March 20, 2009 — The Virgin Islands' constitution may mandate that crime victims always have an opportunity to testify during the prosecution of the crime that involved them, if the 5th V.I. Constitutional Convention approves language adopted by one of its committees Friday.
Two of the convention's committees, dealing with government finance and with health and public safety, met Friday, borrowing teleconferencing facilities at the Board of Education's offices and the University of the Virgin Islands. Though members had to keep to a strict timeline and drive across both islands to meet the schedules of the groups donating the use of their facilities, both committees formed quorums and quickly and efficiently read, modified and approved their respective draft passages for review by the entire convention next weekend.
Chairing the Committee on Health, Human Services and Public Safety, delegate Wilma Marsh Monsanto read the passages up for consideration. They call for the government to generally provide for the health, safety and welfare of residents, protection of the elderly, the disabled, children and those who cannot fend for themselves, without regard to ethnicity, religion or sex, along with establishing a specific victims' right.
"The government shall …. provide for victims of crime to be heard in a fair and dignified manner during the prosecution of the crime of which they were a victim, as provided for by law," Monsanto read.
This and the other tentative provisions were approved by unanimous consent.
The Taxation and Finance committee, chaired by delegate Robert Schuster, approved language requiring a balanced budget, requiring the Legislature to establish a budget ceiling on the general fund and making all government account records open to the public. The Legislature would have to approve spending more than the budget ceiling with a two-thirds supermajority.
The committee determined it wanted to require every government department to have regular, professional audits, but language in another section creates a permanent constitutional post of auditor general and this and other provisions being considered by other committees would have to be coordinated to be complementary and not redundant.
Delegate Mary Moorhead said one option would be to leave the passage for now, and speak with legal counsel and other delegates about making all the relevant passages conform to one another.
"Or we can pass it now and work out how to compromise the two passages later in plenary session," she said.
The committee voted by unanimous consent to take the former path.
Present at the Taxation and Finance Committee hearing were: Moorhead, Monsanto, Schuster, Arnold Golden, Stedmann Hodge Jr., Douglas Capdeville and Thomas Moore.
Present at the Committee on Health, Human Services and Public Safety were: Moorhead, Monsanto, Elsie Thomas-Trotman, Richard Schrader Jr. and Cain Magras.
This convention has a deadline of May 31 to produce a draft document.
The U.S. Congress passed a law in 1976 to allow the people of the Virgin Islands and Guam to adopt territorial constitutions. Any constitution has to be consistent with federal law and with the U.S. constitution. The government must be republican in form, with executive, legislative and judicial branches, and it must have a bill of rights. But there are few other restrictions.
There have been four previous constitutional conventions, but no territorial constitution yet. The most recent convention was in 1980. For a detailed history of previous conventions and extensive background information on the subject, see "V.I. CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS: BACKGROUND."
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