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VI UPDATE U.S. Virgin Islands Public Records TRANSCRIPT OF PUBLIC PROCEEDINGS Senate Recap | Episode 1 | February 3, 2023 Legislature USVI February 3, 2023 · 0.2 hours · gov Source recording https://youtu.be/5HmEqKOFx3o Status This is a working transcript produced by machine from a recording of a public proceeding. It is a finding aid, not an official record of the Legislature. Transcribed by VI Update, using OpenAI Whisper large-v3-turbo, run locally. Not reviewed by a person. Reliability Automatic transcription, UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording before relying on it. Speech recognition splits spoken digits and wraps figures mid-number, so a dollar amount, a vote count or a bill number can be wrong in a way that reads as correct. Speakers are not identified: automatic speaker labelling was measured unusable and removed. Public record The underlying proceeding is a public record of the Legislature of the Virgin Islands. 3 V.I.C. § 881(a) defines public records to include all records and documents of or belonging to this Territory or any branch of government, or any "department, board, council or committee of any branch of government" · which names legislative committees by category. § 881(b) gives every citizen the right to examine and copy such records, and the news media the right to publish them. (The open-meetings chapter, 1 V.I.C. § 254, does NOT reach the Legislature: § 253(b) expressly excludes it and its Standing and Special Committees. § 881 does, and it is § 881 that confers the right to copy and publish.) The Legislature broadcast this proceeding publicly itself. The source recording is not ours, is not hosted here, and remains with its publisher at the link above. Rights To what we added · the transcription, its arrangement and its description · we assert nothing. A verbatim transcript is mechanical rather than authored, so there is likely nothing in it to own; to the extent any copyright is nonetheless found to subsist, it is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. Please copy it, quote it, index it, train on it, republish it, mirror it, sell it. Redistribution is the point: a public record with one copy is one fire from gone. No permission is needed, and none is ours to grant or withhold. I'm Africa Harrigan and welcome to Senate Recap, a summary of meetings, events and activities at the legislature of the Virgin Islands. On January 8th, leading up to the oath of office ceremony on St. Thomas, lawmakers, their families and the public attended ecumenical services territory-wide. Eventually, the senator-elects were sworn into their official position as members of the 35th legislature of the Virgin Islands during the oath of office ceremony held at the Emancipation Garden on St. Thomas. Shortly thereafter, and the formality of the exchanging of the gavel, Senate President Nouvelle E. Francis Jr. convened a body into regular legislative session, and here with their report is public affairs Jamal Potter, who has the story. 0:00:00 Jamal Potter: Lawmakers first met and considered Bill No. 35-0001, a resolution organizing and establishing the majority caucus, electing the officers, appointing the chairpersons, vice chairpersons, and members of the standing committees of the 35th legislature of the Virgin Islands. The measure was voted upon favorably. The body's organization is as follows: The Committee on Rules and Judiciary will be chaired by Senator Diane T. Capehart. The Committee on Budget, Appropriations, and Finance will be chaired by Senator Don A. Fred Gregory. The Committee on Health, Hospitals, and Human Services will be chaired by Senator Ray Fonseca. The Committee on Education and Workforce Development will be chaired by Senator Maurice C. James. The Committee on Disaster Recovery, Infrastructure, and Planning will be chaired by Milton E. Potter. The Committee on Economic Development and Agriculture will be chaired by Senator Javan E. James Sr. The Committee on Homeland Security, Justice, and Public Safety will be chaired by Senator Ken L. Gittins. The Committee on Government Operations, Veterans Affairs, and Consumer Protection will be chaired by Senator Carla J. Joseph. The Committee on Housing, Transportation, and Telecommunications will be chaired by Senator Marvin A. Blyden. The Committee on Culture, Sports, Parks, and Youth will be chaired by Senator Anghel L. Bolquez. The Majority Caucus is comprised of Senators Nouvelle E. Francis Jr., Marvin A. Blyden, Carla J. Joseph, Anghel L. Bolquez Jr., Diane T. Capehart, Ray Fonseca, Donna A. Fred Gregory, Kenneth L. Gittins, Javan E. James Sr., Marie C. James, and Milton E. Potter. Reporting live for Legit TV, I am Jamal Potter. Later that evening, legislative session reconvened to 0:01:00 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 1 of 3 Legislature USVI · Senate Recap | Episode 1 | February 3, 2023 receive the Governor's State of the Territory address. That this journey will be easy, nor that we will not have our setbacks that are beyond our control. But today, I can proudly declare that the State of the Territory is full of promise. Afterwards, Senators expressed their thoughts on the Governor's speech on Legit TV's Senate reactions. I certainly think that there are other areas. I was a little taken back that he didn't mention anything about the Lime Tree Bay or Port Hamilton because, obviously, that is a concern of individuals whether or not we're at the stage that we're going to be opening the Port Hamilton, which will be another revenue source, or if, in fact, we have to do away with moving in that direction. But it's evident, and I totally agree, that we can't continue to put all our eggs in one basket, and we have to diversify our portfolio. He also have an agreement in terms of some of the revenue-generating initiatives that he intend to undertake moving forward. And there are several areas that he could have expung more on. In my opinion, I'm housing all day and night. I believe he could have expanded more on our housing crisis, our housing issues, and also mental illness, and our seniors. He could expand more on that, but he touched many areas, and he touched some of those areas also. But nonetheless, I think it was a pretty good speech, and he, like I said, was very optimistic, in my opinion. 0:03:10 I thought the governor's speech, his tone was very optimistic, and robust, and energized, as usual. And I was really grateful to hear a lot of the good work that has been done. And what he is willing to do is, again, work with the 35th legislature of the Virgin Islands, and work with all of us, in general, to move our islands forward? I'm pleased with much of the information imparted on us this evening. Of course, there were maybe one or two crucial synchroi matters that I wanted to hear a bit more about, which were the JFL North firm opening date, and I wanted to hear something on the refinery. But we didn't hear anything much on the refinery. However, much of what was imparted this evening, I was moved by the statements. 0:04:16 I think the governor's speech was big on promise. And, you know, we have a lot to look forward to as Virgin Islanders. But I believe that we really need to continue to focus on our healthcare, education, our economy. I think it was nothing short of exceptional. I think he covered a lot of key basic areas in our economy that we are concerned about, you know, education, infrastructure, waterline extensions, and so forth. So even healthcare. So I'm really looking forward to see what else is in store and collaborating with him through the legislative branch. I was motivated by the governor's speech. The governor talked about an array of challenges that we had within the last four years. And I think he addressed all of them. You know, we all know that he can't talk about everything, like the roofing program, which is a need on St. Croix, you know, just even programs for the veterans. But these are things that I know that I can work with this administration on some of these challenges. 0:05:21 I hit all of the major points. It was positive. It was upbeat. It was optimistic. So, and that is what you want to convey for one of these state of the territory addresses. And I can see where I can, you know, support a lot of his initiatives, you know, based on my commitment to serve the people of the Virgin Islands and the governor's efforts. I have to say I'm a little bit impressed with how the presentation was. The governor was real upbeat and a lot of promises. And I, as a politician, you know, promise people. People want to hear concise and precise time of when things are going to happen, when they're going to get the action and see things happening. So a lot of times you keep saying he promised and, you know, promises are comfort to a fool. People want to see this place moving, you know, but he was very upbeat. 0:06:32 One of the things that I really believe he needed to express a little bit more had to do with housing. As you know, he's been the governor for the last four years, shortly coming in after Hurricane Armour and Maria. And unfortunately, the people of this territory, several of them are still dealing with this housing issue. I mean, we still have blue tarps. I personally felt that we could have been further along or should have been further along. But I am, I really wish that he could have given a little bit more detail in regards to that, because you have people still living with friends and family. They're considered homeless. We know the situation with WAPA. And I know he did mention WAPA and the hard work that is happening in there with WAPA. But we all know that we're subsidizing WAPA right now. And we all want to know, okay, when will be that cutoff point? And when we do cut off, what will we supplement that with? You know, so there must be some continuity, but overall, A minus. 0:07:29 The first reaction to it really is that it was optimistic. That's the word that I felt described his attitude, his feelings about where the VI is right now. So, and he seemed to be very optimistic, even though at the end of his speech, he talked a little bit about the doom and gloom regarding, you know, the recession and inflation and those things. But overall, he seemed to be very upbeat about the fact that we have all these monies, the ARPA funds, you know, the money that we got from Irma Maria, the recovery funds. 0:08:31 In other news at the Senate, Senate President Francis sat down with Legit TV's very own Alvin Baptiste and talked about some of the plans for the 35th legislature. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so there, there is some, some critical projects that's on the table right now that have been around for quite some time. I just mentioned about the JFL North. We want to make sure that that's followed through the governor commit that will be getting that open in March. We want to make 0:09:11 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. Speakers are not identified. VI Update · usvipublicrecords.com · public record, no rights asserted (CC0 1.0) 2 of 3 Legislature USVI · Senate Recap | Episode 1 | February 3, 2023 sure that that happens. That's just a small excerpt of this legit special entitled through the chair. This concludes this episode of the Senate recap. I'm Africa Harrigan for Legit TV. I'm Africa Harrigan for Legit TV. I'm the director of the National Public Television. I'm the director of the National Public Television. 0:09:51 People named in this transcript SUSPECTED, and a finding aid only. Names were matched by machine against the spellings used across all 426 of our transcripts, and the title is the one used in the room. Being named here is NOT evidence that a person attended or spoke · only that the name was said. Speech recognition mishears names, so a spelling may be wrong even where no alternative is offered. 2x Senator Angel L. Bolques, Jr. heard in this transcript as: Angel L. Bolques Jr., Anghel L. Bolquez 2x Senator Carla Joseph heard in this transcript as: Carla J. Joseph 2x Senator Diane T. Capeheart heard in this transcript as: Diane T. Capehart 2x Senator Javan James heard in this transcript as: Javan E. James Sr 2x Senator Kenneth L. Gittens heard in this transcript as: Ken L. Gittins 2x Senator Marise C. James heard in this transcript as: Maurice C. James 2x Senator Marvin Blyden heard in this transcript as: Marvin A. Blyden 2x Senator Ray Fonseca 1x Senator Donna A. Frett-Gregory heard in this transcript as: Don A. Fred Gregory 1x Senator Donna Frett-Gregory heard in this transcript as: Donna A. Frett-Gregory Bills and acts referred to Matched by number against our own acts corpus. The number is what the recognition heard, so it may be wrong; where it resolved, the title is the one the Legislature gave the act. Referred to but not found in our acts corpus: Bill 35-0001 Machine transcript · UNVERIFIED. Verify every quotation against the recording. 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