March 29, 2001 — Senate Rules Chairman Carlton Dowe was forced to cancel his committee meeting Thursday when four of the seven members failed to attend. All seven are in the majority bloc.
The committee was expected to make short work of five bills that breezed through the Committee on Labor and Veterans Affairs last week and was to consider several more that were assigned directly to Rules. The committee is the last stop before floor action.
No shows were Sens. Donald "Ducks" Cole, Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, Adelbert Bryan and Senate President Almando "Rocky" Liburd. Cole and Liburd are in Washington, D.C., lobbying for the return of gasoline excise taxes; Dowe listed them as "excused." He also listed Hansen as "excused" because she told him she was unable to attend.
But Dowe said Bryan was in the building and had told the chairman he would attend the meeting.
Dowe and the other members — Sens. Celestino White and Norma Pickard-Samuel — waited about an hour and a half before Dowe gave up and cancelled the meeting. Waiting with them was Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, who was there to speak in favor of his proposal to make the job of attorney general an elected rather than an appointed position.
Dowe had little comment about Bryan's absence, saying only "every adult have to account for themselves." He said he will add the bills to the agenda of his next meeting, which is scheduled for April 4.
Had the meeting gone forward, Dowe said he would have dropped four bills from the previously published agenda at the request of their sponsors. The proposals that were to be acted on Thursday were to:
– Establish a Military Museum and Veterans Memorial Complex and Medical Center;
– Transfer the old Virgin Islands Hotel (originally Virgin Islands Hilton) to the Office of Veterans Affairs for use as a veterans multipurpose center and acquire land for a veterans cemetery;
– Provide free ambulance and emergency medical care to veterans;
– Increase from 32 to 36 class hours the free tuition at the University of the Virgin Islands for members of the National Guard;
– Provide for the election of the attorney general;
– Commend Virgin Islanders United, Inc.;
– Posthumously confer the V.I. Medal of Honor on Earle B. Ottley.
