June 12, 2001 – The St. Croix Chamber of Commerce this week will reevaluate its lawsuit against the Legislature after other business groups in the territory said the group’s action will only impede cooperation with the law-making body.
Carmelo Rivera, president of the St. Croix Chamber, said Monday that Chamber board members will revisit their June 1 decision to force the Legislature to act on a referendum on the 2000 ballot that sought to reduce the number of senators from 15 to either 11 or nine. Voters overwhelmingly chose to have a nine-member Senate but most legislators have been lukewarm about addressing the mandate.
The move comes after the presidents of the St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce, St. Thomas-St. John Hotel and Tourism Association and the St. Croix Hotel Association wrote Rivera last week saying the lawsuit would make it difficult for the groups to accomplish future work that involves the Senate. Those goals include a tourism authority, tax reform and implementing portions of the government’s five-year economic plan.
Representatives from all four business groups met with Senate majority leaders just two days before the lawsuit was filed, a fact that the presidents pointed to in their letters to Rivera with some chagrin.
"We got the letters. We are a little bit concerned," Rivera said on WSTX radio Monday. "We will make a decision later this week."
Rivera said the St. Croix Chamber wants to keep its alliance with the other business groups but it also shouldn’t be expected to walk lock step with them on every issue. The lawsuit, he said, was aimed at making the Senate accountable to the voters.
"There was a basic, fundamental request people made to reduce the Senate," Rivera said. "We can quibble on the technicalities."
Meanwhile, Rivera said he didn’t believe he was being naive to think that senators wouldn’t hold a grudge. He said he hoped legislators would do what is best for the territory, not how to get back at the Chamber.
The lawsuit, he said, "shouldn’t interfere with any other business we do with the Senate at this point.
"I don’t think there will be reprisals. I’m not being naive here, but we should separate the issues," he said.
