Dear Source:
I am somewhat dismayed over the ongoing controversy regarding vendors using Drake's Seat for commercial gain, that I have been reading about in the St. Thomas Source. I am also quite surprised that Sen. Celestino White would fight for the vendors return.
When Mr. White visits Drake's Seat, what does he see? Is it the sheer panoramic beauty, or is it the trash on the ground and the goods sold by these vendors? Does he believe that visitors (local and tourist) to this unique place come for the t-shirts? I think not! Do they come to take photos of the vendors hawking their wares which are laid out along the wall? I think not! Is it that he "can't see the forest for the trees", or rather the "beauty for the …." You can fill in the blank.
All people have a right to legally advance their own interests. But why must this small group of individuals do so (if what they are doing is indeed legal) at the expense of all Virgin Islanders? I say all, because everyone of us is hurt, by the perceptions visitors (who just happen to dump millions of dollars into our economy, by the way) have of the foolish, and yes foolhardy way in which our lawmakers allow, even promote (Mr. White) our islands' natural beauty to be "trashed" by itinerant vendors, who could just as easily sell their wares in appropriate, designated places, with proper licences.
Speaking of licences, are these vendors properly licenced? Are they, and have they been paying taxes on their commercial enterprises?
Give us a break Celestino White, for once in your senatorial life, do the right thing! Support the majority!
Sincerely,
Patrick Deery
St. Thomas, VI
Miami, Fl.

The V.I. Board of Education has just hosted two town meetings – on Feb. 21 on St. Thomas at the Curriculum Center, and on Feb. 28 on St. Croix in the Legislative Conference Room in Frederiksted. It will convene a third at 6:30 p.m. March 14 on St. John in the Legislative Conference Room in Cruz Bay.
Town meetings allow people to voice concerns, offer constructive criticism and have input into the decision-making process. Board members have been open to the collective wisdom of the electorate, and we have received an outpouring of constructive criticism of the existing public education system.
However, we have noticed that many participants in the discussions and debates on public education are not aware of the existing powers of the Board of Education. At our last town meeting, a handful of those testifying implied that the board would "bite off more than it can chew" if we were to acquire governance of the public education system, and that the board must exercise its powers under the V.I. Code to convince the public of its seriousness. We board members listened attentively to this point of view. We wondered to ourselves, what powers do we have in reality?
The Board of Education as it now exists is an advisory entity. It does not have governance over the school system, nor can it set public policy, as the vast majority of U.S. state school boards do.
One aspect of governance is the authority to create a resource base through taxation. Approximately 75 percent of the nation's 15,437 school boards have the authority to formulate taxes on items such as property and gasoline. The V.I. board does not have the power to raise taxes, formulate fiscal strategies for public education, or have input on major public policy issues such as pay raises for teachers.
A brief review of the board's existing powers makes clear its advisory nature. Its general powers and duties are set forth in Section 121, Title 17 of the Virgin Islands Code. The board has authority and jurisdiction to:
1. Recommend the establishment of public schools; prescribe general regulations and orders; adopt curricula and courses of study; recommend laws and amendments; recommend appropriations required for the operation of the public schools and the Education Department; and in general to do anything necessary for the proper establishment, maintenance, management, and operation of the public schools of the Virgin Islands;
2. Cooperate with the U.S. Department of Education in the administration of all acts of Congress relating to general education, and administer all provisions of the V.I. Code relating thereto, as well as any other legislation pursuant thereto enacted by the legislature;
3. Approve plans for cooperating with the federal government in carrying out any and all phases of the educational program in which it may find cooperation to be desirable;
4. Provide for the proper administration of funds which may be appropriated by Congress and apportioned to the Virgin Islands for any and all education purposes;
5. Approve, subject to final approval by the governor, recommendations made by the Education commissioner to the Personnel Merit System administrator under Section 121 of Title 17 with respect to the qualifications of teachers, librarians, supervisors and other professional personnel of the Education Department;
6. Approve, subject to final approval of the governor, the rules and regulations proposed by the Education commissioner under Section 121 of Title 17 for the certification, selection, determination of salaries, and appointment of teachers, librarians, supervisors, and other professional personnel of the department;
7. Do all things necessary to entitle the Virgin Islands to receive the benefits of all funds appropriated to the territory by acts of Congress;
8. Initiate court proceedings for the enforcement of rights and the collection of accounts, and, to this end, contract for such personnel services as the board may deem necessary;
9. Promulgate rules and regulations for the certification of all elementary, secondary and post-secondary educational institutions; and
10. Prepare its budget for submission to the director of the Office of Management and Budget.
The board in addition shall perform such other functions as may be prescribed or required by local or federal law.
Thus, the board recommends policies, and the governor has an active role in the public education system.
An empowered board would be the key entity in developing public policy, and it would have sole responsibility for seeking the best practices and conditions for the public education of our youth. Under the existing system, the Education commissioner must compete with other Cabinet members for scarce resources and must deal with the "politics" of the administration. An empowered board would have only one boss – you, the people of the Virgin Islands.
With an empowered board, members would be elected every four years to administer the territory's public education system. As is the case in the majority of U.S. mainland school jurisdictions, an empowered board would be the best institution to reform our broken system. Why settle for second best?

Editor's note: Malik Sekou was elected to the V.I. Board of Education last November. He is an assistant professor of political science and history at the University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas campus. Readers are invited to send comments on this article to source@viaccess.net.

The Pan Dragons and Baby Pan Dragons will host Karaoke Night 2001 at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 10 in the auditorium at Sprauve School.
For more information contact Karen Mathews at 776-0111.

Probably the most talked-about-before-seeing movie in a long time, director Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic," a complicated look at America's drug trade, which apparently lives up to its high expectations. No pun intended.
It's a big, sprawling complicated epic, layering story upon story with deftly constructed plot twists, and, by all counts, excellent performances. The cast is led by Michael Douglas as Robert Wakefield, the nation's newly appointed drug czar, along with Catherine Zeta-Jones, (Douglas' real-life new bride), Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, Dennis Quaid, Luis Guzman and Erika Christensen.
The two hour 20 minute movie is based on the 1980's British televison six hour miniseries, "Traffik." The only real criticism of the movie is cramming that much action into so little time.
The films shifts locales from the august halls of Washington politics, to border police in Mexico, with much of the action taking place in border town San Diego.
The action starts at a Mexican drug bust where a couple of Tijuana cops find themselves arrested by Mexico's corrupt drug czar. The war then shifts to full throttle where DEA agents Montel Gordon (Don Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Luis Guzman) have taken down a big time drug smuggler and handed him immunity in exchange for an even bigger drug lord, Ayala, whose wife Helena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) innocent at this point to her husband's activities, quickly wises up and tries to hold her misbegotten husband's shaky drug empire together.
Now this is just a preview of what really goes on ranging from Pakistan's poppy fields, back to Mexico and, of course, San Diego, with complicated corruption as a steady narrative. Then, there's Wakefield's shock when he discovers his own daughter (Erika Christensen) is an addict.
Some critical folks say Soderbergh may have outsmarted himself this time, taking on too much.Others, most others, say no.
It is written by Stephenb Gaghan, and rated R for pervasive drug content, strong language, violence and some sexuality.
It is playing at Sunny Isle Theaters

British director Guy Ritchie, recently incarnated as Mr. Madonna Ciccone, has attempted to outdo 1998's "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" in his current British blockbuster, "Snatch."
Most critics say he has not succeeded in this endeavor, which stars our own Brad Pitt as Mickey, a crazy, Irish gypsy boxer, who is not without the Pitt charm. In fact, he is said to carry the whole movie with his "greasy performance, a genuine highlight."
The plot is complicated. Suffice it to say it involves a diamond heist gone wrong, a lot of inept and apparently entertaining crooks, a lot of "unnecessary bloodletting," and prize fighting. Mickey is supposed to throw a fight, but instead knocks the guy out and that's not the agenda.
There entails a series of double crosses and dire doings, lightened by Pitt's slurred brogue which is said to sound like he's trying to extricate a wad of gum from his molars, and a running joke of an unfortunate dog who has swallowed a squeaky toy.
It's Ritchie's direction that has gotten the attention of most reviewers. "The idea that a director should serve his story, instead of the other way around, is anathema" to directors like Ritchie, remarks one critic. Seeing Pitt, the squeaky dog, and his inept cohorts sounds like fun, anyhow.
The films also stars Dennis Farina, Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng and Benicio Del Toro. It is rated R for strong violence, language and nudity, (hopefully none of the above).
It is playing at Market Square East.

Once again, the V.I. Source readers' poll has produced an unequivocal result, this time concerning the controversial hiring of Mario Moorhead by Sens. Adelbert Bryan and Alicia "Chucky" Hansen. By what can only be called the astonishing ratio of more than 16-to-1, more readers rejected the hiring than approved of it outright.
A little less than 1 in 10 readers didn't disapprove of Moorhead's hiring but felt that different perspectives should also be aired.
Granted, there are various ways to interpret this overwhelming response: Readers may have felt that $30,000 a year in taxpayers' money could have been better spent elsewhere, especially since Senate proceedings are already broadcast on WIUJ-FM. Or that the selective nature of Moorhead's proposed broadcasts (of all committee and public meetings conducted by Bryan and Hansen plus "all sessions of the Legislature") would not adequately serve all members of the V.I. community.
Or readers may simply have been turned off by Moorhead himself, whose vitriolic attack on "good-for-nothing, lily-white St. Thomas journalists" was the centerpiece of his Feb. 16 press conference with Bryan.
Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg called the episode "an ugly racial and political war of words at the taxpayers' expense." A conspicuous majority of those who read the Source apparently agreed and want none of it.
The numbers follow:
Question: Should $30,000 a year in public funds be used by senators to hire activist and radio personality Mario Moorhead to broadcast selected legislative proceedings and offer commentary?
1. Yes.
STT (11) STX (17) STJ (0); Total (28), 5.4 percent of all respondents.
2. Yes, but equal time should be provided to those with different views than Moorhead's.
STT (23) STX (14) STJ (0); Total (37), 7.1 percent of all respondents.
3. No.
STT (259) STX (186) STJ (5); Total (450), 87.4 percent of all respondents.

Once again, the V.I. Source readers' poll has produced an unequivocal result, this time concerning the controversial hiring of Mario Moorhead by Sens. Adelbert Bryan and Alicia "Chucky" Hansen. By what can only be called the astonishing ratio of more than 16-to-1, more readers rejected the hiring than approved of it outright.
A little less than 1 in 10 readers didn't disapprove of Moorhead's hiring but felt that different perspectives should also be aired.
Granted, there are various ways to interpret this overwhelming response: Readers may have felt that $30,000 a year in taxpayers' money could have been better spent elsewhere, especially since Senate proceedings are already broadcast on WIUJ-FM. Or that the selective nature of Moorhead's proposed broadcasts (of all committee and public meetings conducted by Bryan and Hansen plus "all sessions of the Legislature") would not adequately serve all members of the V.I. community.
Or readers may simply have been turned off by Moorhead himself, whose vitriolic attack on "good-for-nothing, lily-white St. Thomas journalists" was the centerpiece of his Feb. 16 press conference with Bryan.
Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg called the episode "an ugly racial and political war of words at the taxpayers' expense." A conspicuous majority of those who read the Source apparently agreed and want none of it.
The numbers follow:
Should $30,000 a year in public funds be used by senators to hire activist and radio personality Mario Moorhead to broadcast selected legislative proceedings and offer commentary?
1. Yes.
STT (11) STX (17) STJ (0); Total (28), 5.4 percent of all respondents.
2. Yes, but equal time should be provided to those with different views than Moorhead's.
STT (23) STX (14) STJ (0); Total (37), 7.1 percent of all respondents.
3. No.
STT (259) STX (186) STJ (5); Total (450), 87.4 percent of all respondents.

Once again, the V.I. Source readers' poll has produced an unequivocal result, this time concerning the controversial hiring of Mario Moorhead by Sens. Adelbert Bryan and Alicia "Chucky" Hansen. By what can only be called the astonishing ratio of more than 16-to-1, more readers rejected the hiring than approved of it outright.
A little less than 1 in 10 readers didn't disapprove of Moorhead's hiring but felt that different perspectives should also be aired.
Granted, there are various ways to interpret this overwhelming response: Readers may have felt that $30,000 a year in taxpayers' money could have been better spent elsewhere, especially since Senate proceedings are already broadcast on WIUJ-FM. Or that the selective nature of Moorhead's proposed broadcasts (of all committee and public meetings conducted by Bryan and Hansen plus "all sessions of the Legislature") would not adequately serve all members of the V.I. community.
Or readers may simply have been turned off by Moorhead himself, whose vitriolic attack on "good-for-nothing, lily-white St. Thomas journalists" was the centerpiece of his Feb. 16 press conference with Bryan.
Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg called the episode "an ugly racial and political war of words at the taxpayers' expense." A conspicuous majority of those who read the Source apparently agreed and want none of it.
The numbers follow:
Question: Should $30,000 a year in public funds be used by senators to hire activist and radio personality Mario Moorhead to broadcast selected legislative proceedings and offer commentary?
1. Yes.
STT (11) STX (17) STJ (0); Total (28), 5.4 percent of all respondents.
2. Yes, but equal time should be provided to those with different views than Moorhead's.
STT (23) STX (14) STJ (0); Total (37), 7.1 percent of all respondents.
3. No.
STT (259) STX (186) STJ (5); Total (450), 87.4 percent of all respondents.

Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg marches to the beat of a different drummer, but it's music to the ears of Virgin Islands voters who have made him the top vote-getter in the past two elections.
Whether standing alone in the Senate with virtually no support, repeatedly demanding a rate investigation of the V.I. Telephone Corp., or appealing to his colleagues to pass a bill increasing penalties for animal cruelty, Donastorg has an undeniable way about him.
He is not quite a modern-day Don Quixote, as his dreams are possible. But he has the same determination in fighting for his initiatives, political or environmental. And, as "The Mighty Foncie," he has a unique way of expressing his ideas. But more about that later.
He is the only senator in the 24th Legislature not aligned with the minority or majority blocs, and he doesn't plan to change that status.
"I am not taking or carrying around luggage, meaning some of the relationships from the past that have been carried over from one Legislature to another," the fourth-term senator says. "Ultimately we vote on every issue based on its merit — it doesn't matter whether I am in the majority or minority. It's the issues that count."
However, Donastorg is not at all sanguine about the manner in which the 24th Legislature is shaping up. "I've always believed in equal budgets, and the majority knows this," he says. "They are imposing procedures to handicap you to where you don't have the ability to do anything. This is the worst I've seen."
Donastorg chooses his words carefully, leaning back in his leather chair. "The unfortunate part is that some of the same people that voted for (Senate President Almando "Rocky")Liburd voted for me, too. How do you explain to the people that you are going to make my resources so limited that I can't represent them to some reasonable extent? This regime lacks sensitivity and sensibility."
Donastorg wrote to Liburd about the now-infamous press conference with Sen. Adelbert Bryan and St. Croix radio personality Mario Moorhead. Donastorg asked Liburd to apologize to the public, calling the conference "an ugly racial and political war of words at the taxpayers' expense."
The minority senators have expressed shock and disappointment at their $100,000 allotments, which they feel are meager compared with the majority's. Donastorg says he has decided to live with it and not waste any more time complaining.
Much more on the his mind is getting action on his legislation to reduce the V.I. Legislature from 15 to nine members, which was overwhelmingly mandated by the voters in a referendum in the November election.
"I have asked the Legislature's legal counsel in writing for a status report on the legislation and so far I've gotten no answer," he says. "I wrote to Liburd today, beseeching him not to ignore the people of the Virgin Islands.
"I have spent more than three years working on local and federal levels to ensure this important step is taken. It would save the V.I. government millions of dollars a year." Donastorg says he won't stand by while the matter is "buried, delayed or ignored."
The senator discusses other options for senate reform. Districting has been suggested, but, he says, it would have to be sub-districting between the two districts of St. Thomas-St. John and St. Croix.
"It would require a lot of mapping the geographic layout, and we would have to ask FEMA for assistance to draw boundaries and avoid any overlap," he says. "I have no problem with the idea, but it would probably be prohibitively expensive."
Donastorg says the Board of Elections would have to have a diagram and map to determine who votes where so it doesn't become a legal issue. "Another alternative to enhance the process would be numbered seats, which would force the incumbents to run on their records and be accountable, but your chances of survival would be minimal," he says.
Donastorg says he has no objection to either system, but what he foresees ideally is a nine-member Legislature with each senator in charge of a committee, and with equal budgets for all. "Most of the battles in here," he says with a knowing nod, "come from senators feeling disenchanted or left out with no committees of their own."
And then there is the senator's favorite windmill, one he has been tilting at for more than four years with no visible success — a rate investigation by the Public Services Commission of the Virgin Islands Telephone Company, now Innovative Telephone, and reform of the PSC itself. Becoming instantly more animated, Donastorg states with passion: "The governor hasn't even filled vacancies in the PSC, let alone revitalize it, as he pledged when he was campaigning."
The senator thought he might be making headway last year when the governor suddenly removed Frandelle Gerard from her post as director of the Industrial Development Commission, which is in charge of Vitelco's benefits and employee records. But no dice. Donastorg had suggested getting rid of Gerard repeatedly before the governor took his own action.
Aside from the rate investigation, Donastorg has been demanding employment records from the IDC, which it has refused to disclose, in order to determine if Vitelco was putting employees from other Innovative businesses on its own payroll.
Asked whether Innovative would apply for IDC benefits for the entire company now that they are all under one umbrella, the senator says the new IDC beneficiary bill including banks and telecommunications would allow them to apply.
Since he first joined the 21st Legislature in 1994, Donastorg has chaired the Environmental Protection Committee, which is combined in this Legislature with the Government Operations committee, of which he is a member. He doesn't approve of the combination of committees.
"It's a move to put environmental concerns on the back burner," he says with feeling. "I have worked for years to bring environmental issues to the forefront. I developed the chronology in which the EPA based decisions on air pollution, water pollution, underground storage tanks. The antiquities bill was one of my initiatives. … I could go on and on."
"I don't want to malign my colleagues, it's been done enough," Donastorg says, "but I'm afraid I see a trend developing."
He stresses that "Your quality of life is based on clean air, clean water. Am I to assume that environmental issues aren't that important?"
One such issue of immediate concern is the proposed development of 365 acres at Botany Bay on the West End of St. Thomas by Atlantic Land Holdings. Committee Chairman Donald "Ducks" Cole has responded to Donastorg's request for a public hearing on the matter by suggesting Donastorg question Dean Plaskett, Department of Parks and Recreation commissioner, when he testifies at a March 7 hearing.
Donastorg is leery of the developers' plans for the area. He calls Botany Bay "one of the last pristine areas on St. Thomas." His earnestness is almost palpable as he describes the area: "It's a fragile and beautiful environment, a place for schoolchildren to come, a place where endangered sea turtles regularly lay eggs, where there are pre-Columbian artifacts, plantation ruins, rare birds, deer and plant life.
"We can't allow it to be cemented over — how many big hotels does this little island need?"
Though adamant in talking politics, the 38-year-old senator becomes almost shy when talking about his calypso persona, "The Mighty Foncie." However, a little coaxing draws him out. "We used to have a senators' calypso tent, and it kind of started there when some calypsonian friends decided I had a gift for it."
It hasn't hurt him politically, either. "Uh
-huh," he laughs, "when other senators or corporate citizens malign me, it's a creative way of answering back, neutralizing things."
One of his big, if not precisely neutral, hits on the CD he put out last year was "Political Prossertoot," a jab at colleagues he feels are under the sway of businessman Jeffrey Prosser. "It's even been played in Atlanta and Miami," he says with a grin.
So, will he be on stage at Carnival this year? He retreats again into the semi-shy smile, "If I'm asked, I might just go up on stage and fool around."
Donastorg says he has always been active in politics, of one sort or another, starting at Fullerton College in Southern California and continuing at the University of the Virgin Islands, where he got his feet wet in student organizations. After UVI, Donastorg served as a special assistant and researcher in the 16th, 17th and 18th Legislatures, and opened his own business, Carrier Medical Supplies, in 1993, which he left in other hands when he became a member of the 21st Legislature.
Donastorg has three school-age children and is married to the former Benedicta Acosta.
Though his staff has dwindled because of budgetary cuts, he still has loyal mainstays Nicole Bollentini, public relations officer, researcher Cordell Jacobs, Denisse Etienne, bilingual complaint officer, and occasional volunteers. Pictures of family and friends, boxing and baseball, dot the walls.
On leaving the senator's office, there's a feeling of good will in the small reception area manned by Etienne — but watch out for those windmills.

Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg marches to the beat of a different drummer, but it's music to the ears of Virgin Islands voters who have made him the top vote-getter in the past two elections.
Whether standing alone in the Senate with virtually no support, repeatedly demanding a rate investigation of the V.I. Telephone Corp., or appealing to his colleagues to pass a bill increasing penalties for animal cruelty, Donastorg has an undeniable way about him.
He is not quite a modern-day Don Quixote, as his dreams are possible. But he has the same determination in fighting for his initiatives, political or environmental. And, as "The Mighty Foncie," he has a unique way of expressing his ideas. But more about that later.
He is the only senator in the 24th Legislature not aligned with the minority or majority blocs, and he doesn't plan to change that status.
"I am not taking or carrying around luggage, meaning some of the relationships from the past that have been carried over from one Legislature to another," the fourth-term senator says. "Ultimately we vote on every issue based on its merit — it doesn't matter whether I am in the majority or minority. It's the issues that count."
However, Donastorg is not at all sanguine about the manner in which the 24th Legislature is shaping up. "I've always believed in equal budgets, and the majority knows this," he says. "They are imposing procedures to handicap you to where you don't have the ability to do anything. This is the worst I've seen."
Donastorg chooses his words carefully, leaning back in his leather chair. "The unfortunate part is that some of the same people that voted for (Senate President Almando "Rocky")Liburd voted for me, too. How do you explain to the people that you are going to make my resources so limited that I can't represent them to some reasonable extent? This regime lacks sensitivity and sensibility."
Donastorg wrote to Liburd about the now-infamous press conference with Sen. Adelbert Bryan and St. Croix radio personality Mario Moorhead. Donastorg asked Liburd to apologize to the public, calling the conference "an ugly racial and political war of words at the taxpayers' expense."
The minority senators have expressed shock and disappointment at their $100,000 allotments, which they feel are meager compared with the majority's. Donastorg says he has decided to live with it and not waste any more time complaining.
Much more on the his mind is getting action on his legislation to reduce the V.I. Legislature from 15 to nine members, which was overwhelmingly mandated by the voters in a referendum in the November election.
"I have asked the Legislature's legal counsel in writing for a status report on the legislation and so far I've gotten no answer," he says. "I wrote to Liburd today, beseeching him not to ignore the people of the Virgin Islands.
"I have spent more than three years working on local and federal levels to ensure this important step is taken. It would save the V.I. government millions of dollars a year." Donastorg says he won't stand by while the matter is "buried, delayed or ignored."
The senator discusses other options for senate reform. Districting has been suggested, but, he says, it would have to be sub-districting between the two districts of St. Thomas-St. John and St. Croix.
"It would require a lot of mapping the geographic layout, and we would have to ask FEMA for assistance to draw boundaries and avoid any overlap," he says. "I have no problem with the idea, but it would probably be prohibitively expensive."
Donastorg says the Board of Elections would have to have a diagram and map to determine who votes where so it doesn't become a legal issue. "Another alternative to enhance the process would be numbered seats, which would force the incumbents to run on their records and be accountable, but your chances of survival would be minimal," he says.
Donastorg says he has no objection to either system, but what he foresees ideally is a nine-member Legislature with each senator in charge of a committee, and with equal budgets for all. "Most of the battles in here," he says with a knowing nod, "come from senators feeling disenchanted or left out with no committees of their own."
And then there is the senator's favorite windmill, one he has been tilting at for more than four years with no visible success — a rate investigation by the Public Services Commission of the Virgin Islands Telephone Company, now Innovative Telephone, and reform of the PSC itself. Becoming instantly more animated, Donastorg states with passion: "The governor hasn't even filled vacancies in the PSC, let alone revitalize it, as he pledged when he was campaigning."
The senator thought he might be making headway last year when the governor suddenly removed Frandelle Gerard from her post as director of the Industrial Development Commission, which is in charge of Vitelco's benefits and employee records. But no dice. Donastorg had suggested getting rid of Gerard repeatedly before the governor took his own action.
Aside from the rate investigation, Donastorg has been demanding employment records from the IDC, which it has refused to disclose, in order to determine if Vitelco was putting employees from other Innovative businesses on its own payroll.
Asked whether Innovative would apply for IDC benefits for the entire company now that they are all under one umbrella, the senator says the new IDC beneficiary bill including banks and telecommunications would allow them to apply.
Since he first joined the 21st Legislature in 1994, Donastorg has chaired the Environmental Protection Committee, which is combined in this Legislature with the Government Operations committee, of which he is a member. He doesn't approve of the combination of committees.
"It's a move to put environmental concerns on the back burner," he says with feeling. "I have worked for years to bring environmental issues to the forefront. I developed the chronology in which the EPA based decisions on air pollution, water pollution, underground storage tanks. The antiquities bill was one of my initiatives. … I could go on and on."
"I don't want to malign my colleagues, it's been done enough," Donastorg says, "but I'm afraid I see a trend developing."
He stresses that "Your quality of life is based on clean air, clean water. Am I to assume that environmental issues aren't that important?"
One such issue of immediate concern is the proposed development of 365 acres at Botany Bay on the West End of St. Thomas by Atlantic Land Holdings. Committee Chairman Donald "Ducks" Cole has responded to Donastorg's request for a public hearing on the matter by suggesting Donastorg question Dean Plaskett, Department of Parks and Recreation commissioner, when he testifies at a March 7 hearing.
Donastorg is leery of the developers' plans for the area. He calls Botany Bay "one of the last pristine areas on St. Thomas." His earnestness is almost palpable as he describes the area: "It's a fragile and beautiful environment, a place for schoolchildren to come, a place where endangered sea turtles regularly lay eggs, where there are pre-Columbian artifacts, plantation ruins, rare birds, deer and plant life.
"We can't allow it to be cemented over — how many big hotels does this little island need?"
Though adamant in talking politics, the 38-year-old senator becomes almost shy when talking about his calypso persona, "The Mighty Foncie." However, a little coaxing draws him out. "We used to have a senators' calypso tent, and it kind of started there when some calypsonian friends decided I had a gift for it."
It hasn't hurt him politically, either. "Uh
-huh," he laughs, "when other senators or corporate citizens malign me, it's a creative way of answering back, neutralizing things."
One of his big, if not precisely neutral, hits on the CD he put out last year was "Political Prossertoot," a jab at colleagues he feels are under the sway of businessman Jeffrey Prosser. "It's even been played in Atlanta and Miami," he says with a grin.
So, will he be on stage at Carnival this year? He retreats again into the semi-shy smile, "If I'm asked, I might just go up on stage and fool around."
Donastorg says he has always been active in politics, of one sort or another, starting at Fullerton College in Southern California and continuing at the University of the Virgin Islands, where he got his feet wet in student organizations. After UVI, Donastorg served as a special assistant and researcher in the 16th, 17th and 18th Legislatures, and opened his own business, Carrier Medical Supplies, in 1993, which he left in other hands when he became a member of the 21st Legislature.
Donastorg has three school-age children and is married to the former Benedicta Acosta.
Though his staff has dwindled because of budgetary cuts, he still has loyal mainstays Nicole Bollentini, public relations officer, researcher Cordell Jacobs, Denisse Etienne, bilingual complaint officer, and occasional volunteers. Pictures of family and friends, boxing and baseball, dot the walls.
On leaving the senator's office, there's a feeling of good will in the small reception area manned by Etienne — but watch out for those windmills.