The Senate met in full session Wednesday, approving three judgeships and three other nominations by 3 p.m. Forty-four bills and resolutions and one lease agreement remained in the first of a two-day session to conclude the business of the 23rd Legislature.
The lawmakers approved the six nominations after starting an hour-and-a-half late awaiting St. Croix senators.
Re-appointed unanimously to the St. Croix Territorial Court was Family Court Judge Patricia Steele and St. Thomas Territorial Court Judge Brenda Hollar. First-time appointee Darryl D. Donohue was appointed to the St. Croix bench by a vote of 13-1, with Sen. Adelbert "Bert" Bryan voting no and Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen not voting.
Brig. Gen. Cleave McBean was unanimously appointed Adjutant General of the Virgin Islands. Attorney Pedro Williams was appointed to the Housing Finance Authority Board 13-1 with Bryan casting the no vote, and Donastorg absent for the vote. Christian O. Christensen, husband of V.I. Congressional Delegate Donna Christian-Christensen, was appointed to the Coastal Zone management Commission unanimously.
Acrimony was the order of the day, with the 200-plus page Omnibus Act of 2001 taking center stage. Bryan made a motion to re-order the bill to last item on the agenda, and Hansen moved to move the bill to first item. Bryan then moved to adjourn "sine die" (indefinitely), which was defeated.
The battle lines were clearly drawn early on between the majority and minority senators, and civility was a rare commodity. Hansen at one point interrupted Sen. Lorraine Berry's defense of the Omnibus Bill with an emotional outburst declaring that Berry "is interrupting the life of the people" and continuing her diatribe despite repeated attempts by Senate President Vargrave Richards to regain some order.
Berry explained that the bill had been written with several appropriations in it which would allow Gov. Charles Turnbull to line-item veto the bill, should he choose. She said that though she didn't agree with all the bulky bill's contents, she was a "team player," and compromises had to be made.
Berry said it has always been thus in her 18 years in the Legislature. Berry abruptly ended her allotted minutes by saying, "conscience is dead; peace on earth."
Most of the senators used their allotted time for comment on the nominations with but a nod to the nominee and then on to his or her own agenda, which in most cases was the Omnibus Bill.
Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg devoted most of his time to his ongoing battle for a rate investigation of the Virgin Islands Telephone Corp. Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole declared early on that the Omnibus Bill was the only thing on his mind as he railed against its passage. The minority senators all objected to the vast number of items in the bill, ranging from a controversial taxi section to a Tourism Authority and the Wrongful Discharge Act, to name but a very few.
Bryan objected violently to a section of the executive budget which appropriates payment of $350,000 to the V.I. Housing Authority for payment of legal claims to Innovative Assets Group and Webster Construction Co. Inc. He produced a letter dated Dec. 14 from Claude L. Richards Jr., VIHA executive director, stating neither company has a legitimate claim against the authority at this time.
