May 30, 2001 – What was expected to be a volatile public hearing between St. John taxi drivers and members of the St. John Accommodations Council Tuesday night actually ended with at least the scent of a solution in the air.
The three-hour meeting of the Senate Government Operations, Planning and Environmental Protection Committee was held in the Legislative Conference Room in Cruz Bay. Senate President Almando "Rocky" Liburd, a St. John resident, said he was drafting legislation to reserve several parking spaces by the Cruz Bay dock -– the scene of physical confrontations over parking in the past -– for residents.
The taxi drivers have had and want to keep control of all the parking spots. Other community groups, including the Accommodations Council, want some spaces reserved for residents' use.
Now, whenever ferries arrive from St. Thomas at busy times of day, traffic builds up at the dock as villa rental people meeting guests and taxi drivers awaiting fares vie for space to park.
"I know the situation at the dock; I've lived with it all my life," Liburd said, echoing what several witnesses had said. But, he added, "You should not stop a community from growing."
A 1979 law transferring the 4,104 square feet of land adjacent to the dock from the Port Authority to the residents of St. John was amended two weeks after it was passed, giving control of the space to the St. John Taxi Services Corp. The action taken then did not consider the growth the community would experience, according to Andrew Rutnik, commissioner of Licensing and Consumer Affairs and another St. John resident.
"Since the … law was passed, the island has changed," he said.
Legislative legal counsel Yvonne Tharpes had a different view entirely. Based on her review of the law, she said, "the Port Authority has no authority to lease the property to any entity."
Tharpes said the intent of the law was to allow the Public Safety Department, now the Police Department, to manage the area "for the general welfare" of the community.
An off-duty police officer was accused of physically attacking a villa courtesy car driver in a dispute over parking in March of 2000. That incident brought the long-simmering controversy to a head.
Meetings were held at the time, but no compromise was reached. In April 2000, Mary Hildebrand, president of the St. John Accommodations Council, said she was hopeful an agreement could be reached.
There was talk more than a year ago that a memorandum of understanding would be drafted in which the taxi association would agree to leave unchanged six parking spaces that had traditionally been available for public parking. However, according to Hildebrand, the six spaces had no official designation and police never knew how to enforce the parking. She also said people had been known to park in the spaces all day.
St. John Administrator Julien Harley concurred. He said it was fine for people to park in the spaces to do short-term business. But "if you're going to St. Thomas for the day," he added, parking is available "by the tennis courts."
Harley said Tuesday night that he is "not very happy with what is happening at the dock." He said he met with police and asked them to "use their discretion" in enforcing a five-minute parking limit directly in front of the dock, rather than change signs to make the limit 15 minutes. But, he added, "The next thing I know they are giving tickets."
Harley said even he has a hard time getting to work at the Battery because of taxis parked in front of the gates. "People that live here, were born here -– these guys still give them a hard time," he said.
However, Randolph Thomas, president of St. John Taxi Services, said, "I don't see why we're here tonight. Read the bill taking the land from the V.I. Port Authority."
Thomas said the bill supports the taxi association's right to the space. He also said even though the lease is currently with the attorney general awaiting approval, "we have a month-to-month lease."
The lease requires the taxi association to pay $5,040 a year for leasing the space.
Marc Biggs, commissioner of Property and Procurement, the department charged with the execution of all leases of government property, wrote to Thomas in February asking him to "develop an agreement between both parties whereby the use of the dock area can be utilized jointly, as both entities serve as ambassadors of the Virgin Islands."
Further, Biggs wrote, "your renewal is contingent upon the submittal of that agreement to my office."
Elston George, representing Biggs at Tuesday night's meeting, could not say why Biggs had signed the lease and forwarded it to the attorney general's office without having the requested signed agreement from the taxi association.
Asked by Sen. Carlton Dowe if he would be willing to sublet six spaces to the Accommodations Council, Thomas hedged, finally saying the association would have to vote on that.
A memorandum of understanding drawn up by the taxi association but so far unsigned makes no mention of the six spaces but states that Accommodations Council members "will park their vehicle(s) in front of the taxi line … and must stay with their vehicle and work among themselves to greet the guest of those in the wait line."
Hildebrand said she has not signed the memorandum because "it tells us that we can park in an area that is already a public parking area."
Harley said, "My posture is make six spots for residents, whether it is the Accommodations Council or my wife coming from St. Thomas with packages."
Liburd agreed, adding that the spaces for residents should be the ones closest to the dock, since it was most likely that residents would be carrying packages.
Committee members in attendance at the hearing in addition to Dowe were Sens. Roosevelt David, Celestino A. White Sr. and Donald "Ducks" Cole, who chairs the panel. Liburd is not a member of the committee.

May 30, 2001 – While the intention of a proposed "sin tax" bill now making its way through the Senate is commendable, a St. Croix business leader says it's ill-advised.
The so-called Teacher Recruitment and Training Act of 2001, sponsored by Education Committee Chairman Norman Jn Baptiste, would give scholarships to University of the Virgin Islands students who commit to teaching in local public schools for at least four years. The scholarships would be funded by a 3 percent tax on luxury cars that cost more than $25,000, a 35-cent charge per cigarette pack, and a 5 percent tax on guns and ammunition brought into the territory.
Jn Baptiste told a radio talk show over the weekend that he would also like to see an increase on liquor taxes. "It’s going to a worthy cause," he said.
Carmelo Rivera, president of the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce, agreed that Jn Baptiste’s cause is noble but said new taxes are not the way to go. That is consistent with the position the islands' business groups have taken in recent years whenever senators have proposed "sin taxes" on such items as cigarettes, alcoholic beverages or expensive cars.
The bill "feels good," Rivera said. "Most people will eat the rhetorical bait. I . . . don’t think this is the kind of legislation that should be contemplated with the current economy."
Instead, Rivera said the Legislature should focus on improving the economy. The St. Croix Chamber, along with its counterpart on St. Thomas and St. John, and the territory’s hotel and tourism associations want the government to focus on establishing a tourism authority, implement tax reform and address insurance issues.
"The last thing we need is another disincentive to do business in the Virgin Islands," Rivera said.
The bill was approved by the Education Committee last week and will next be heard by the Senate Rules Committee where Jn Baptiste said it could very likely be amended.

May 29, 2001 – Sen. Celestino White, chair of the Senate Housing, Parks and Recreation Committee, said Tuesday he will proceed with plans for a second hearing into allegations of corruption within the territory's three housing agencies. However, he said he will not tolerate attempts to malign the reputations of housing officials.
White has repeatedly accused Sen. Lorraine Berry, a member of his committee, and Alphonse Nibbs, a former committee staff member and also a former executive director of the V.I. Housing Authority, of seeking to "attempt to impugn the character and integrity" of the heads of the three agencies.
The three are Conrad "Ricky" Francois, executive director of the V.I. Housing Authority; Ira Hobson, commissioner of the Housing, Parks and Recreation Department; and Claude Richards, director of the Housing Finance Authority.
Berry has stated, also repeatedly, that her request for a hearing into reported problems within the housing agencies came as the result of Nibbs's public allegations.
White said he doubts the anticipated testimony will be pertinent to corruption. "I have worked with all three men," he said of Francois, Hobson and Richards. "We know of the shortcomings in public housing. Why should we equate deficiencies to criminal conduct?"
The next scheduled meeting of White's committee is on June 11. Nibbs was subpoenaed to appear at the committee's first hearing on the housing agencies, on May 21. He said in advance that he would not be able to attend, because he already had a date that day in New Orleans to testify in another court case.
Nibbs said he'll testify at the June 11 hearing — unless something more important comes up. "The good Lord willing and barring any unusual circumstances, I am looking forward to the hearing," he said. "If I am here, I will attend."
Nibbs has said publicly that he testified before the federal grand jury that returned fraud indictments against three people, including one who was under contract with a housing agency earlier this year.

May 29, 2001 – In an otherwise only normally contentious Senate committee meeting Tuesday afternoon, a freshman senator exercised a rarely used privilege and kicked the attorney general of the Virgin Islands out of the Legislature's chambers on St. Thomas.
"You're a bully, but you're not going to bully me," Sen. Norma Pickard-Samuel, chair of the Labor and Veterans Affairs Committee, told Iver Stridiron. She directed the sergeant-at-arms: "Get him out of my committee."
Pickard-Samuel had earlier demanded to have Stridiron's microphone turned off when he tried to respond to allegations she was making about selective prosecution and "striking deals" within the V.I. Justice Department. Stridiron called the charges "nonsense," a response not to the senator's satisfaction.
"Turn this man's mike off. This is my committee, and I'll run it," Pickard-Samuel said before demanding Stridiron's ouster.
The exchange came during a Labor Department fact-finding hearing. It wasn't the first time the two have crossed swords. Pickard-Samuel has been trying to get Stridiron to give her information on a criminal investigation within the Labor Department that his department has been conducting.
Stridiron said Pickard-Samuel had written him asking for an update on the Labor Department case and he had written back twice saying he couldn't come before the Legislature and disclose findings of a criminal investigation. He said she had rejected his suggestion that they meet privately to discuss the matter. He said he had told her, "I'm not going to make haste in prosecuting people just because it inconveniences someone."
Later, Pickard-Samuel said her office had been getting a lot of complaints about the lack of closure on the Labor investigation and on another matter: That matter, she claimed, is that the teen-age son of a federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent in the territory has been accused of a sexual offense and is getting special treatment from Stridiron's office.
The youth is getting "diplomatic" treatment, Pickard-Samuel told the Source during a break in Tuesday's proceedings. "We can't have federal agents coming in with families acting like diplomats, thinking nothing can be done to them." She said the young man is being tried as a juvenile although he recently turned 18. "What they're doing is wrong," she said, "when other young men here would get sentenced to 10 years in prison."
Pickard-Samuel wouldn't reveal her sources but said, "You know I check my facts before I open my mouth."
During the committee session, she announced that she is writing to Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole, Government Operations, Planning and Environmental Protection Committee chair, asking him to call the Justice Department before his committee for an investigation. In addition, she said, she is writing to Gov. Charles W. Turnbull and to the DEA office in Washington, D.C., with her allegations of V.I. Justice Department wrongdoing.
At the start of the committee's afternoon session, she acknowledged the presence of her father in the gallery and remarked, "My mother called and told me to mind my manners."
Her mother would find Stridiron in agreement. He told the Source later, "I do apologize to the people of this territory for the activity going on in this Legislature, but I don't apologize to Senator Samuel. She is becoming a loose cannon, maligning people, telling the executive branch how to do their jobs." He accused her of "browbeating" acting Labor Commissioner Cecil Benjamin in allowing a Labor employee "to sit and read into the record a 15-page document containing spurious remarks about him."
Stridiron continued, "I don't mind when she talks about how long the Labor Department investigation is taking, but when she launches into making statements that my lawyers are selective in prosecuting a case, I will not stand by. She defames them for her own political advancement, and that ticks me off. To suggest we engage in selective prosecution is just simply flat-out wrong."
He added, "In the case that she mentioned on the floor of the Legislature — which she never should have done — we made a plea offer. We could have charged him as an adult, as he just turned 18, but we charged him as a minor. We agonize over these charges, and we do not look at the parentage of the people involved. We look at it from the point of view of the victim and the victim's family." The defendant, he said, "isn't going to walk away from this. He will be on probation until he is 21. The judge could even send him to the YRC [the Youth Rehabilitation Center] on St. Croix."
Stridiron said he would welcome an investigation of his department by the Government Operations Committee. "I would really appreciate the chairman [Cole] calling for a meeting and inviting me and my lawyers and anybody else," the attorney general said. "We need to let people know what we do in a public hearing."
He also announced he would hold a press conference at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
Stridiron further criticized Pickard-Samuel's behavior in another setting. "In an amicable St. John hearing to resolve a problem about a gate put up on national park land recently, she said there would 'be bloodshed before this is over,'" he stated. Pickard-Samuel, he said, "needs to take a step back from her position as a senator and re-evaluate what she is doing, what her role is supposed to be — or heaven help us all for the next year and a half. And you may quote me."
Stridiron, who served six years in the Senate, one of them as president (succeeding the late Ruby Rouss in mid-term), and another four years as legislative legal counsel, expressed concern for the body. "I know it is not most of the senators who conduct themselves that way," he said. "I saw some of them today shaking their heads."

The Committee for the Betterment of Carenage, along with Coors Light, Offshore Marine, and Hawaiian Tropic will host the annual Father's Day Fishing Tournament on Sunday, June 10, held the weekend before Father's Day.
Fishing begins at 5:30 a.m. and all anglers are due back in Frenchtown at noon for weigh-in of their catch.
Prizes will be awarded for the biggest qualifying fish along with the second and third qualifiers.
Qualifying fish include kingfish, tuna, mackerel, barracuda, bonito, and amberjack. There will be an award for the best captain for the boat with the most weight of qualifying fish and one for the youngest angler with the most weight of qualifying fish.
Prizes will be awarded on Father's Day, Sunday, June 17, at the Father's Day Weekend Celebration in Frenchtown.
Offshore Marine Services and the Committee for the Betterment of Carenage each provide $1000 toward the cash prize presented to the overall winner of the tournament.
Registration for the tournament is 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 9, at Joseph Aubain Ball Park concession in Frenchtown. The registration fee is $25 for each participating angler.

The Committee for the Betterment of Carenage, with co-sponsors Coors Light, Offshore Marine and Hawaiian Tropic, will host the annual Father's Day Fishing Tournament on June 10. The event is traditionally held the weekend before Father's Day.
Fishing begins at 5:30 a.m. and all anglers are due back in Frenchtown at noon for weigh-in of their catch.
Prizes for first, second and third place will be awarded for the biggest kingfish, tuna, mackerel, barracuda, bonito and amberjack. There also will be awards for the best captain, the boat with the most weight of qualifying fish, and the youth angler with the most weight of qualifying fish.
Awards will be presented on June 17 at the Father's Day weekend celebration in Frenchtown.
Offshore Marine Services and the Committee for the Betterment of Carenage are providing $1,000 each toward the cash prize to be presented to the overall tournament winner.
Registration is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 9 at the Joseph Aubain Ball Park concession in Frenchtown. There's a fee of $25 per angler.

The Committee for the Betterment of Carenage, with co-sponsors Coors Light, Offshore Marine and Hawaiian Tropic, will host the annual Father's Day Fishing Tournament on June 10. The event is traditionally held the weekend before Father's Day.
Fishing begins at 5:30 a.m. and all anglers are due back in Frenchtown at noon for weigh-in of their catch.
Prizes for first, second and third place will be awarded for the biggest kingfish, tuna, mackerel, barracuda, bonito and amberjack. There also will be awards for the best captain, the boat with the most weight of qualifying fish, and the youth angler with the most weight of qualifying fish.
Awards will be presented on June 17 at the Father's Day weekend celebration in Frenchtown.
Offshore Marine Services and the Committee for the Betterment of Carenage are providing $1,000 each toward the cash prize to be presented to the overall tournament winner.
Registration is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 9 at the Joseph Aubain Ball Park concession in Frenchtown. There's a fee of $25 per angler.

May 29, 2001 – Student art and poetry contests are nothing new, but the one coming up Saturday at the Coral World Marine Park is.
Visual and literary images created in celebration of nature's all-purpose tropical support system will be judged, with the winners' works to be sent on to international competition.
And what might that system be? The mangrove, of course.
Mangroves, a Coral World release about the competition notes, provide a nursery for fish, crustaceans and shellfish; a rookery for coastal birds such as brown pelicans and egrets; and continuous filtration of sediment run-off from the land, keeping the island waters and reefs crystal clear.
On Saturday, Coral World visitors will be able to see and hear what students from J. Antonio Jarvis Elementary School, Sts. Peter and Paul School and two classes at the V.I. Montessori School thought about that.
For its 10th anniversary outreach effort, the Mangrove Action Project challenged youngsters ages 5 to 13 in the tropical and subtropical nations and territories of the world to create a poem or work of art showing "why mangroves are important to me and my community."
This International Children's Art and Poetry Competition was conceived to accomplish two objectives, the release states: First, to raise young people's awareness of the importance of mangroves; and second, to communicate to a worldwide audience "what is so fresh and natural" to the youngsters. The international winners’ work will be published in a 2002 calendar slated for international distribution.
To meet the requirements for participation by local youngsters in the Mangrove Action Project, Donna Griffin, education specialist for the Planning and Natural Resources Department's Division of Fish and Wildlife, made presentations on the mangrove ecosystem in classrooms and provided materials for teachers to create a mangrove lesson plan. Meantime, Donna Nemeth, curator of Coral World, set up a program at the marine park giving school groups free admission and an orientation to mangroves by a resident aquarist.
All schools were encouraged to promote the art and poetry contest. The young artists could work in pencil, ink, collage, pastel, wax or other mediums. The young authors were confined to 10 lines. Judging all the creative output on Saturday will be Doreen Walsh, painter and batik artist, of the St. Thomas-St. John Arts Council. The top three winners in each category will receive a certificate and a calendar, as will their school, with their works to be submitted to the U.S. office of the Mangrove Action Group for the international judging.
The Mangrove Action Project is supported by non-governmental organizations, scientists and academics in 60 nations. Its mission is to serve as a mangrove information clearinghouse; to foster public awareness of the importance of mangroves and the devastating effects of their loss; to develop financial and technical support for projects to save the mangroves; and to publicize the pressure on farmers and fishers in underdeveloped countries to harvest aquatic delicacies for marketing to wealthy nations at the cost of the environment.
For further information about Saturday's competition, telephone 775-1555, ext. 249, or e-mail to coralworldvi.com.

May 29, 2001 – Student art and poetry contests are nothing new, but the one coming up Saturday at the Coral World Marine Park is.
Visual and literary images created in celebration of nature's all-purpose tropical support system will be judged, with the winners' works to be sent on to international competition.
And what might that system be? The mangrove, of course.
Mangroves, a Coral World release about the competition notes, provide a nursery for fish, crustaceans and shellfish; a rookery for coastal birds such as brown pelicans and egrets; and continuous filtration of sediment run-off from the land, keeping the island waters and reefs crystal clear.
On Saturday, Coral World visitors will be able to see and read what students from J. Antonio Jarvis Elementary School, Sts. Peter and Paul School and two classes at the V.I. Montessori School thought about that.
For its 10th anniversary outreach effort, the Mangrove Action Project challenged youngsters ages 5 to 13 in the tropical and subtropical nations and territories of the world to create a poem or work of art showing "why mangroves are important to me and my community."
This International Children's Art and Poetry Competition was conceived to accomplish two objectives, the release states: First, to raise young people's awareness of the importance of mangroves; and second, to communicate to a worldwide audience "what is so fresh and natural" to the youngsters. The international winners’ work will be published in a 2002 calendar slated for international distribution.
To meet the requirements for participation by local youngsters in the Mangrove Action Project, Donna Griffin, education specialist for the Planning and Natural Resources Department's Division of Fish and Wildlife, made presentations on the mangrove ecosystem in classrooms and provided materials for teachers to create a mangrove lesson plan. Meantime, Donna Nemeth, curator of Coral World, set up a program at the marine park giving school groups free admission and an orientation to mangroves by a resident aquarist.
All schools were encouraged to promote the art and poetry contest. The young artists could work in pencil, ink, collage, pastel, wax or other mediums. The young authors were confined to 10 lines. Judging all the creative output on Saturday will be Doreen Walsh, painter and batik artist, of the St. Thomas-St. John Arts Council. The top three winners in each category will receive a certificate and a calendar, as will their school, with their works to be submitted to the U.S. office of the Mangrove Action Group for the international judging.
The Mangrove Action Project is supported by non-governmental organizations, scientists and academics in 60 nations. Its mission is to serve as a mangrove information clearinghouse; to foster public awareness of the importance of mangroves and the devastating effects of their loss; to develop financial and technical support for projects to save the mangroves; and to publicize the pressure on farmers and fishers in underdeveloped countries to harvest aquatic delicacies for marketing to wealthy nations at the cost of the environment.
For further information about Saturday's competition, telephone 775-1555, ext. 249, or e-mail to coralworldvi.com.

May 29, 2001 – Puerto Rico's 45th annual Casals Festival, which opens Saturday and continues through June 16, won't have a St. Thomas component after all. But it's not for lack of interest or effort.
On Tuesday, the Birch Forum on St. Thomas formally announced the cancellation of a planned June 9 performance by Berlin's Petersen Quartet at the St. Peter Mountain Great House. As no publicity about the concert had gone out, the news probably caught many classical music lovers doubly by surprise.
Last year, the Birch Forum, a philanthropic entity founded by Patti Birch in recognition of her late husband, attorney Everett B. Birch, broke new musical ground by making a concert on St. Thomas an official part of the Casals Festival program. The Rossini Quartet performed one night at the Centro de Bellas Artes in Santurce and the next at the Reichhold Center for the Arts.
Intent on transforming innovation into tradition for this year's festival, the Birch Forum made plans to bring the Moscow Soloists, a 23-member Russian ensemble founded and directed by world-acclaimed violist Yuri Bachmet, to perform at the Reichhold on June 7.
The group is scheduled to appear on June 6 at the Centro de Bellas Artes, and Bashmet is performing there again on June 8 as part of a stellar ensemble.
A month ago, it became known that, because of his Wednesday and Friday commitments, Bashmet would not be able to travel to St. Thomas for the Thursday performance. Plans proceeded to bring the Moscow Soloists without him, but earlier this month the Birch Forum ran into an insurmountable problem.
The ensemble members' flight home from San Juan to Moscow was scheduled for 7:15 a.m. on June 8 and, practically speaking, there was no way it could be changed. "There is no connecting flight from St. Thomas to San Juan which would allow them to make their return flight" if they were to perform on St. Thomas the night of June 7, Birch Forum board member Ricardo Charaf said.
So, the Birch Forum proceeded to Plan B — to bring another of this year's Casals groups, the Petersen Quartet, to St. Thomas, to perform on June 9, not at the Reichhold but at the St. Peter Mountain Great House. The quartet is scheduled to appear on June 13 in Puerto Rico. However, it turned out that it has a busy regional schedule the week before.
In a memo to board members last week, Neil Prior, Birch Forum president, said he had just learned from festival management that "we would have to pay to bring the Petersen Quartet from Santo Domingo to St. Thomas and then pay to take them to Panama, on top of their fee and expenses." He added, "In view of the additional financial burden and the short time available, I think we have no choice but to cancel for this year."
On Tuesday, an announcement and flyer from the Reichhold Center confirmed that the quartet's appearance had been canceled.
The cloud has a double silver lining, however.
"The Casals Festival management was very apologetic and promised to work with us in July for next year's event," Prior said in his memo. And the Birch Forum has already laid the groundwork to bring the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra to the Reichhold next fall for the third successive year. On that occasion, scheduled for Nov. 3, the Birch Forum is hoping to present a performance with the Caribbean Chorale of J.S. Bach's "Magnificat."
The Birch Forum has been co-presenting classical music and other performing arts events as part of the Reichhold season since 1996, when it brought in poet-dramatist Maya Angelou. This past season, in addition to the Puerto Rico orchestra, it sponsored the January appearance of operatic soprano Harolyn Blackwell and the April performance of the New Jersey Chamber Orchestra.