The V.I. Senate’s Committee on Finance adjourned early Thursday on St. Thomas after the Department of Property and Procurement requested a lease be withdrawn from consideration to be revised and corrected, and senators objected to a lack of information about two land sales under consideration.
The hearing, chaired by Sen. Clifford Graham, was notable as the first time a V.I. legislative committee has held a meeting where some senators participated by teleconference.
By law, the Legislature must approve all government leases and land purchase.
On the committee agenda for the day were:
• A lease agreement between the V.I. government and Ramon Mieses and Mieses Construction for Parcel no. 125 Submarine Base, No. 6 Southside Quarter, St. Thomas;
• Contracts to purchase Parcel 57, Cotton Valley, St. Croix, from the Phyllis M. Saunders Trust and Parcel 102 Estate Bovoni St. Thomas from the Patti Brich 1991 Trust.
At the beginning of the hearing, the legislative clerk read a letter from the Division of Property and Procurement requesting the lease be removed from the hearing agenda for revision.
Graham asked for a motion to remove the other two items from the agenda, saying "this committee has not received any of the required documentation on the two contracted sales."
"I have to express my disappointment," Graham said. "When we met March 19, we were told if we (the Legislature) got documentation before this committee adjourned, we would move forward with those contracts of sale. A month has passed and we thought we would have it by today," Graham said, adding that the executive branch "needs to be told these contracts will not appear on the agenda again until we receive the documentation."
Several senators also expressed frustration about wasting Legislative time.
Sens. Judi Buckley, Terrence "Positive" Nelson and Nereida "Nellie" Rivera-O’Reilly participated in the hearing by telephone conference call. While long pauses and intermittently repeating audio made communication awkward at times, several senators, including Buckley, Nelson and Sen. Donald Cole praised Graham for taking the leap, which they said had the potential to save a lot of money in travel.
"I hope the members continue with this and improve the technology," Nelson said.
Votes to remove each item from the agenda and to adjourn were unanimous, with Buckley, Cole, Graham, Nelson, Rivera-O’Reilly and Sen. Myron Jackson voting yea. Sen. Clarence Payne was absent.
