May 14, 2009 — For a while, there was no stopping them. Hour after hour passed, day turned into night, and still constitutional convention delegates sat in plenary session, adding more and more amendments Wednesday to what they called their "working document."
They operated like there was no tomorrow — and that's because there wasn't. It was made clear by convention treasurer Mario Francis that the delegates were almost out of money, keeping them from meeting again before their May 31st deadline to finish up and approve a constitution. It was now or never.
There were a few arguments, but for the first 10 hours of the session, everything stayed under control, leaving little evidence of the cursing, insulting and near-physical rumbles displayed over the past few months.
Objections were made to sections: limiting the number of students per public school classroom to 20; laying out the definition of native Virgin Islanders; granting native Virgin Islanders property tax exemptions; allowing 18-year-olds to run for a Senate seat; and defining marriage as the union between "man and woman."
Another amendment requiring that all governors and lieutenant governors be native born also raised concerns for convention attorney Lloyd Jordan.
"This is clearly illegal and we've talked about it many times before," Jordan said. "Doing so is clearly illegal — the case law is very long on it. We've talked about this and talked about this, and there's nothing more that I can do, but trust me, this is not going to go anywhere."
Despite the concerns, the amendments passed, and the delegates moved on.
There were some distractions, such as a suggestion made by convention attorney Lisa Moorhead to petition the Senate for more time, but those also passed.
Moorhead said past constitutional conventions were given more time and money to come up with their final documents. She urged delegates not to "shortchange" themselves or the public by rushing to cobble something together in little more than two weeks.
"And if you're going to expect legal counsel to finalize this, I hope you have another $100,000 to pay us, because we're going to be working every day until then, and you all don't even have a final document to give us," she said.
"What are we going to do, go back to the Senate and ask again for an extension?" responded convention president Gerard Luz James II. "We were given certain deadlines. Certainly the money was inappropriate, but we got the extension. I’m not going to ask for another one. We asked people to come and participate. Individuals felt they would come when they want to, they would walk in and out, even though we paid for their room and board. So, if the delegation has not done its part, why am I going to go back and ask again? I'm not going to stretch myself to that dilemma. We are dedicated to fulfilling this mandate to completion."
The first of two motions made later in the day to extend the convention until August failed on an eight-to-12 vote. Another motion calling for the convention to adopt the document they had been working on all day as its "preliminary draft" also failed — and caused an uproar among delegates who though they were being pushed a little too fast.
"Today is May 13th — when do you all think a second draft is coming?" Delegate Mary Moorhead asked after the motion was made. "For us to make that motion I think is a little bit premature, because I thought we were going to finish the document … we're not going to come back sometime before the end of the month to revise again. Right now, we're not here to rush through."
By the time 9 p.m. rolled around and all the amendments had been made, the delegates, made their first-ever motion to adopt a constitution. And it failed, falling six votes short of the two-thirds majority required by law. (See "Convention Fails to Pass Proposed Constitution.")
Calls for compromise prompted Delegates Charles W. Turnbull, Francis Jackson and Richard Schrader to get up, discuss exactly what made them vote against approving the document and make suggestions on further clarifications. But the attempt to regroup had little effect. Many said the document would have passed if all 30 delegates had attended Wednesday's meeting, but Moorhead pointed out that it was unlikely — there was too little consensus on many of the more controversial issues.
The same point was made by Turnbull earlier in the day.
When asked why the document that emerged from the Fourth Constitutional Convention failed when it came back to the territory for a vote, Turnbull — a delegate in all five conventions — said there were "a lot of negative sentiments in the community and the issue of native Virgin Islander helped to bring it up."
"That's why it's wise not to have controversial issues in the constitution," he said. "That's why it's best to have a simple document."
So, as some delegates began to file out the room toward 10 p.m., Moorhead exercised the only option the delegation had left — to ask the Senate for more time. This time, the call for an extension until August passed without any objections. The Senate will also be asked to give the convention $500,000 to fund their efforts and conduct a public education campaign.
The Senate will meet in full session at the end of the month. Whether the convention's request will be on the agenda, or whether Wednesday's session was their last meeting, is still unknown.
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