June 6, 2001 – Attorney General Iver Stridiron said Tuesday night that the referendum that spawned Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg's Senate Reduction Bill, along with a lot of controversy, was "moot." Elections Supervisor John Abramson Jr. backed up Stridiron's assessment.
An act of Congress in October gave the V.I. Legislature the authority to determine for itself what its size and makeup should be, making November's referendum, which asked if the "Legislature should petition the United States Congress to amend the Revised Organic Act to reduce the number of senators comprising the Virgin Islands Legislature," pointless.
Donastorg's bill would cut the number of senators in the Legislature from 15 to nine. It is co-sponsored by Sens. Lorraine L. Berry, Douglas E. Canton Jr. Emmett Hansen II, Norma Pickard-Samuel and Roosevelt David.
However, the referendum that Donastorg is using to lend legal and moral weight to the bill verged on "voter fraud," Stridiron said. "We knew in October it was a moot point."
He suggested that the Legislature "put the darn thing on the agenda for the next session" and "vote it up or vote it down."
Stridiron was the first witness at a public hearing, the second of three to be held this week by the Government Operations, Planning and Environmental Protection Committee, on the bill.
In answer to ongoing controversy over last November's referendum, which saw an overwhelming number of voters cast their ballots to reduce the Senate to nine members, both Stridrion and Abramson said that under Virgin Islands law, a referendum amounted to little more than an opinion poll anyway. This was a reversal of previous opinions expressed in November by both Abramson and Chief Legislative Legal Counsel Constance Krigger that the referendum was somehow binding.
An initiative, not a referendum, would be binding, Abramson said Tuesday night.
Moot referendum notwithstanding, most witnesses called for election reform of some type, echoing the same frustration and disillusionment expressed in Monday night's public hearing on St. John.
Gaylord A. Sprauve, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the 24th Legislature, restated what he has said before the election: "There was absolutely no need to put the voting public through what would amount to a meaningless exercise since the United States Congress had already initiated the process to allow the Virgin Islands Legislature to determine its size."
However, Sprauve said, voters "have often sounded a call to 'get rid of all of them' as a way" to express what they see as the "faults with the Legislature."
Sprauve called for changes in "our election method" and better decorum "management" rather than reducing the number of senators. Increased power in the hands of nine senators, Sprauve said, would mean it would take only five votes to override a gubernatorial veto, "an absurdity that does not exist in any other" U.S. jurisdiction.
However, several witnesses, including Michael Bornn, representing the Republican Party of the V.I., said, "The public has spoken loud and clear," adding that a 1998 referendum calling for numbered seats was also ignored.
Bornn said he personally saw not the number of senators but "numbered seats as the critical issue," adding, "You'd be sitting next to a cohort instead of an opponent."
Water Island resident Alex Randall, offered an impressive chart of statistics unfavorably comparing the cost of the V.I. Legislature with the cost of representation in other states and islands. Randall came under attack by Sen. Celestino White and committee Chairman Donald "Ducks" Cole when, in an emotional moment, he said he'd like to see the Legislature Building turned into a school and have the senators meet in a temporary classroom. The senators accused Randall of being disrespectful.
Randall, who strongly supported the Senate reduction, later apologized but maintained the V.I. was paying too high a price for its legislators.
Union leader Luis "Tito" Morales, on the other hand, supported the Legislature remaining at 15 senators, but said it was time for "districting," as did other witnesses.
League of Women Voters President Erva Denham said the league expected senators to respond to the will of the people, which seemed to be the general concern of most of the speakers.
Not one witness of the nine who testified was happy with the status quo.
All committee members — Sens. Cole, Donastorg, Carlton Dowe, Adelbert M. Bryan, David, David S. Jones and White — were in attendance. Sens. Berry and Almando "Rocky" Liburd also attended.
The final public hearing will be held Thursday night on St. Croix.
