Aug. 31, 2008 — Eager to meet an Oct. 6 deadline to complete a draft of a Constitution, delegates to the Virgin Islands Fifth Constitutional Convention will be diving into four, daylong sessions following the Labor Day break.
On Wednesday, Sept. 3 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursday, Sept. 4 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., delegates will hold plenary sessions at the Canegata Multipurpose Building on St. Croix.
They reconvene the following week on St. Thomas at the University of the Virgin Islands in the first-floor conference room of the Administration and Conference Center.
Plenary sessions are slated from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 9 and Wednesday, September 10.
A convention spokesman said an agenda was still being prepared as of Friday. However, in a previous two-day session, delegates reviewed proposed language of six of 12 committees.
The following committees have yet to present their drafts:
– Suffrage/Election/Initiative/Referendum/Recall/Amendments, chaired by Arnold Golden;
– Education/Youth/Culture chaired by Mary Moorhead; Government chaired by Anne Golden;
– Taxation/Finance/Commerce chaired by Robert Schuster, and;
– Status/Federal Relations chaired by Gerard Emanuel.
Attorneys will ultimately take draft language proposed by the committees and rework it with the aim of passing U.S. Constitutional muster, as is required by law. Delegates are working toward the October deadline but they are eager for the Legislature to grant them an extension to March, 2009.
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