The V.I. Water and Power Authority will be prohibited from back-billing more than three months for faulty meters and previous billing mistakes, if a bill approved in the Rules and Judiciary Committee Tuesday becomes law.
The measure, sponsored by Sens. Nereida "Nellie" Rivera-O’Reilly and Sammuel Sanes, would not apply if there is fraud or the meter is shown by the utility to be damaged or unavailable due to the actions of the consumer.
In committee hearings a week ago, WAPA Executive Director Hugo Hodge Jr. opposed the bill, saying that it could result in a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. Hodge also said the billing, while frustrating, was not unfair, as it is only seeking “to collect for consumption or services that have already been used by the customer.”
Several senators said they were not convinced by Hodge’s argument, and felt it would be unfair to expect consumers to pay many months later if they had been acting in good faith and paying what they were billed.
Sen. Usie Richards said Hodge’s testimony inadvertently persuaded him to support the bill.
"In my mind, the three 30-day billing cycles, approximately 90 days, provides a reasonable time to correct errors," Richards said, noting that the bill provides if there is any sign of fraud or tampering the time limit is thrown out.
Voting to send the bill on to the full Senate for a final vote were Richards, Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, Patrick Sprauve and Celestino White. Sens. Carlton "Ital" Dowe and Ronald Russell voted against. Sanes was absent at the time of the vote.
Sanes and O’Reilly also sponsored a bill calling for direct election of WAPA governing board members, rather than its current makeup as a volunteer board of gubernatorial nominees of very similar structure as the V.I. Public Services Commission. The committee voted to hold the measure in committee indefinitely.
The committee also passed on to the full Senate a bill that would allow fishermen to transfer their commercial fishing licenses to whoever they choose. According to Sanes, the bill’s sponsor, the goal is to make it easier for a fishing operation to continue when the licensed operator retires and to help preserve the fast-eroding local fishing tradition.
The bill was approved unanimously by the Rules committee.
Also sent on for a final vote was a measure from Sen. Janette Millin-Young requiring the director of personnel to prepare a list of all people hired by the government during the government’s current fiscal crisis, to be forwarded to the Legislature.
And V.I. government-owned Smith Bay and Lindqvist Beach would be transferred to the Magens Bay Authority, which already manages the property, according to a bill sponsored by Dowe and Sen. Louis Patrick Hill. The Rules Committee sent it on for final consideration without opposition.
In other business, the committee approved two honoraria. One was a resolution sponsored by Sen. Shawn-Michael Malone honoring and commending the Virgin Islands Special Olympics Team "for their outstanding achievement in the 2011 Special Olympics World Games in Athens, Greece."
The committee also approved an act sponsored by Malone and Dowe posthumously honoring Ariel Melchior Jr. "for his many years of service to the Virgin Islands community,” and naming Routes 38 and 134 on St. Thomas, commonly referred to as the Estate Thomas Drive, the Ariel Melchior Jr. Drive.
Melchior was the publisher of the Virgin Islands Daily News from 1977 through 2008, and authored the weekly column "One Moment Please" for decades. His father founded the paper in 1930, and Melchior edited the newspaper from 1963 through 1976, according to the proposed legislative resolution.
The committee voted to hold several bills for further consideration and amendment, including measures reforming the rules for terminating parental rights for children in foster care seeking adoption, and authorizing a feasibility study on a particular type of membrane cover, combined with solar power generation, when closing the St. Thomas and St. Croix landfills.
