After paying to fly eight St. Thomas board members and staff to St. Croix for the V.I. Joint Board of Elections regular meeting on Tuesday, shouting on the part of Adelbert Bryan, and a general lack of decorum, forced the stenographer to leave, ending the meeting until Friday.
Six board members and two staffers flew over from St. Thomas for the meeting, Joint Board Chairman Rupert Ross said afterwards. Airfare is $170 per round-trip ticket, member Wilma Marsh-Monsanto said, suggesting the failed meeting cost the V.I. Government $1,340 in airfare alone, before factoring in a buffet lunch, ground transportation and other unavoidable expenses.
"We went into executive session, that deteriorated and the stenographer decided she could no longer perform her duties and she left," said Ross. "Normally, they can only record one person at a time, and when I was unable to get one person to talk at a time, I called a recess."
Board members attempted to find another stenographer, which the law requires, Ross said. But none were available, so St. Thomas members will fly back over and the meeting will resume 9:30 a.m. Friday, he said.
Shortly after the meeting began, St. Thomas member Lorna Thomas moved to reorder the agenda and first go into executive session to hear reports on applicants and interviews for the position of supervisor of elections. Choosing the top elections official was more important than the committee reports preceding it on the agenda, Thomas said.
Board member Adelbert Bryan and several of his fans in the audience vociferously objected to changing the order of the agenda, questioning the legality of altering the agenda the same day as the meeting and saying it was unfair to those who not wish to wait until executive session ended.
V.I. government bodies, from the V.I. Water and Power Authority Board to the V.I. Legislature (where Bryan served several terms as a senator), routinely reorder their agendas during the hearings in question.
Members voted 8–3 to reorder the agenda and then go into executive session.
Voting yea were: Ross, Thomas, Claudette Georges, Alecia Wells, Anita "Ana" Davila, Lisa Harris-Moorhead and Colette White-Amaro.
Voting no were: Bryan, Monsanto and Lawrence "Larry" Boschulte. Members Harry Daniels, Carmen Golden and Raymond Williams were absent.
The board went into executive session to discuss interviews for the supervisor position at about 10:10. From the lobby of the election systems’ Sunny Isle’s office Bryan could sporadically be heard shouting the "F" word and other obscenities in the conference room on the other side of two closed doors and a hallway.
Not long after the "F" word tirade, the stenographer, wheeling her transcription equipment behind her in a small suitcase, walked out of the meeting, saying she could not accurately transcribe the meeting under the circumstances.
Bryan has a long history of disruptive behavior at meetings. During the Joint Boards’ organizational meeting in February, Bryan interrupted members continuously, objecting to every motion and filibustering when asked what his objection was.
The stenographer recording the February hearing repeatedly asked members to speak one at a time and once the meeting was over, said the chaos made it impossible for her to transcribe the meeting properly.
As an elected delegate to the 5th V.I. Constitutional Convention, Bryan engaged in very similar actions, too, slowing meetings by objecting to every motion and constantly interrupting.
"I enjoy serving on this board, but I don’t like to waste government money," Monsanto said after the meeting. "We have to accomplish our goals, and I am looking forward to an effective and fruitful Friday," she said, suggesting things would go more smoothly if meetings began with a prayer.
Before the executive session began, Bryan asked Ross when the Joint Boards would discuss election reform, saying he had not received a response to a letter he sent. "I did respond," Ross said. "We said there was no report from the Election Reform Committee and the board will not act until there is a report."
Bryan ran for the St. Croix Board of Elections on an election reform platform and chairs the Election Reform Committee. But in May, Bryan refused to give the board the election reform report he campaigned for unless he is reimbursed travel expenses for attending several committee meetings that failed to meet quorum requirements.
The Joint Boards members voted not to reimburse itself for the failed committee meetings and has not reversed that decision, and Bryan continues to withhold the report in protest.
Editor’s note: The story has been updated to reflect that Lorna Thomas moved to reorder the agenda solely because she felt the executive session was a higher priority.
