After making the rounds in Washington, D.C. over the last week, Gov. Charles Turnbull said the Federal Emergency Management Agency will consider the territory’s request to restructure or forgive outright the approximately $200 million owed the agency for relief following major hurricanes.
Turnbull said he met FEMA Director James Lee Witt on Thursday to discuss the Hurricanes Hugo and Hurricane Marilyn Community Disaster Loans. The storms devastated the islands in 1989 and 1995 respectively.
"I am pleased to report that we have reached a tentative agreement on a process for reviewing our petition," said Turnbull. "While I must emphasize that many difficult legal and technical issues remain, Thursday’s meeting produced a new willingness to work with the territory to address this important issue."
At the end of January, President Bill Clinton increased the share of disaster assistance for damage caused by Hurricane Georges in 1998 and Lenny in 1999. That move took the territory off the hook for more than $2 million in matching funds.
The increased federal share will be applied to the Public Assistance Program for repairing storm-damaged infrastructure and the Individual and Family Grant Program. Funding will also go to the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
The federal government has already agreed to a one-year forbearance on FEMA loan payments, saving the V.I. government nearly $10 million over the past 12 months.
Meanwhile, Turnbull visited a host of Capitol Hill movers and shakers to thank them for support on V.I. issues, including Sen. Frank Murkowski, (R-Alaska). Turnbull said he thanked the politicians for their support on legislation to increase rum tax revenue and an amendment to the Revised Organic Act last fall that facilitated a $300 million bond issue.

Gov. Charles Turnbull announced Friday the nominations of five people to the V.I. Public Service Commission.
The board has been steeped in controversy since last year when Georgetown Consulting Inc. – an independent consulting firm – recommended a rate decrease for the Virgin Islands Telephone Corp. but the PSC dismissed the recommendation. The ensuing controversy resulted in the PSC's legal counsel, Maria Tankenson Hodge resigning.
Lorna Thomas has been chosen by Turnbull to replace PSC chairman Walter Challenger, whose term has expired. Thomas is a financial consultant and was a special assistant in the Farrelly administration. She is a 1987 Princeton University graduate.
Shawn-Michael Malone, the St. Thomas office manager for Delegate Donna Christian-Christensen and member of the St. Thomas-St. John Board of Elections, has been nominated to succeed Dora Hill, whose term has expired. Malone is a 1991 graduate of Hampton University.
St. Croix resident Evelyn James, executive director of Our Town Frederiksted, is nominated to take the place of Patrick Williams. Williams’ term ends on March 1. James is a retired senior health plan developer in the Department of Health and earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Pace University in New York City.
Crucian Valencio Jackson has been pegged to fill a vacant PSC board slot. Jackson holds a BA in accounting from the University of the Virgin Islands and owns Jackson’s Business Services on St. Croix.
Attorney Desmond Maynard, meanwhile, has been reappointed to the PSC. Maynard is the principle owner of his own law firm. He is a Georgetown University Law School graduate and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the former V.I. Department of Law.
If approved by the Senate, all the nominees will serve three year terms.
Following the consultant's recommendation for a rate hearing, Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg called for Senate session focusing on the PSC. The hearing was held last June, but despite Georgetown's report that a rate decrease was due to Vitelco customers, there has been no further action by the PSC.
"I am satisfied that the diverse and talented persons I have nominated have the professional and educational background to properly represent the vital interest of the people of this territory on this very important commission," Turnbull said.

Gov. Charles Turnbull announced Friday the nominations of five people to the V.I. Public Service Commission.
The board has been steeped in controversy since last year when Georgetown Consulting Inc. – an independent consulting firm – recommended a rate decrease for the Virgin Islands Telephone Corp. but the PSC dismissed the recommendation. The ensuing controversy resulted in the PSC's legal counsel, Maria Tankenson Hodge, resigning.
Lorna Thomas has been chosen by Turnbull to replace PSC chairman Walter Challenger, whose term has expired. Thomas is a financial consultant and was a special assistant in the Farrelly administration. She is a 1987 Princeton University graduate.
Shawn-Michael Malone, the St. Thomas office manager for Delegate Donna Christian-Christensen and member of the St. Thomas-St. John Board of Elections, has been nominated to succeed Dora Hill, whose term has expired. Malone is a 1991 graduate of Hampton University.
St. Croix resident Evelyn James, executive director of Our Town Frederiksted, is nominated to take the place of Patrick Williams. Williams’ term ends March 1. James is a retired senior health plan developer in the Department of Health and earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Pace University in New York City.
Crucian Valencio Jackson has been pegged to fill a vacant PSC board slot. Jackson holds a BA in accounting from the University of the Virgin Islands and owns Jackson’s Business Services on St. Croix.
Attorney Desmond Maynard, meanwhile, has been reappointed to the PSC. Maynard is the principal owner of his own law firm. He is a Georgetown University Law School graduate and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the former V.I. Department of Law.
If approved by the Senate, all the nominees will serve three-year terms.
Following the consultant's recommendation for a rate hearing, Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg called for Senate session focusing on the PSC. The hearing was held last June, but despite Georgetown's report that a rate decrease was due to Vitelco customers, there has been no further action by the PSC.
"I am satisfied that the diverse and talented persons I have nominated have the professional and educational background to properly represent the vital interest of the people of this territory on this very important commission," Turnbull said.

The warring camps in the battle for artistic control of the wall around Tillett Gardens on St. Thomas will be hard put to find a meeting ground. The comments made by painters’ posse muralist Austin Petersen at the site, the views expressed by arts entrepreneur Rhoda Tillett inside the complex, and the arguments advanced by callers in four and a half hours of back-to-back talk shows on WVWI Monday morning convey the impression that the combatants and their champions all believe they are operating on the basis of a moral imperative.
In other words, we are right, you are wrong; end of story.
Partisans have staked out their claims in two separate, though some would say overlapping, arguments:
* Whether Petersen or Tillett, if either, has a right to control what is painted on the wall.
* Whether Petersen’s imagery depicted and messages conveyed on the wall are desirable, or even acceptable, to the community.
Interestingly, toward the end of the morning, several callers to Topp Talk — perhaps in jest, perhaps dead serious — advanced possible avenues of accommodation. They (whoever they are) should down tear the wall and put up a fence, one stated. On the private property atop the wall, another said, Tillett and her tenants could put up disclaimer signs ("The views expressed on the mural below do not represent those of the management and staff…").
Far better would be a meeting of the minds. But that is probably impossible, given the climate of mutual distrust and emotionalism.
This is because the real issue is neither aesthetics nor property rights. The real issue, although most of the combatants will deny it to the media, and perhaps even to themselves, is rooted in racial and cultural differences between the black community and the white community, regardless of where the partisans were born or how long they have lived in the Virgin Islands.
No matter where they are "coming from," people go to great lengths locally to avoid discussing race as a divisive issue. For public consumption, the territory has long been touted as a beauteous bouquet of many colors, cultures and creeds, far removed from the "melting pot" of immigrant America; as a peaceful place of tolerance, understanding, acceptance and respect. The present dialogue paints a different picture.
Rhoda Tillett says a sign in 4-foot letters at the public entrance to her home and place of business that reads "Some people are racist…" conveys a wrong impression. She says people passing by will assume that the statement relates to the people in Tillett Gardens. And she says that it is personally offensive to her.
Cornel Esprit, who put the words back up on Saturday after an artist commissioned by Tillett had painted "Keep the arts alive" in their place, says he doesn’t know where the phrase — emblazoned there seven years earlier by Petersen’s posse — came from. But if someone painted those words outside his home or workplace, he says, he would "definitely not, definitely not" think the message was talking about him, and he would not take offense.
Words represent ideas, and a picture, as we all know, is worth a thousand words. To most of the members of the local black community who have spoken out, the words and pictures on Petersen’s wall art mean one thing. To most of the members of the local white community who have commented publicly, they mean something quite different.
(Note the italics: In mass communications, the views of those who choose to remain silent become increasingly irrelevant. The term "spiral of silence" refers to a phenomenon that occurs within a society when people are bombarded through the news media with a certain perspective on an issue. The more widely this prevailing viewpoint is reported, even where there is freedom of the press, the less likely those who differ, fearing ostracism or retribution, are willing to speak out — thus enabling the views of those with whom they differ to gain ever more credence within the media and, thereby, within the society.)
But who is to have the final say on what an expression, in words or pictures, means? If the sender of the message says it means one thing and the receiver of the message says it means something entirely different, each may accuse the other of being wrong, but neither can truly claim to be right. There is simply no avenue of communication to arrive at consensus, for they are not talking about the same thing.
In South Carolina, the state government has continued to fly the Confederate flag atop the capitol building, 135 years after the South lost the Civil War. Those whites supporting the practice to this day argue that the flag does not glorify slavery or discrimination against blacks; it honors the proud cultural heritage and history of the South. Blacks and a large proportion of whites have been saying for years get real. It’s racist, it’s offensive and it’s got to go.
In the South Carolina case, the roles are reversed racially from those concerning the Tillett Gardens wall, and yet the core of their concerns is the same: The message senders are saying their message is not offensive. The message receivers are saying they take offense.
Where there are two options and the choice will affect two parties, if one party says "it doesn’t make any difference" and the other party says "it makes a difference to me," in the interest of harmony, the person who does not have a preference will defer the decision making to the person who does. It could be which show to watch on television, what color to paint the office, when to put up the Christmas decorations, whether to pre-sweeten the iced tea. While such deference makes sense on the surface, however, there can be other dynamics at work. If the "neutral" party sees yielding preference to the "partisan" party as surrendering power as well, the matter becomes much more complex.
On Monday, CBS Radio newscasts cited the findings of a recent nationwide study the network commissioned of Americans’ opinions about racial relations. The statistics reinforce those of other studies done in the last decade. To quote from the CBS News website summation: "Black and white Americans do not share the same views about the current state of race relations in this country. The perceptions of whites are more positive than those of blacks, and have become increasingly so in the past five years. Perceptions of race relations among blacks, on the other hand, have changed little. Blacks are less optimistic than whites in their assessment of race relations in the U.S., the amount of progress that has been made in the past 30 years, and whether it is possible to end prejudice."
Whites for the most part just want to get along. Blacks by and large say yeah, right, with you in charge.
These are generalities, and generalizing mainland America, where people of African descent account for about 15 percent of the population and those of non-Hispanic European ancestry, perhaps 70 percent. In the Virgin Islands, the proportions are closer to the opposite, and yet the perception on the part of many blacks remains that, in a continuing extension of colonialism, the whites are the haves and blacks are the have-nots. And, therefore, life is a power struggle.
"Some people are racist…" Can the community come to agreement on what the words mean on the Tillett Gardens wall? Unless and until it does, there’s no way to resolve the question of whether the medium is appropriate for the message. Unless, of course, the government, which as owner of the wall has authority to be the power broker, chooses to intervene.
Editor’s note: Jean Etsinger is a freelance journalist and a contributing editor of the Source.

Gov. Charles Turnbull announced Friday the nominations of five people to the V.I. Public Service Commission.
The board has been steeped in controversy since last year when Georgetown Consulting Inc. – an independent consulting firm – recommended a rate decrease for the Virgin Islands Telephone Corp. but the PSC dismissed the recommendation. The ensuing controversy resulted in the PSC's legal counsel, Maria Tankenson Hodge resigning.
Lorna Thomas has been chosen by Turnbull to replace PSC chairman Walter Challenger, whose term has expired. Thomas is a financial consultant and was a special assistant in the Farrelly administration. She is a 1987 Princeton University graduate.
Shawn-Michael Malone, the St. Thomas office manager for Delegate Donna Christian-Christensen and member of the St. Thomas-St. John Board of Elections, has been nominated to succeed Dora Hill, whose term has expired. Malone is a 1991 graduate of Hampton University.
St. Croix resident Evelyn James, executive director of Our Town Frederiksted, is nominated to take the place of Patrick Williams. Williams’ term ends on March 1. James is a retired senior health plan developer in the Department of Health and earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Pace University in New York City.
Crucian Valencio Jackson has been pegged to fill a vacant PSC board slot. Jackson holds a BA in accounting from the University of the Virgin Islands and owns Jackson’s Business Services on St. Croix.
Attorney Desmond Maynard, meanwhile, has been reappointed to the PSC. Maynard is the principle owner of his own law firm. He is a Georgetown University Law School graduate and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the former V.I. Department of Law.
If approved by the Senate, all the nominees will serve three year terms.
Following the consultant's recommendation for a rate hearing, Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg called for Senate session focusing on the PSC. The hearing was held last June, but despite Georgetown's report that a rate decrease was due to Vitelco customers, there has been no further action by the PSC.
"I am satisfied that the diverse and talented persons I have nominated have the professional and educational background to properly represent the vital interest of the people of this territory on this very important commission," Turnbull said.

Two Virgin Island business leaders have been nominated by Gov. Charles W. Turnbull to the V.I. Port Authority Board.
Filling the vacancy left by Nick Pourzal, whose term has expired, is Leslie A. Milliner, owner of L&C Milliner Department Store.
Kent E Bernier Sr. has been appointed to fill the expired term of Mel Plaskett. Bernier has served on the V.I. Tax Study Commission and on the V.I. Water and Power Authority Board.
The governor said he is "satisfied that both men will bring their talents to the board in a fruitful and productive manner." Both nominees must be approved by the Legislature, after which they will serve three year terms on the board.

After making the rounds in Washington, D.C., over the last week, Gov. Charles Turnbull said the Federal Emergency Management Agency will consider the territory’s request to restructure or forgive outright the approximately $200 million owed the agency for relief following major hurricanes.
Turnbull said he met FEMA Director James Lee Witt on Thursday to discuss the Hurricanes Hugo and Hurricane Marilyn Community Disaster Loans. The storms devastated the islands in 1989 and 1995 respectively.
"I am pleased to report that we have reached a tentative agreement on a process for reviewing our petition," said Turnbull. "While I must emphasize that many difficult legal and technical issues remain, Thursday’s meeting produced a new willingness to work with the territory to address this important issue."
At the end of January, President Bill Clinton increased the share of disaster assistance for damage caused by Hurricane Georges in 1998 and Lenny in 1999. That move took the territory off the hook for more than $2 million in matching funds.
The increased federal share will be applied to the Public Assistance Program for repairing storm-damaged infrastructure and the Individual and Family Grant Program. Funding will also go to the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
The federal government has already agreed to a one-year forbearance on FEMA loan payments, saving the V.I. government nearly $10 million over the past 12 months.
Meanwhile, Turnbull visited a host of Capitol Hill movers and shakers to thank them for support on V.I. issues, including Sen. Frank Murkowski, (R-Alaska). Turnbull said he thanked the politicians for their support on legislation to increase rum tax revenue and an amendment to the Revised Organic Act last fall that facilitated a $300 million bond issue.

Two veteran educators have been nominated by Gov. Charles W. Turnbull to the Public Employees Relations Board, thus filling out the five member board.
Omar Henry, a vocational education teacher at the Positive Connections Alternate School on St. Croix, will fill the expired post of Ray Martinez. Henry, a University of the Virgin Islands graduate, is past chairman of the St. Croix chapter of the American Red Cross, and the V.I. Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
The governor also appointed Hugo Dennis, past president of both the Legislature and the American Federation of Teachers. Dennis also held the post of assistant commissioner for the Housing, Parks and Recreation Department.
"I am confident that the nominees will use their vast experience in labor relations and community affairs to the benefit of this very important board,"the governor said.
Both nominees will sever five year terms, after they are approved by the Legislature.

The World Trade Organization's latest ruling against foreign sales corporations "has severe consequences for the Virgin Islands," acting Gov. Gerard Luz James, II said in a written statement Friday.
James, who as lieutenant governor has oversight for FSCs, put their value to the V.I. government at "approximately $7 million annually" in franchise taxes.
Thursday the WTO appellate body upheld an earlier decision that the FSC represents a tax subsidy forbidden under WTO rules and that the United States must effectively dismantle the FSC by Oct. 1 of this year.
"The financial impact of such a ruling would be detrimental to the Virgin Islands economy, which is already experiencing an extremely large deficit," James said in his statement.
However, he said he was encouraged by reports that the Clinton administration continues to back the FSC program as a way to encourage U.S. exports.
"I join the National Association of Broadcasters in urging U.S. trade representative Charlene Barshefsky to initiate talks with the European Union," James said. "We (the Office of Corporations and Trademarks) are on top of the situation. We are hopeful about the negotiations and we will continue to keep you informed of the Clinton Administration's progress."
Congress established the Foreign Sales Corporation system as an alternative to a previous program to which U.S. trade partners had objected. Exporters began using FSCs, offshore subsidiaries, in 1985. A portion of the export sales run through the FSC are exempt from federal taxes.
The European Union first signaled its intention to make a formal challenge to the FSC in November 1997. There followed a series of formal and informal discussions between the EU and the US, and the two sides reportedly were negotiating with each other throughout much of the WTO process.
Many observers believe such negotiations will intensify now.
Meanwhile, several US accounting firms have been working for months to develop alternatives to the FSC which will continue to give US exporters some sort of tax relief.

The World Trade Organization's latest ruling against foreign sales corporations "has severe consequences for the Virgin Islands," acting Gov. Gerard Luz James, II said in a written statement Friday.
James, who as lieutenant governor has oversight for FSCs, put their value to the V.I. government at "approximately $7 million annually" in franchise taxes.
Thursday the WTO appellate body upheld an earlier decision that the FSC represents a tax subsidy forbidden under WTO rules and that the United States must effectively dismantle the FSC by Oct. 1 of this year.
"The financial impact of such a ruling would be detrimental to the Virgin Islands economy, which is already experiencing an extremely large deficit," according to James' statement.
However, he said he was encouraged by reports that the Clinton administration continues to back the FSC program as a way to encourage U.S. exports.
"I join the National Association of Broadcasters in urging U.S. trade representative Charlene Barshefsky to initiate talks with the European Union," James said. "We (the Office of Corporations and Trademarks) are on top of the situation. We are hopeful about the negotiations and we will continue to keep you informed of the Clinton Administration's progress."
Congress established the foreign sales corporation as an alternative to a previous program to which U.S. trade partners objected. Exporters began using FSCs, offshore subsidiaries, in 1985. A portion of the export sales run through the FSC are exempt from federal taxes.
The European Union first signaled its intention to make a formal challenge to the FSC in November 1997. There followed a series of formal and informal discussions between the EU and the U.S., and the two sides purportedly were negotiating with each other throughout much of the WTO process.
However, many observers believe such negotiations will intensify now.
Meanwhile, several U.S. accounting firms have been working for months to develop alternatives to the FSC which will continue to give U.S. exporters some sort of tax relief.