also be the one that needs to be investigated or or prosecuted.

Even so, we definitely need a an autonomous attorney general.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

John.

Historic.

Yes.

Dana Stork Nelson, number one on the ballot as a person that actually maverick legislation through the Senate and that is resolutions.

My it's public record what I supported on that of an elected attorney general.

I've always felt that we need an independent attorney general who is not beholden to a governor of the Virgin Islands.

And of course, it could go one of two ways.

I supported legislation referendum, such as reducing a number of senators from 15 to 9.

That is public record.

I feel that the governor of the Virgin Islands, yes, I possess a will, a degree of executive powers.

And of course, when power lands in wrong hands, you have some fallouts and people being disenfranchized as governor, the Virgin Islands, I understand what it means by the bully pulpit and being able to utilize bully pulpit wisely.

So the theme of Dinosaur Nelson is prepared for some the new administration.

Thank you, Mr.

Muffler.

If you have an elected attorney general, you wind up getting an attorney general who's the best politician and not necessarily the best attorney general.

And it can be highly problematic.

So I would go a different direction on that.

What's important is the selection of it.

And I would have a selection committee that would come up with names, and then we would have a combination of the governor in the Senate, you know, selecting from those names, selecting the eternal general from those names, who would then be again accountable to both branches of government.

Thank you.

Candidate Basket.

Yes.

One of the first things that I would do in my first 100 days is to bring down ethics laws for the legislature's consideration, because presently there are no defined rules for any elected individual or people in government, and how they operate within that legislation would also be legislation.

Until we have a constitution which allows for an attorney general to be elected for the Attorney General, which now has to be nominated by the by the governor, but with the advice and consent of the Senate to also put in there that it can only be fired with the advice and consent of the Senate as well.

That would bring a stopgap and also some ways to check the governor in terms of firing people because they are doing things that they are going against.

And I would also remove what we have right now is the white collar Crime division at the Department of Justice and make it independent and have someone from the Senate, as well as the as well as the judiciary, appoint individuals there, and they would act as an anti-corruption division.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And so the next question is going to be a little challenging for you.

And but is the one that we need to acknowledge and this is in which key areas do you lack expertise or experience and how would you address these gaps?

We start with Mr.

James.

The areas that I lack expertise and experience in my running mate generally has experience and expertise in.

So we've got a balance between the two of us that we can address every segment of this government.

We've I've worked in the private sector my entire career, and my running mate has worked for the federal government for most of his career.

So we have a balance and we have the ability to address these things in a reasonable manner.

So I don't see any weaknesses in our team.

I don't see any gaps where we would not be able to manage this, this territory at a higher and better level than it is currently being managed, because we find that the the gaps in this, in this administration, in this, in this territory is lack of management, poor management.

And and we are here to change that.

That is the reason we are in this race.

We're in this race because we believe that we can do so much better in these Virgin Islands.

Great.

Thank you, Mr.

John Stewart.

What about any gaps that you feel?

Yeah.

Thank you, Donald Nelson I'm a one in the ballot.

I would say health care.

And of course, being a governor of the Virgin Islands, we don't profess or we should not profess to know everything.

And of course, being able to embrace the stakeholders, physicians, people with professional expertise in the respective area, I think we would be able to craft something that is wholesome, that can effectively address some of the issues or the pitfalls in that respective area.

And I believe, as I have exercised in the past, where I've been quite receptive by being able to galvanize the support and the ideas from people, even in the private sector, that we're able to come up with something comprehensive to address those issues where we might have shortfalls in terms of our general understanding.

Great.

Thank you, Mr.

Mosler.

I'd say one of my weaknesses is that I have no relatives living here and no campaign workers that I've promised jobs to.

I have no contributors that I owe any obligations to.

The fact I don't have any obligations to anybody except for the people who might elect me.

Thank you.

Well, how are you going to compensate for this?

That was a question.

When you recognize any gaps, how will you compensate for it?

And I will compensate that by hiring people who are qualified, hiring people on their merits, promoting people from within and developing the workforce that we already have.

Great.

Thank you.

Kennedy.

Yes, I think one of the great skill sets that I have is the ability to be very humble, to admit that more that, you know, the more you realize that you do not know, and being willing to surround yourself with experts and to garner support and ideas from all over the country and other places where there are excellent professionals and other people who can give you those.

If you go to our website dot com, you'll see that on the day that we announced, we came out with very detailed platforms on multiple issues.

I'm not an engineer, but we had a platform on energy, on healthcare, on education, because we were able to get individuals in a room to talk and learn from them and figure out what works, to have them have discussions and to come up with solutions.

And I believe that I'm excellent at not only bringing those people, but leading them forward.

Thank you, Mr.

Bender.

My weaknesses are that I thought that I could move an industry within the Virgin Islands by myself when it when it came to vexing issues as far as what we were played with, I soon learned, repassed that merging with my federal partners in every aspect of the federal agencies, being that we're subsidized by the federal government, I was able to work with many partners in the different sectors of it, as far as where we're short and got them to come to the table, and we have begun to work in rectifying the issues of this territory together.

At the end of the day, what we realized, moreover, more often, is that we think that we can accomplish certain things, but we mirror the federal government in all aspects of our government and governance and moving our governance forward.

It requires an individual who knows the way and how to get it done.

We were trying to do it our own by a feeling or thought, but not tapping into the resources that are available, which is our federal partners.

I have a federal partners working with me.

We're working very close to this territory.

What needs to be rid of and assigning and a permanent bringing forth what the territory needs that people need.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And our last question for this particular block is what is the most difficult decision you expect to face as governor, and what principles would guide you in making facing this difficult situation?

And we're back to first responder, Mr.

Donna Stoic.

When I think Donna Nelson, number one on the ballot, I think one of the most challenging thing is going to be the deficit that we're confronted with managing our federal resources.

How do we interact with the federal government?

Because that's a crisis right now where the federal government have frozen money under the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority issued notice HUD and I think as a governor, you would have to possess the ability to be able to interact with people at all levels, starting with the president of the United States, right down to whoever the director and head of HUD and all the different agencies who play a pivotal role in making a decision as to whether or not we would be able to regroup or unfreeze those resources that are available to us.

I think it's going to be a challenge getting all the capital projects off the ground.

I believe that we have to put in place a task force that has the ability to identify what the nuances are and correct them.

Thank you, Mr.

Mozilo.

What do you think of your most difficult?

The most difficult thing for me is that there is so much to do and so little time to do it, and I've come up with a lot of proposals, which some of them, in fact, have gone early to the governor to see if he might want to get started before the election, because they're just so daunting and they take so much time and so much work.

I just, you know, I'm just chomping at the bit to to get started, go to work and get these things done that, you know, that I've proposed.

Thank you.

Candidate Plaskett.

Yes.

When I look at people in the Virgin Islands and being in the community and seeing the concerns of Virgin Islanders in so many areas, whether it is their children's education or health care, having to send their parents off island for care, or worried about their business and the viability of reliability of electricity, we recognize, as all the candidates have said, that there are so many issues that need to be done.

At the same time, I think what's going to be necessary is having task force and leadership that are committed to doing what's necessary to accelerate those those solutions to those problems and creating and continuing to encourage a team to do the work to get it all done.

Thank you, Mr.

Bender.

That's been difficult for me as an individual who worked very closely with our federal partners, is to be able to see the names of individual in this territory or individuals in this territory.

He was cause harm and shame on the people of this territory.

It's been very difficult and difficulty means the decisions to be made came with some significant sacrifices because they were sleepless nights.

These are our people, our families, our neighbors, individuals who represent us, who should be represented us in a cause and virtue of justice.

It became a thing for me when I realized more than anything else, we have a lot of the resources as far as the federal subsidies.

You see, I should have been going to people's home, ended up in people's personal bank accounts.

It's a hard road to trot, but in listening to so many of the other areas that we see, it is our own that's creating the harm and shame and all of us.

It ain't nobody outside.

It's what we have done to ourselves.

How do we correct this vaccine issues?

It took a stand and affirmative one.

That meant that despite all the and the cause of the many would have, you stood a firm to justice first and or people's sanity second.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

James.

Yes.

Many times when you're in a position of leadership and you have to manage large operations, including large numbers of people, large amounts of money, large resources and logistics around the world, you have to make a decision sometimes as to what you're going to not do, and that's one of the hardest decisions that you have to make in this position.

And that's something that I have experience with, because when you have to decide not to do something or to put it off, that is is hurtful, it is sometimes difficult for the people involved.

Sometimes if you have to even cut a budget, you may have to actually change the the workforce.

And so these are the difficult decisions that I have faced in my career.

I've had situations where we had to cut our manpower by over 50%.

And when you have to do the types of things, you learn how to make decisions and how to make it with the least amount of pain for the people that depend on you.

Thank you, Mr.

James.

We now move to our second block of questions, which are focused on your vision for the territory.

And the first question in this block is as follows.

What kind of economy?

Do you want for the Virgin Islands in 2030, say three, four, four, four years hence?

What industries will grow?

How will you ensure that Saint Croix, Saint Thomas and Saint John each receive fair attention and investment while recognizing their different economic and social circumstances?

So we're looking at your economy that you're going to grow.

Keeping in mind the three territories, the three islands.

And so we begin.

Mr.

Mosler, as the first, responded.

Okay, it's a large question for a minute, but I see that we have differences.

Saint Thomas has a is more densely populated than Saint Croix and then Saint John from there.

And so I see different types of things that would help each particular economy.

The larger hotels is something for the Saint Thomas area.

The bed and breakfast type of and boutique hotels would be something for the Saint Croix.

We don't want to.

I have no interest in disrupting the cultures to bring on economic development.

And so one of the issues we have is that there's something like 50 people that report to the governor.

This is absolutely impossible to work with, and it goes a long way in explaining why it's been so difficult to get anything done.

I've already gotten into the organizational chart.

I've got that down to maybe 14 people in the reorganization, which is not hiring and firing people necessarily, but just reorganizing what we have.

And that will make it all a lot more manageable to achieve these goals.

Okay.

Your vision for the economics of the territory.

Well, I always start by saying that the Virgin Islands has been owned by seven nations, and those silver nations were able to get tremendous economic growth for themselves off of the opportunities that are here for us.

And I want us to realize.

Those opportunities here, that economic prosperity for the Virgin Islands.

Of course, we do have a tourism product which needs to expand on Saint Thomas to have more offerings for people coming off of cruise ships and visitors, as well as Saint Thomas, Saint Croix and Saint John in terms of ecotourism and cultural tourism.

I was able to get past the National heritage site for Cinco, one of only 67 places in the United States that have it.

Additionally, I sat on the Agriculture Committee for six years, was chair of a subcommittee, and recognizes this is vital and an opportunity for us to have value added food to grow our economy as well.

And of course, we cannot forget that our geographic location means that we can be utilized for Defense Department, for South Com as well as trans, and we can be a hub between Africa, South America and North America, the United States, in the over $3 billion trade that goes between those and our and the country of the US.

Thank you, Mister Bento.

Our economy has been one of the best, dormant for a long time.

We try to find the niches that makes this territory work, but we look beyond our own shores rather than look at it in our homes, our small business and the sector, which were the mom and pop stores that we've forgotten.

We closed their doors.

Individuals as far as moving.

When you talk about smart cities, understanding that we live on an island, but yet a lot of the corporations look for other places for data banking structuring themselves were employees can be hired here in the Virgin Islands that work for a company anywhere in Europe, Asia, Africa, no matter where, but represents a company here in this territory.

We've forgotten that we will use a program.

We talked about school to work program.

We're really training our young own Virgin Islands to be those business managers, individuals who understand entrepreneurship, and we guide them.

We work with them to make sure that they're enforced and enhanced to lead.

We forgotten that we're talking about the Virgin Islands, and we're looking at businesses without looking in house first.

As far as how do we make our own capable and competent tourism?

Thank you.

Okay.

Mr.

James?

Yes.

The big albatross in the room when it comes to our economy is actually our energy.

We have a situation where we pay more for electricity in the Virgin Islands than anywhere in the United States, and possibly anywhere in the world.

We are paying over $0.44 a kilowatt hour for electricity.

This destroys businesses, this destroys opportunity.

And so the first thing that we would do is make sure that we address that problem.

We know the solution we are going to go to to solar energy.

We are going to put the batteries in place.

We're going to make the power supply in the Virgin Islands something that is available to all the people.

Right now, a company comes to Saint Croix de Saint Thomas and wants to do any operation.

They talk about how they're going to generate their own power.

I mean, that is a that is an obstacle that other people don't face in most parts of the world.

We have a situation where we are making companies that want to make widgets also generate power, like as if they are some kind of utility company.

That is something that we will fix.

That's one of the first things we're going to fix.

Thank you.

Mr.

Donna stork, Donna stork Nelson, number one in the ballot.

We must start to identify some of the mishaps that have taken place.

Administration after administration that have failed when it comes to sports and entertainment.

Tourism.

Look at the poorly Joseph Stadium in Fredrikstad.

Now, let me shift the economy, the economy.

When we talk about income tax refunds, income tax refunds, economy is your ability to circulate money in economy that makes it healthy.

We have failed Virgin Islanders.

Virgin Islands are suffering today.

You look at the issue of income tax refunds where people are not paid on time.

Some people are owed over three and four years.

Those are things that we have to identify now, dealing with the infrastructure and dealing with even sports and entertainment, tourism, sports and entertainment, tourism.

We were the trailblazers at one point having some of the biggest festivals in the Virgin Islands.

Where did we drop the ball?

We need to start to revisit some of these things and see see how we can enhance them.

Yeah.

I'm good.

Okay.

The next question is, the outlook for our territory is is difficult and challenging.

And if you were governor, you would invariably face sacrifices and trade offs that you would have to make in implementing your, your, your vision.

Given the fiscal outlook that we are seeing for next year, it's not favorable to the incoming governor.

How would you handle the trade offs?

What would you sacrifice that you would not be able to implement?

Because it will be difficult circumstances.

You cannot do everything at the same time.

Candidate basket, you're the first responder.

Thank you.

Sure.

If we not do, Mr.

Johnson.

Mr.. Did we miss you?

No, no.

Let's go.

Yes.

He finished.

Yeah.

He did.

He did she talk about.

Yeah.

So no.

And now candidate.

Candidate Plaskett.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But it goes from here to me, right.

You did not speak, Mr.. Mr.

Mosley I did, but I would lead the next one.

Didn't lead.

Yeah.

Did he leave?

Yes.

Yes.

Mr.

Mosley, you were you were the first responder for this last question.

Okay.

I thought we were alternating.

We alternating the first responder.

So the first responder now is is a candidate.

Plaskett.

Okay.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

We do have a tremendous issue in terms of finances in the Virgin Islands.

We saw that the governor's team came down to the legislature to talk about at least 150, 117 to $150 million deficit.

We have two issues going on here.

One is that we are not growing our revenues.

We are not collecting all of the taxes that are outstanding, nor are we bringing in the gross receipts and others because we are not engaged in the rebuilding as we should be.

We are not moving as fast as we can to be able to have gross receipts from all of those contractors and others.

The other is a real cash management issue.

We have not been managing the money that we do have, and I believe that if we do those two things together in terms of being truthful about what our budget is being, bringing obligations forward in a budget from one year to the next, and not pretending as if it doesn't exist, then we can have a shore road toward some fiscal responsibility.

Okay, so you're asking about what?

What trade offs, right?

Yeah.

Trade offs?

Yeah.

Sacrifices.

Okay, so Mr.

Bent comes next.

Thank you.

Welcome to as the governor.

Governor runs a segment that deals with the commissioners, directors of each agency.

I would move to what you call unified governance.

See, as a governor, you're responsible for the failures and shortfalls.

In other words, the artists of this territory when it comes to federal requirements has not been done for several years.

The data file is what we should have been providing to the federal government has not been provided to date.

The windfall that we're going to face as far as these federal cuts that are before us, will affect so many homes in so many ways.

What am I prepared to sacrifice?

I'm prepared to sacrifice individuals who sit within the positions under those autonomous agencies who have not done what is supposed to, and bring them back under the central government, unified governance.

I'm prepared to take the helm by bleeding our Senate to way of a legislation that the Senate understands.

We need to take the government back in unison on a unified governance.

Thank you, Mr.

James.

Yes.

What we're speaking of is how would we adjust to a shortfall?

How would we how would we address a problem where we do not have enough to meet the the target?

So what what you have to do.

And that's what happens in the real world.

That's what happens in the private sector every day.

And that's what I have dealt with my entire career.

Sometimes, of course, you you would look at the payroll, but that is not what we want to look at, because we know that all of the workers have families and they have needs.

So what we have to do is make the first thing.

The first attempt is to grow the, the, the revenues.

We want to make as much money come into this territory as possible.

One of the ways that we increase the amount of money coming into this territory is to reduce the amount of money that goes out of this territory.

One of the problems we have in the Virgin Islands is that a dollar comes here and doesn't, doesn't exchange hands more than once one time and it's gone.

And that's what we face always.

We have to reduce that.

Thank you, Mr.

Dunstone.

Yes.

Thanks, Donald.

One in the ballot.

I think the question that you asked was sacrifice and trade off.

And the sacrifice is businesses are suffering today.

Businesses are closing every year at a level we have to look at gross receipts, access, sacrifice.

We know that it's tied to the bonding issue.

However, on the trade off side, we can restart the refinery, negotiate from a position of strength where we're able to perhaps negotiate set asides to be able to address burdens that the government currently incur.

We know that the grocery taxes are tied to the burning issue, but we also know it's the most regressive tax that we have in place that are stifling small businesses in the Virgin Islands.

So the trade off would be as we sit and we negotiate with a startup of a new refinery that we can set aside, maybe an escort account to be able to address the teacher's pay and other items.

So that's my response to the sacrifice and trade off.

Okay.

Mr.

Moser.

Now, is it okay?

Something everybody can understand.

The governor just put in his executive budget.

He increased the amount of money for the inauguration party from 250,000 to 300,000.

I'm going to sacrifice that.

That's gone.

Instead, those funds will go to the diabetic.

Doctor jewel Sheen has her clinic and Saint Croix that needs $200,000.

Or it's going to be closing December 1st.

So I'm going to start with that one even before the inauguration.

That'll be November 4th to make sure that sacrifice turns into something valuable.

In addition to that, I have a whole list of ways to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars, including withholding tax on FEMA distributions, refinancing debt, eliminating match fund needs to to accelerate all the other projects.

And those will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars, which will be paid out as a citizens dividend.

If I can get approval from the Senate, and that will be taxable income, which itself will bring in a proximately $150 million to the general fund.

Great.

Thank you.

So now we're moving into block three questions about your priorities.

And so the question is this what do you see as the three most serious problems facing the US VI today that you will act on as priorities for action in your community?

So in your administration, rank them in and explain your reason for the ranking.

So you're going to talk about your top three priorities for action.

And we're starting here with candidate Bento.

My first three would be the audit of the government of the Virgin Islands, collecting the data as far as what should have been in offices prior to anyone sitting in office and moved towards public safety, health and education.

Even though we added that the reason why we go with starting with audits is that no one knows what the true corpus is for the Virgin Islands.

No one knows based on what the federal government is mandated.

What is truly the data based on the services of the subsidies by the federal government for this territory, and as such, it impacts our healthcare, our education, law enforcement as far as public safety.

We can't continue doing the same track, asking for something that we don't actually address firsthand.

There's no government or anyone running for an office or in an office that they can do.

There's nothing they can do without knowing what the purpose of the government is.

First, the priority is the audit, and the audit defines the numbers of the federal government subsidies and the data based on the services.

For those who are not under the benefits of the services to be accounted for, so that we have proper delivery of federal funds to this territory.

We've turned a blind eye for too long, and here we are today in.

Any questions that we asked.

Today is the same that been asked many, many, many times over.

We're still the same place because the questions has not been alleviated and the adjustment has not been taken care of.

Added data and of course healthcare in this territory are priorities.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you.

Mr.

James, what are your three top priorities?

I have actually more than three top priorities, but I will give you the top three.

Yes, please.

The or I should say the most urgent tree.

We have a situation in the Virgin Islands where we have a real public safety problem.

We have a murder rate that is higher than just about any place in the world.

I mean, one of the highest in the world.

And I see that as an urgent situation.

The urgency is because somebody is going to die.

As you know, if we don't fix it.

And so I would address public safety.

I would make sure that we have, of course, the programs to make the criminals or less likely to commit crimes, make people less likely to commit crimes through education and and to provide an opportunity.

But we will also focus on apprehending criminals such that when a crime is committed, there will be a person apprehended for that crime.

The other, the next highest priority will be the infrastructure.

Because our infrastructure is in such bad shape that it impacts everything.

And and we like I said before, we need to have affordable electricity.

We need to have roads that that we can drive on.

We need to have all of the let's say, for example, the the sewage system working.

We need to have all of our infrastructure up to date, and that is going to be one of the top priorities.

And and the children are, of course, the most important resource that we have.

And when I so even though the children are the most important resource, we have to work on those other more urgent priorities.

So the youth are your third.

The youth are your third one.

The youth are my first.

But I have to do it in terms of urgency.

Okay, great.

Yes.

Okay.

So we cycle to Senator Don next.

Yes.

Don Nelson, number one on the ballot.

My top three priorities would be education, health care and energy education.

I think we there's a need to build new schools.

We have money in place already to construct new schools.

Our teachers and our students should not be.

In an environment that is not conducive for learning.

Number two health care.

Health care.

Of course, all families have been forced to seek medical attention off island.

And that shouldn't be, I think all professional or doctors and other professionals in the institution should have the ideal working environment.

We should build two new hospitals and potentially a third community hospital on the island, Saint John, where Saint John's can actually say that they are born Saint John's.

And thirdly, energy.

Energy is a crisis in the Virgin Islands, the high cost of electricity.

I'm probably the only one that's sitting on this platform that don't have a generator, so I know what it feels like when there's continued power outages.

Appliances are damaged and it goes on and on.

And still getting these high bills.

We definitely have to address the high cost of energy in the Virgin Islands, but also to make sure that we have alternative energy in place and that it becomes affordable for all Virgin Islanders.

Thank you, Mr.

Mosley.

What are your top three priorities?

So again, with the leftover money I'll save out of the sacrifice of not having a $300,000 inauguration.

And by the way, 100, $150,000 new car that's been budgeted.

We will get a software update at the hospitals.

They have what's called Meditech software.

There hasn't been an update since 2013.

Imagine your cell phone.

How it would work if you hadn't updated the software in 13 years.

By updating that software, it increases patient care dramatically.

The whole thing about using paper goes away, and it will increase revenues by something like $22 million a year to begin to turn our medical system around.

So that's on top.

I'll also be redirecting our FEMA roads to be built in concrete rather than asphalt.

It'll last 30 years instead of three years.

We'll only get half as many roads, but it's still plenty of roads.

Under the latest allocations, to ensure that all our main arteries are concrete and last forever.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And finally, Candidate Plaskett.

Thank you.

I think that our energy, our health care and our education would be the most urgent issues that I would work on.

And now, what's interesting about all three of those is that I've been able to get money to transform each one of those areas in terms of the infrastructure for them.

We have $4.7 billion to redo our utility system, and we haven't seen it done yet.

And so I would create a task force to move with urgency on spending the federal dollars that we have during the time frame in which we have a reduction in the match.

But we know that much needs to be done in terms of energy creating a state of emergency, asking for federal declaration, moving our energy to the South Shore, which will save us $12 million a year, that runs across all of the ratepayers, auditing and consolidating, leasing.

But when we talk about our schools and our health care, yes, the facilities are important, but so are the systems and the services that are within their.

Our children need after school programs.

They need intervention from kindergarten to third grade.

We also need to have recruitment and retention of teachers to be able to support those children.

And we need health care services that mean that we can stay home.

Rather than taking our dollars elsewhere and having to move our parents away from where they want to be in their last years.

Thank you.

What are you doing here?

What?

You.

Yes.

My turn.

Okay.

For this question, there will be some more time given.

So it will be 90s.

And the question is, we want you to kind of drill down and give us detailed as possible, your plan for change in your number one priority.

So the question is what are your strategies and detailed plans for implementing change to achieve the goals related to your number one priority?

Try to be a specific as possible in the action to be taken.

The sequence of steps in the reform process.

Expected costs, the key resources that would be needed, sources of financing and your time frame.

How long do you think it would take to turn around or improve or ameliorate the challenge of your number one priority?

Okay, so you have a minute and a half of that, and we're beginning first with Mr.

James.

Thank you.

Like I said before, I I'm taking it in order.

When I say my number one priority, I'm going to go with the number one urgency.

And that urgency is public safety.

I feel like the public safety situation is such that we need to take urgent action.

And I have a plan where we would use technology a whole lot more in solving our crimes in these Virgin Islands.

That means that we will have cameras throughout this territory.

We will be able to determine what happened in any public space, at any time in this territory.

We will be able to detect cars now in the in the world today, they have systems that you don't need.

For example, what we had in the old days of toll booths on a toll road, because the sensors that exist that can detect what vehicles pass a certain point are relatively inexpensive and relatively available.

We can know what car passes any point in this territory on any public road.

And so we need to use this technology to apprehend criminals.

We need to use this technology to solve crimes and to deal with that urgency, even though it's not my my number one priority.

When I talk about the youth, I feel that that's that's a higher priority.

But the urgency will mean that we have to deal with the murders and the other violent crimes in this territory.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.. I think my top priority that I mentioned was education.

And expanding on that.

I'm looking forward to a dinosaur.

Nelson number one on the ballot.

I've been on implementing within the public education system and economic literacy program at both fourth and fifth grade levels.

And of course, that coupled with an improvement on the physical structures and ensuring that there is a maintenance plan in place.

We also move over to the issue of retention and making sure that there's dignified pay for educators.

And then, of course, our our vision also encompasses on the senior level that every senior that there is this departing school that learn about stocks and bonds and, and all the advanced things that will be required for real life.

And of course, when we talk about the structure of the schools, we already have money in place and it's up to a governor to, in fact, put in place a structured task force for the purpose of coming up with a strategic plan to make sure that these things happen and make it wholesome.

But, you know, before I left the legislature, the Virgin Islands, I drafted legislation that seek to set aside 10% of all settlement fines, judgments that would be achieved by the government of Virgin Islands.

And the question is whether or not the law was respected, and at 10% was set aside into the Union Arbitration and Government Employees Increment Fund.

And that's something I intend to reflect on, intend to investigate, intend to add it, to determine whether or not that money reached its intended goal.

Thank you, Mr.

Moser.

So a common theme running through all of these issues is the financing and a common theme through that is difficulties with match funds, which are, you know, come and go.

And if you listen to somebody from what we've tested and they'll talk about delays due to match fund problems, someone from infrastructure delays due to potential match fund problems.

What never gets discussed is that when this money is spent, it's us by source income that is taxable and that the US by should get the Or is entitled to the income taxes paid on all that money.

A lot of times this go to contractors that will pay their taxes in the states instead of here or to other people.

And the tax money doesn't find its way here.

The answer to that, that I've been proposed for a long time is a proper withholding tax on this, to make sure that we get it.

Now, this was we can put a 20% withholding tax on these distributions, which will more than cover any match fund needs.

This permanently puts away the concern over match funds, and we can then move forward with that in cooperation with the banking system.

And I'll be working with Colin Robertson, my lieutenant governor, on getting with the banks and coming up with a program where they will be funding all of our matching funds.

The distributions they make will have a 20% withholding tax, which will be first used to pay down the banks.

And then the remaining profits, of course, go to the V.I.

government.

And this will go a long way toward solving all of the problems that the others have been talking about.

Great.

Thank you.

Now we move to Candidate Plaskett.

Yes.

Thank you.

Although we all feel passionate about so many areas, whether it's education or public safety, health care, I believe that if we solve our energy issue, that will give us a baseline for resolving so many others.

It will allow us to grow small businesses.

It will allow more industry manufacturers to come to us.

It will ensure that families have reliability, don't have to take leave their jobs and go and get their children from school because the power has gone out.

We have $4.7 billion to rebuild our entire utility system, which I worked on by ensuring that the law was changed after the storm to allow us to rebuild.

I also working with this administration that's here now in the Virgin Islands, was able to get a reduction on the cost share from 10% to 2% for that.

But we have ten years to have gotten that done from last year.

So we have until 2035 before the cashier goes back up to 10%.

I have a plan in terms of our energy that is very detailed.

First, in terms of immediate, let's have transparency.

When the power goes out, let's ensure that Wapa tells us why it's going out, when it's going to go back on, and giving us regular updates, explaining the plan on how we're going to rebuild.

Declaring a state of emergency and asking the federal government for a declaration as well, so that we can not only get technical assistance, but actually monetary assistance as Puerto Rico has done during their rebuilding to ensure that lines are cleared, trees are cut.

Things are necessary to make sure that immediate problems don't happen.

It will also allow us to have batteries at each one of the substations, so that when the distribution and the power goes up, you can flip on the battery and generation continues.

While they are solving the problem.

In the immediate, we should do things such as consolidating leases that will save us $2 million a year if we consolidate the leases on some of the places where Wapa is now, along with moving to the South Shore, which will get us 12 million savings across the ratepayers, this is what I think is necessary and I also have long term plans.

Thank you, Mr.

Bent.

You're next.

The government of the Virgin Islands over the years, and every avenue that we've tried to correct the vexing issues of moving its territory forward, it's been that the VI government still has not been accountable to the federal government and audits the Government Accountability Office in 2021.

Coming forward, 2020 2021 offered to the government of the Virgin Islands and the States over $60 million to assist us in getting our audits and data in order to date to our budget office offers a budget management will offer.

They did not take the offer from the federal government.

Every segment of what we had talked of, which we are speaking about today, requires that we provided the data and the audit to the federal government.

We can move to the next level without these audits being justified and approved by the federal government.

It is definitely one of those things that we have to take first as a priority.

And every scale that we look at in the meetings that they recently had with FEMA, it is the same thing some seven, eight years later, that we are saying the same thing over and over because we can't justify the budget, we can't define and prove how we spend the money.

And our single audits and single orders of $750,000 that we did not show the federal government to date how we spent the funds, we can't justify where we have pencils as listed on documents for $100 for a pencil.

And that is why to the Housing Finance Authority, with all of the funds were being levied through under the emergency, were shifted in one agency on the one which had unqualified audits.

And with that, now we find that the VA Housing Finance Authority is going through the same stream, that now they have to qualify the audits or the numbers of the books.

And that means a longer delay.

And what's going to take place with all of the federal proceeds pending or intended for the people of this territory.

That means Wapa.

It means school, it means health.

Thank you.

Great.

Very good.

Now, thank you for discussing your priorities.

We move on to a question on affordability.

The airport research in 2026, excuse me, show that affordability and aging in place are top concern for Virgin Islanders.

So what do you see as the factors that make affordability so challenging in the United States Virgin Islands, especially for seniors and middle income of residents?

If elected governor, what specific actions would you take during your first term to make the Virgin Islands more affordable and help residents remain in the territory?

Because this is contributing to the outward migration?

And we begin with Mr.

Donna Stork on this.

Thank you, Donna Nelson.

I'm a woman in the ballot.

Obviously, one of the pressing issues in the Virgin Islands currently is the cost of energy.

And we have to be able to identify alternative energy and see how we could have meant it for the purpose, and achieving the goal of reducing energy to every Virgin Islands.

You move from the issue of energy to just overall cost of living.

The cost of living here in the Virgin Islands is getting so astronomical that people are leaving in large numbers.

If we don't start to identify ways to provide relief to Virgin Islanders, they're going to be leaving a larger numbers.

So under Dinosaur Nelson administration, and I mentioned it prior, the issue of groceries taxes, which could potentially be passed on to the consumers of the Virgin Islands, coupled with coming up with alternative energy, where we're able to really augment or improve the conditions of our only utility that we have in the Virgin Islands, could help us to bridge that gap and reduce or provide a better cost of living here in the United States Virgin Islands for our Virgin Islands.

And last but not least, that issue of income tax refunds.

People need to receive not just the income tax refund, but receive it on time.

And it will happen under Nelson administration.

Great.

Mr.

Mosler okay, so everyone looks at this affordability as a problem of prices, but more importantly, the incomes in the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico are something like 60% of what they are in the States.

And there's a structural problem in the monetary system that's causing that, and it's keeping us all permanently disadvantaged.

I can't tell you in a minute exactly what that is, but I've discussed it with the New York Fed.

I've identified it.

I've talked to it to people at the Department of Interior when I had access, and I will be going after that with a vengeance to see that our incomes go up something like 50% from, on average, from what they are now, which goes a long way to this affordability problem.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you.

Canada.

Yes, I know that when we talk about affordability, whether it's our elders or even just our young people, seeing that they can have a place here at home, that they can afford housing, that's something that definitely needs to be addressed, because we see a deep population of people in the Virgin Islands who going elsewhere because they know that they cannot afford to live at home.

How do we keep them there?

We've talked about energy.

We also need to grow our small businesses, taking out the barriers for permitting for new businesses to be involved, to use the EDC program to create a venture capital fund to so that they would be helping new businesses get started, as well as giving support through the banks that are here that are not giving loans to our businesses to grow as well.

I was able in Congress to bring the earned income and child tax credit reimbursement to the Virgin Islands, which is being used now between 20 and $40 million, to pay out back taxes and taxes on others.

Growing revenues will help bring down the cost of living over the years, after the storms and the two days after the pandemic, we had to the Kids Act.

We received over $500 million to assist families alike, and through the American Recovery Plan, we received over $540 million.

This was the Virgin Islands.

Get them selves back on their feet to the American Recovery Plan.

What we did was use the funds other than what it was intended for.

If we had been moved, focused and realizing that not assisting these families during these trying times by providing them a percentage based on where they work, which was close, we had protocols of the six feet of go to work.

If we were subsidizing those families to our census number, we would still have a significant amount of people here in this territory.

But because we close our eyes against what what should have been, we allowed our people to exodus a significant exodus out of this territory.

How do we now talk about the cost of living?

Where to those very plans, we had an opportunity to grow the economy.

Thank you.

Great.

And finally, Mr.

James.

Yes, affordability.

I think we all and this panel agree that the cost of energy is a major or d major impact on our affordability issues here in the Virgin Islands.

So since we all agree on what the problem is, I think we should spend a little time talking about who can solve the problem.

Let's talk about who can fix this situation.

This is something that I have done.

This is something that I am doing.

I actually install solar energy systems.

I actually import batteries.

I know what it takes and I have actually done it and I know the price.

Also, the fact that I have run projects around the world makes it much more feasible for me to ensure that whoever we have in charge of Wapa, whoever we have in charge of the Waste Management authority, these individuals will know that the person that is looking at them and the stands, the process.

I understand the need to follow a budget.

I understand the need to to comply with the specifications.

I understand the system of engineering and construction and the standard system of of guaranteeing results from engineering and construction.

Thank you.

And time has really gone by very, very quickly, ladies and gentlemen.

And so we now up to our very final questions.

And one of the things that you did when you came in was to select a card, any card, and you chose a number from 1 to 5.

And we had those numbers related to topics that were not covered at all, and that we don't have time for everyone to speak on.

And so rather than selecting who we'll talk and what, we had to choose a number and we have those numbers related to our topic.

So who chose number one?

I did number one.

So you will address the topic of EDC reform.

Are you happy with the way the EDC and the Economic Development Commission works and the benefits we're getting?

If not, what would you do?

If you are, why are you so happy with it?

I am in favor of the EDC when it works as it's supposed to work.

The the EDC is supposed to encourage companies that will bring money to the Virgin Islands that would not otherwise be here.

Over the years, a lot of abuse has gone on with the EDC.

We've had companies who are basically tied to the Virgin Islands receiving EDC benefits.

We've had companies receiving EDC benefits but not meeting the requirements of the EDC.

We have a case where a certain individual was incarcerated in Florida and was able to renew his EDC benefits, which required him to have a certain residency in this territory.

So the EDC has failed to meet the requirements that it is designed to meet.

We need to bring companies here and we should give them incentives.

However, we have to, to measure those incentives versus what we gain.

We don't need to take the wrong conference and give it all to engineering to run companies.

Okay.

So who chose number two?

Okay.

Number two is economic is disaster recovery.

So how what would you how would you address the disaster recovery?

Yeah.

Thank you.

Donna Nelson, number one in the ballot disaster recovery.

Of course we have to look at it.

Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority and the way that they have been managing these funds over the years.

We start with the roofing program and the roofing program, the envision program in particular, where there's been a lot of issues with that, where the projects were actually stalled.

I think that there was a question or an issue of not paying some of the local contractors at a reasonable rate.

The rate in which construction took place will have to change.

We have to totally revamp that, that particular program.

We also have to look at the city b g disaster recovery funds and how it's been utilized, what monies would be available to us at this time.

Because if we're saying that the federal government are odd, has issued notice that they have frozen a significant portion, then we certainly have to address that issue process.

Thank you.

Number three, that's the land and water use plan for the Virgin Islands.

What do you have to say about that?

Well, I'm really grateful that we finally do have a land and water use plan.

And actually, if you go to my official work website, you'll see that I have asked people to comment on that plan to ensure that we are putting it forward.

As I said previously, I was able several years ago to have the entire island of Saint Croix be created a National Heritage area.

I am committed to our land.

I have served on the Agriculture Committee and realized that we need to scale up and be engaged in planning, not to.

Just projects are coming to us, but that we are designing what our future should look at.

And I think that the land and water use plan did that.

We need to follow it.

We need to empower it, and we need to move it out into reality that we can see and feel here in the Virgin Islands.

Thank you.

Number four Mr.. Wapa should it be public ownership are going to receive the ship should be privatizing, a blend of public private partnership.

Could you be a precise as possible, please?

Sure.

What does what it was legislated for as a government.

The problem is not the agency.

It is the management and operators of Wapa whereby fuel at retail price, where there's two other categories of you, we can purchase fuel and retail can go between 4 or 5 or $6.

Here in this territory.

We could go by way of rock rate fuel based on what we do as an emission emitted agency 24 hours a day and rack rate is $2 and 30 plus cents, we could move to even bulk rate, which reduces significantly if we could justify ourselves $1.75 a gallon.

The reason why we're not doing that is because there are other people who actually running the agencies to the old brokers, and we are spending this a significant amount of money and actually do what we're doing.

Do we privatize?

There's no favoritism with privatizing any, any government facilities that actually impacts the entire territory, because those individuals who manage it have a control of what the price is.

We must establish to our PSC and formulary, based on what the legislature is supposed to do on oversight, and do what is supposed to be done.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And number five, the last person, Mr.

Moser, the AARP has noted that most families are concerned about lack of government accountability and transparency.

How would you address that?

I will be absolutely, fully transparent, maybe to a fault as I've been all my life.

As governor, you will know exactly what's going on, exactly what's happening.

I'll be reporting to the media at least weekly, disclosing everything I know that's happened in the last week.

And what's happening, that's just the way I am.

I guess I was born that way.

I've run all my businesses and enterprises that way, and I look forward to doing that with the U.S.

government.

Thank you.

I think we've had a good opportunity to to for the employers to get a good grasp on you.

So now we can move to your closing statements, and we invite each one of you then to make a one minute, closing statement to.

30s, I was told.

80s.

Yeah.

30s.

We had a long discussion.

Apparently, each candidate is, So we're beginning.

We were told.

We were told one minute, but we talked a lot.

We talked a lot.

We we can't we can't manufacture time when you're cutting.

I would love to do that, but we cannot do that.

Why should we elect you governor?

30s.

The the James Bennett team is of the people.

We, myself and and Randolph Bennett were both born in the Virgin Islands.

I was born in Virgin Islands.

Randall Bennett was born in Saint Kitts.

But we both went to elementary school and high school right here in the Virgin Islands.

So we are of the Virgin Islands.

The James Bennett team is by the Virgin Islands.

That means that we are funded not by superPACs, not by packs.

We are funded by the people.

We have not received any donation over $3,500 from any one entity.

And we are for the people, we the people of the Virgin.

We are for the people.

We will not be obligated to accept any calls.

We appreciate that, Mr.

Bennett, as precise as you can.

Why should you be the governor as Oakland Benton?

Mr.. Who will be my lieutenant governor?

We are simple people.

We're grassroots.

We understand what you're going through and how we live every single day.

I pretty much have myself in position for the past several years working with many of my federal partners, not just locally, but throughout the Caribbean as well.

And nationally.

We are, in fact experience and understanding what's required.

And you're not starting with someone who's trying to learn the process.

We've already identified the problems, and I've pretty much engaged.

I engaged with the solutions for the vaccine issues of which we are facing today.

This is the team that has it, that has the support of the federal government and all of its attachés, as well as has the support of private sector to grow this economy.

Well, thank you, Candidate Plaskett.

Yes, I'm Stacey Plaskett, and I'm running with Milton Potter to be your next governor and lieutenant governor.

Milton and I have had careers in public service.

But more importantly, we are here with you each and every day, going out, meeting with you, hearing from you.

And we have a track record of serving the people and accomplishing much.

But more than that, we understand your frustrations, we agree with you, and we believe that we can be better than just the basics, that we can indeed be the jewel of the Caribbean with our discipline, our problem solving skills, and our leadership working with you.

We're number three on the ballot and we're asking for your support.

Thank you, Mr.

Mosler.

Hi.

If if you are looking at this as a reward for prior service, don't vote for me.

That's not what I'm about.

I'm about identifying problems, developing solutions, and then carrying them out in in that regard, if you're going to vote for me, also vote cast all nine of your votes that you have for the independent senators and delegate to Congress so that we can work together as a team to get the job done.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Donastorg, my fellow Virgin Islanders.

You know who you are.

Donald Nelson, number one in the ballot.

We have fought for you for many, many years.

We have maintained a commitment to you.

We understand your struggles.

We relate to your everyday experiences, and we're asking you for your vote this election, not just based on our experience and our ability to get things done, but because you truly understand that what is needed today is transparency and accountability in government.

And we believe that the only team here that is considered outsiders, we got to be careful.

The insiders do it and done vote number one.

With that, we come to a close and I would like to thank all the candidates who are being present with us and for sharing your ideas, your strategies, your plans, and and with us here in the room as well as with the viewing public.

So thank you again.

Thank you, staff and crew for your support.

To the viewers, be sure to vote.

It's not only your right, but it's your responsibility.

If you care about this territory, you must vote.

Thank you.