Once again a major player will be pulling out of the Virgin Islands – and not just because of the Senate. The executive branch – especially Gov. Charles W. Turnbull — has its own part in the defeat.
Beal Aerospace pulled out of the Virgin Islands in large part because it didn't feel it had the full support of the administration. Vacillation and avoidance of public support on the part of the governor plagued that deal all along. Beal felt it couldn't count on the administration.
We have to wonder if Southern's defeat doesn't ring with the same tone.
In all the months of the negotiations back and forth, the controversy, the arguments, where was the governor? He should have been forthright with the public from the beginning, and then he should have lobbied, and lobbied hard, on behalf of Southern Energy, the company he sat at the negotiating table with.
Instead he procrastinated on sending the agreement to the Senate, and he weighed in at the end when the scales had tipped in favor of his opponents.
Though we objected to the lack of bids or negotiations for the sale of 80 percent of the Water and Power Authority, once the decision was made to go with Southern, Gov. Turnbull and every one of his top aides and Cabinet members should have been loud and clear about their support of the proposal.
Instead, little was said and much of it with reticence.
If, as he has said, Turnbull wants to grow the economy through the private sector, he'd better make it very clear on a variety of issues which side of the fence he is on. And he needs to do it as loudly and convincingly as those who would drive business away from the territory.
Meanwhile, we will be waiting to see what the governor will propose in the face of Southern’s unfortunate defeat. One thing the hearings underscored was the public’s widespread dissatisfaction with WAPA’s management and performance. What, then, is the governor’s proposed next course of action?
