Nearly six months into the 2024 fiscal year, the Taxicab Commission was at the Senate hoping to get its budget request approved Tuesday.
Acting Executive Director Vernice Gumbs told the Committee on Budget, Appropriations and Finance the commission needed more than $1,506,900. Gumbs hoped to transition the commission from manual services to an electronic management system for collections, renewing business licenses, digital storage, and records verification.
Gumbs said longtime Taxicab Commission Board Chair Loretta Lloyd had resigned and was replaced by Interim Chairperson Elizabeth Hansen Watley. Lloyd, who remained on the commission board but no longer as chairperson, had long been described by senators as a hindrance to the commission’s operations, frequently battling with executive directors.
The senators expressed continued skepticism about the commission’s effectiveness as Gumbs, who had been in the role nearly two years, was unable to give firm answers to questions about its finances. The commission collected more than $23,000 in revenue on St. Croix in 2024 so far, she said, but was unsure how much was collected in the St. Thomas-St. John district. Unofficial reports from the Finance Department put the St. Thomas revenue at $211,838.70, she said. Gumbs said she’d asked the collections clerk to assist in gathering the information internally but was rebuffed.
“She refused and it’s a manual process. Not only she refused, but she left and went home for the day,” Gumbs said. “It’s only one admin person I have on the island of St. Thomas.”
Morale was low, and basic office supplies — like printer toner — were lacking. Thirteen taxi medallions continue to be missing. Internet service in the office was spotty at best. Although the commission had the money available, they’d failed to pay a $12,000 bill to Property and Procurement. Processes for collecting and recording data were slow and cumbersome, she said. The commission did not have an enforcement officer on St. Croix since the sole one there quit in August. The commission had not collected and recorded much of its revenue data since at least December.
“We could not demonstrate the monies being collected and how it’s spent,” Gumbs said.
Sen. Donna Frett-Gregory said the lack of clear communication and records maintenance within the commission was troubling at best. Not knowing how much money the commission made in the first quarter of fiscal year 2024, which started in October, made funding the commission difficult.
“The employee should be giving you those receipts at the end of every day and there should be some level of reconciliation between you and that employee at least once a week — to make sure that the money that the taxi drivers are paying into the commission are being used for its intended purpose. By your own admission, you can’t tell us what those taxi drivers paid in 2024 to date,” Frett-Gregory said. “There must be some level of accountability in the work that we do.”
Gumbs also didn’t have official reports on 2023 collections, only “unofficial records,” and acknowledged the commission board had not approved the budget request she presented Tuesday.
Gumbs sent forms to the Office of Management and Budget requesting seven new employees in 2025. But Frett-Gregory asked if the positions were not currently funded, how could they be hired? The commission’s approved budget was funded at $374,000 and the 2025 amount had not been set at all.
Sen. Novelle Francis Jr. called the commission dysfunctional, saying the budgetary ask was out of line with the financial information presented. Francis said he’d asked Gumbs all four times she’d been before the Senate when the commission’s rules and regulations would be finalized, and all four times, the answer was that they were working on it. Gumbs said part of the slow process was an inability to get necessary parties to agree to work on it.
Sen. Franklin Johnson said he didn’t know what words to use to describe the commission.
“You came here asking for a million dollars and you can’t even tell me what you are collecting. That’s a bad taste,” Johnson said. “You can’t tell me you got dollar.”
Johnson said the current commission was an insult to itself, the drivers, and the territory as a whole.
Sen. Marvin Blyden said the lack of clear financials was troubling.
“I’m honestly disappointed,” he said.
Sen. Carla Joseph said she had grave concern about the operation and management of the commission.
“I am very troubled by this presentation today,” Joseph said.
Sen. Kenneth Gittens called the commission totally dysfunctional and said he would continue to vote against appropriating money for it.
“I keep saying it is time to defund it if we’re not going to solve the problems we’re having,” Gittens said. “We have too many boards here in the Virgin Islands that’s just totally dysfunctional.”
Frett-Gregory called for an inquiry into the commission’s financials.
“The Taxicab Commission needs an Inspector General audit,” she said. “This is a complete mess. It’s a mess. And it’s not good business.”
The last such audit was in 2005 and turned up a laundry list of shortcomings, Sen. Diane Capehart said.
At the end of the meeting, Frett-Gregory figuratively threw up her hands.
“This issues with the Taxicab Commission and its financials and its operations is something that, as leaders in the territory, I don’t know that we can have come before the institution of the Legislature a sixth or seventh time with the same messaging, so it seems like we have some other work to do,” she said.
