USVI Public Records

Document text

VI UPDATE U.S. Virgin Islands Public Records TRANSCRIPT OF PUBLIC PROCEEDINGS | Committee on Finance pt2 Legislature USVI August 10, 2022 · 2.8 hours · gov Source recording https://youtu.be/bE8vreoqHGI 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 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, my God. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. the committee of finance is back on the record it's been a long day but we have some more to go 0:00:00 before us is the virgin ellen's police department we have ray martinez commissioner i'm going to allow you to put your name and title on the record beginning with you yourself ray anthony Martinez, Police Commissioner. Thank you, next. Marion Brooks, Assistant Police Commissioner. Next. Jason Marsh, Deputy Commissioner. Thanks. Wayne Richards, HR Director. Thanks. Sandra Webster, Chief Financial Officer. Say it again. Sandra Webster, Chief Financial Officer. Thank you, next. Florence Clearson, Federal Grant coordinator okay you also have some individuals who's participating virtually yes senator okay miss miss brad mcintosh miss whatley okay you also have some individuals who's participating virtually yes sir Good afternoon, Carolyn Watley, Director of Planning and Research. 0:04:14 Ms. Brian McIntosh. Brian McIntosh, BIPD, Facilities and Properties. Kishana Tweed. Ms. Watley. Ms. Tweed. Kishana Tweed. Your device is off. Ms. Tweed, your device was off. I didn't hear you. 0:05:22 Ann, mute your device and repeat your name, please. Mr. Santos. Good afternoon, Senator Sean Santos, Chief of Police, St. Coy District. Mr. Elskow. Sidney Elskow, Assistant Commissioner of Reginald Alliance Police Department. kishana tweed could you put your name on the record you need to unmute your device okay then um miss tweed can you sign out and sign back in because we're not hearing you Commissioner, you may proceed to your testimony. Oh, it just came on. Go ahead. Good afternoon. Kishana Tui, Director of Information Systems. 0:05:51 Okay, thank you so much. Mr. Martinez? Thank you, Senator. Honourable Senator Kurt Avila, Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Committee members, other members of the 34 Legislature, members of my executive team, and the listening and viewing audience, good afternoon. I am Ray Anthony Martinez, Commissioner of the United States Virgin Islands Police Department, VIPD. Thank you for the opportunity to appear and discuss our proposed fiscal year 2023 budget. It is understood preparing a budget for a department this size is a daunting and tedious undertaking. By no 0:06:48 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 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 stretch of the imagination should our reach exceed our grasp. I have confidence in what will be presented to this August body today. today. I am pragmatic in my approach to presenting this matter, a financial outlook to what is necessary for the growth of the Virgin Islands Police Department. It is a profound gratitude I express my thanks and celebrate the members of the Virgin Islands Police Department who united Toil and Strife 24-7-365 to make this department what it is and what it will become for posterity. A trajectory of remarkable things we can all be proud. Now allow me to delve into the budget. VIPD's recommended fiscal year 2023 budget is $72,649,670. The budget consists of the general fund operating budget of $71,372,356, which includes funding for personal services of $41,342,224 and fringe benefits of $15,544,047 for a total personnel cost of $56,886,271 and accounts for 80% of the budget. 0:08:12 Supplies of $4,410,806 and other services of $7,663,261 for other operating costs of $12,074,067, utilities of $2,009,077, capital outlay of $402,241. Also included in our funding is the Police Activities League, St. Thomas and St. Croix at $40,000 each, the St. Thomas Weed and Seed Program at $85,000, St. Croix Weed and Seed Program at $90,000, the Consent Decree at $1,564,999, and Crime Stoppers at $100,000. 0:08:59 The Department receives an annual appropriation of $850,000 from the Tourism Advertising Revolving Fund. These monies supplement the VIPD's tourism-oriented policing initiative and fund delivery of tourism loss prevention, safety, and security services. Non-appropriated funds of $427,314 are allocated towards the Peace Officer Standards and Training Post Office. The post is currently funded through appropriations from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Superior Court. 0:09:51 In fiscal year 2022, the Department has expended $784,084 on the consent decree to include $415,143 in independent monitor costs. The Department has remained in substantial compliance with the consent decree except for six paragraphs. The independent monitoring team has recommended six paragraphs remain held out of compliance while VIPD continues to challenge those recommendations. Internal reviews and audits of investigations are ongoing with the Change and Compliance Management Unit, the CCMU. As the Department's internal monitors, CCMU allows for self-monitoring and identifying and correcting deficiencies. With modern-day policing and continuous changes in our society and other law enforcement industry standards, this unit will keep the department on par with the revision of policies, procedures and laws. The Bureau of Human Resources is committed to providing support services for employees. 0:10:30 Currently, our actual strength consists of 180 civilian employees, 317 police officers and 16 other sworn personnel territory-wide. There are nine civilian employees and 34 sworn officers out on extended leave consistent of military, sick and assignment to the unclassified service. In fiscal year 2022, we hired 17 individuals in civilian positions and 15 police and auxiliary recruits. During this period, a total of 36 employees have separated from the department, 12 in the St. Thomas St. John District, six of which were police officers, and 24 in the St. Croix District, of which 16 were police officers. 0:11:35 Based on the retirement eligibility assessment for fiscal year 2022, 70 sworn and two civilian personnel will be eligible to retire in the St. Thomas District, while 52 and seven civilian personnel will be eligible for retirement in the St. Croix District. For the next two years, an additional 13 sworn and three civilian personnel qualify for retirement territory-wide. In fiscal year 2023, I've budgeted for 49 police officer and 18 auxiliary positions. 0:12:26 The Department developed and implemented the Virgin Islands Police Department's recruiting plan with the goal to attract qualified individuals to pursue a career within the Department. To date, the Department has solicited candidates from the National Guard who are interested in joining the police auxiliary program. Multiple in-person and virtual career fairs have been hosted and we have assigned a dedicated police recruiter who has developed multiple recruitment ads and attended a circuit of radio talk shows. The human resources office is also in the process of establishing a workforce development unit within the HR office. The workforce development unit will be responsible for putting in place initiatives to help create, sustain and retain a viable workforce by developing skills through training. Funding for the training bureau continues to ensure that all peace officers in the territory maintain certification requirements according to the peace officer standards and training post in providing training, both virtual platform and in-person learning. 0:13:00 During fiscal year 2022, approximately 2,300 hours of training has been conducted. Supervisors were inclusive of yearly firearm certifications, training, taser, baton, oleoresin capsicum certification, ethics, use of force and domestic violence. Supervisors also received training in leadership and supervisors liability. In addition, other critical supplemental training was conducted in homicide investigations, photography, Interview and Interrogation II, Crisis Prevention Training, and Responding to Active Shooter Incidents. A total of 18 sworn personnel received training and became certified as Use of Force Instructors, Crisis Intervention Team Coordinators, Force Science Analysts, Firearms Instructors, and Certification in General Instruction. In addition to continued annual training and recertifications, the Fiscal Year 2023 budget will be 0:14:05 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 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 used to fund a certified diverse course for 10 VIPD personnel. Another VIPD training highlight and accomplishment in fiscal year 2023 will be the VIPD hosting for the first time in the Caribbean, a federal law enforcement training center, FLETC, use of force instructor course. Currently for fiscal year 2022, there are 36 peace officer recruits in the police academy, which 14 will join VIPD, 7 for the St. Croix District and 7 for the St. Thomas District. Upon completion and graduation, another Peace Officer class is scheduled to begin in early fiscal year 2023. The VIPD Information Technology Bureau continues its goal of implementing and supporting various technologies to assist with efficiency and providing technical support to the staff. ITB has also implemented security tools to harden its core infrastructure. Funding to the Bureau will augment current and future technological projects that we intend to bring online. Implementation of the Public Finance Authority, the PFA funded $1 million IP based camera and license plate reader system has been completed. Utilizing these tools has proven a major success factor with investigations. The Department is also working conjointly with BIT and the vendor to amend the existing contract for the expansion of the surveillance system territory-wide that utilizes the $1.5 million Department of Interior Capital Improvement Project grant funding. Other projects worthy of mention are commencement of the expansion and installation of the ShotSpotter System infrastructure hardware. A memorandum of agreement for the eCitation project is at Property and Procurement in its final approval stage, and the satellite hotspots have been deployed to senior leadership personnel to assist with basic communication in the event of a disaster where communication is offline. Development of the VIPD real-time crime centre, the RTCC, remains a priority. Positions for a centre manager and seven RTCC analysts has been approved. We are actively working on identifying a location to serve as the centre's home. The state link module of the computer-aided dispatch, the CAD system, is now integrated with our Spillman records keeping system. 0:15:54 This module enables officers and dispatchers to conduct NCIC queries from the Spillman system. The officers and the dispatchers will be accessing the feature after they have completed the NCIC certification. We attempted to go live with the long-anticipated in-car GPS system and encountered a communication issue. Along with the vendor, we are jointly troubleshooting the issue between the GPS module in the Spillman system and the GPS devices. When fully operational, this module will enable the dispatchers to view the vehicles live on the map and dispatch the closest vehicles to calls for service. 0:17:30 Until then, the Office of the Chiefs and Internal Affairs have been manually using the systems for internal investigations. funding of MIS projects in fiscal year 2023 will ensure VIPD continues to remain current with policing technological trends. The Office of Communications and Public Information continues to advise the Commissioner and the command staff on public opinion and news media response regarding departmental issues. With a full complement of staff and assembled and strong emphasis on media relations, the goal in fiscal year 2023 remains to continue providing timely dissemination of information to the public, further embracing the technological era to effectively inform the community of crimes, criminal arrests and other information pertinent to public safety. The team strives to use innovative and advanced technological approaches to work closely with the media, the community, business leaders, elected officials and other members of the public. This communication will promote excellence in police services, mobilise public involvement and increase awareness of public safety initiatives that build upon the department's crime reduction strategies. The Virgin Islands Police Department currently occupies over 21 properties, housing over 475 employees, equipment and services. 0:18:10 There are 11 rental leases, 6 storage units and 9 MOUs that are all pending further review. costs for both districts totaled $1,473,180. In March of this year, the Commissioner's Office along with the Support Staff units finally made the long-anticipated relocation into the Casa Coakley office space. After Hurricanes Irma and Maria, major renovations were required at several locations. While we have been able to complete minor repairs, some buildings require major repairs. To address these issues, we have been working closely with the Office of Disaster Recovery and FEMA. These fruitful meetings have garnered approvals with financial support of major repairs and renovations. 0:19:36 We have since requested additional assistance for the cost of temporary locations and are awaiting FEMA's response. Obtaining updated maintenance service agreements for air conditioning systems at all our facilities continues to be a major hurdle. There is a constant strain since our 24-7 operations require the systems to run continually, which dramatically reduces their life cycle. Our vendors are assessing existing systems to determine which units remain usable and those that require replacement. Increases to this budgetary category will ensure this issue is addressed during fiscal year 2023. As a result of our recurring facilities issues and our intent to provide safe and comfortable working conditions for our employees, we recently met with the Department of Property and Procurement seeking to identify office space suitable to facilitate our infrastructure needs and requirements. 0:20:25 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) 3 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 We have communicated those concerns with the Office of the Governor and the Office of Management and Budget as well. While we are moving forward, post-haze, to find suitable rental options, we understand our rental budget will need to increase. As we do not have an idea as to the cost of those moves now, the plan is to make the necessary moves and to cover those costs later in the fiscal year 2023 supplemental budget requests. We plan to utilise federal grants in the amount of $19,317,973 to augment the general fund. The United States Department of Justice Community Oriented Police and Services COPS program continues to fund the personal costs of new officers. The department is utilizing a 2020 COPS grant funds in the amount of two million one hundred forty four thousand one hundred eighty dollars to fund the salaries of twelve police officers. Currently we have five field positions and we anticipate the next seven vacancies will be filled in the upcoming police class. The grant expires in June of 2023. The VIPD has accumulated $2,038,549 in Operation Stone Garden grant funding from the United States Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol. These grants continue to fund the purchase of equipment and supplies in addition to officers over time to patrol the territory's coastline and borders. Stone Garden funding is used to augment VIPD's work with several local and federal agencies to intercept the illegal trafficking of drugs and purses into our territory. 0:21:26 The 2018 Stone Garden funding of $400,000 provided to overtime reimbursement in the amount of $96,885 and furnished six additional solar-powered surveillance cameras at a cost of $236,000. In addition, of the 2019 $738,549 Stone Garden funding, $332,994 is slated for overtime reimbursement and $377,355 is designated for the purchase of a patrol boat for the District of St. Croix. The 2020 Stone Garden funding in the amount of $800,000 allowed for overtime reimbursement in the amount of $397,224. Funding will also secure the purchase of a patrol boat for the St. Thomas St. John District in the amount of $377,335. 0:23:12 Due to natural disasters on the U.S. mainland and issues along the southwestern U.S. border, funding was diverted to assist with deployment, thus resulting in the department receiving only $100,000 in the 2021 Stone Garden funding. This funding will be used for its intended purpose of augmenting our overtime initiative in safeguarding our local borders. The department received a $50,000 Homeland Security Grant for election soft target to augment overtime expenses incurred during this election season. The funding ensured VIPD offices provided security and maintained order at the 2022 primary elections, and will be mirrored during the November 2022 general elections. 0:24:17 We expect to expend the entire grant by the end of the election season. The Department is also a sub-recipient of the Homeland Security grant funds in the amount of $52,600 for the purchase of additional surveillance security systems to protect soft target locations, territory-wide. The body-worn camera BWC policy and implementation project, at a cost of $300,000 from the United States Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance, is in its completion stage, with 250 body-worn cameras purchased and 187 deployed to uniformed patrol officers. 0:25:02 Approximately 90% of all sworn personnel are trained on the utilization of the BWC. Body-worn cameras can help improve the high quality public service expected of our officers. The presence of BWCs will improve the performance of officers as well as the conduct of the community members recorded. And when officers or members of the public break the law or behave badly, body-worn cameras can create a public record that allows the entire community to see what really happened. Its implementation would enable timely review of evidence regarding use of force incidents and alleged misconduct complaints, bringing investigations to timely conclusions and eventual compliance. Through the United States Department of Interior Office of Insular Affairs, VIPD has received a $1.5 million capital improvement project for the expansion of surveillance cameras throughout the territory. The project, with an expiration date of September 2025, has received approval from the Army Corps of Engineers to proceed, and in the past week we received a quote from the vendor that is now under review. The department has also received $85,830 for the maintenance assistance program map specialized equipment tools and training project for the purchase of equipment for both motor pools. Local vendors have stymied the process with their lack of interest to do business with government agencies. We are once again soliciting quotes from vendors. 0:25:44 We receive Violence Against Women, VAWA, funding in the amount of $40,660 from the Law Enforcement Planning Commission. Through this grant, the Department's domestic violence officers and personnel receive training on response to domestic violence cases. In addition, equipment and supplies are being purchased for the DV units in both districts. The Department has also acquired personnel protective supplies from LEPC, valued at $4,200 for civilian and sworn personnel. We continue to pursue grant opportunities and have been applied for an additional $400,000 from LEPC in fiscal year 2023 funding. 0:27:18 the fiscal year 2023 vi office of highway safety plan is pending national highway traffic safety administration nitsa approval in fiscal year 2022 the vi office of highway safety has 15 nitsa approved projects totaling three million thirty eight thousand eight hundred thirty four dollars and two federal motor carrier safety administration administration projects at seven hundred thousand These projects include the BMV Superior Court Traffic Integration, Occupant 0:27:59 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) 4 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 Protection, Police Traffic Services, Impaired Driving, Occupant Protection Teenage Drivers Outreach, and Seatbelt Survey. The Office of Highway Safety will continue to utilize a portion of the awarded funds to complete the final stages of the 484,000 traffic records e-citation software installation project. The Memorandum of Agreement is in a signature stage at the Department of Justice. The VIPD is a subrecipient of $12,999,354 in FEMA hazard mitigation funding. The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program disaster relief funding of $94,631 from FEMA is designated for wireless backup hotspots for improved connectivity during disasters. As we endeavour to further harden our facilities, the Department has acquired funding for generator purchases of $44,340 for the St. Croix motor pool and $226,584 for the training academies in both districts. 0:29:01 The department has received $285,250 for the Leander-Juergen Command hurricane wind retrofit project. This funding will allow for retrofitting the facility to meet hazard mitigation standards. The Jurgen Command Project is now in the architectural and engineering phase. VIPD was also awarded $12,348,549 for the Patrick Sweeney Headquarters retrofit project. Geotechnical, engineering, soil boring studies are awaiting permit approvals from DPNR. Environmental studies on the existing structure are ongoing with expected completion in two weeks and the topographic surveys have been completed. The Department has 47 FEMA Project Worksheets obligated in the amount of $21,572,524 for Hurricanes Irma and Maria. 0:29:48 21 of those PWs in the amount of $12,849,055 has been reimbursed. An additional $4,382,635 in overtime PWs are pending document completeness checks. In fiscal year 2022, the Department received funding in the amount of $6,205,123 from the American Rescue Plan Act . Some of the funding included $2,876,849 to purchase 44 police vehicles to augment the current fleet. 0:30:45 $1,001,794 was received to fund ShotSpotted technology installed territory-wide, providing coverage in high gunfire areas, providing shooting maps and gunshot audio to give officers and first responders precise locations of discharges. $617,021 was also obtained to fund personnel costs for the VIPD's real-time crime centre to support the operation of the Department in ongoing operational and crime reduction efforts. For fiscal year 2023, the Department has requested an additional $19,704,450 in ARPA funding. 0:31:29 This funding will supplement various crime-fighting projects, equipment and initiatives. $8 million will be utilized to develop the RTCC, the real-time crime center. $191,397 will go towards the purchase of tactical and marine unmanned aerial systems, drones, to aid tactical teams in barricade, hostage, and active shooter situations, and with border control and detection of illegal activities in drug and human trafficking. $285,831 would be utilized for the purchase of all-terrain patrol vehicles for use in rugged terrain and for security, patrol, and crowd control during large events. $130,000 would go towards the purchase of rapid response marine vehicles to increase enforcement and inspections in and around bays, inlets, beaches, and docks. 0:32:13 $19,140 for the purchase of additional LiveView mobility security camera systems and bispectrum optical thermal cameras and software upgrades of our present LiveView units. $264,650 is projected for modular vehicle data casting systems to improve public safety communication and information sharing during events, incidents or after disasters. $998,001 will go towards the purchase of 180 vehicle laptops with vehicle docking stations to provide officers with the capabilities to conduct 100% reporting tasks by extending the office to the field. 0:33:07 $5,533,295 is requested for the purchase of 103 vehicles to replace the out-of-contract fleet and specialised units in addition to $1,612,600 to locally retrofit the vehicles. $1,300,000 will be used to fund 30 field inspection officers to conduct illegal firearms and contraband inspection of borders, facilities and incoming baggage and cargo at air, land and seaports. $498,000 for handheld x-ray backscatter imaging systems to provide security imaging and material identification solutions to aid our officers to safely inspect during drug trafficking, terrorism and other hazardous threats. $360,000 to fund in-car camera solutions to provide the ability to record critical and key evidence while in the field. 0:33:56 I thank the Committee on Finance for the latitude of my testimony. I would especially like to thank the members of my executive team and the financial teams for their diligence in preparation of the fiscal year 2023 budget presentation. More importantly, I thank all the employees of the VIPD, sworn and civilian, for their unyielding drive in serving the community. To the people of the Virgin Islands, thank you for your unparalleled support, and please continue to be our partners as we work together to create a safer community. Mr. Chair, my team and I will be happy to take your questions at this time. 0:34:57 Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner, for your testimony. Colleagues, let's go straight to a six-minute round. Senator Blyden, you're recognized. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, Commissioner Martinez and your supporting management team. Thank you so much for your testimony. Before I go to the post, I'll report, this is page four of 37 minutes, Rep, sir. Commissioner, let me ask you quickly, the range, I have fielded many calls from individuals in the 0:35:33 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) 5 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 community who need to complete whatever they need to complete in order to get a license through their jobs, et cetera. What's going on with the range? What's the situation on the range? And what's being done to correct it moving forward expeditiously? Well, I don't know what you mean by correcting issue at the range senator first of all the range is belongs to the virgin islands police department the range was run down and we took in my team and i sat we took it upon ourselves to ensure that we rebuilt the range from a safety and security standpoint if we have civilians going out there and utilising the range, which is something that's been done over time. And a round bounced off a rack and struck one of those civilians. It's my height. With that being said, we took the time to rebuild the range. The range, it should have been, we expected it to have been completed about two weeks ago. We ran into some problems with the berm, which is the backside of the range. We've already been in consultation with WAPA to obtain several more of the utility poles that require that those, I think the transport of those poles should be done within the next week and, you know, we'll be back on track. However, let me just publicly say this, that upon completion, I will be moving towards getting a memorandum of understanding with any and all private companies are going to be utilizing the range moving forward there will be waivers of liability that they will have to sign before they go back on to our range okay thank you for the update and I appreciate the feedback Miss Webster good afternoon on page 437 of the post at a tour report I'm let's start off with arm personal services they have been on five point seven million dollar decrease in personal service which is 38% variance what the reason for it's such a large variance especially when it comes to personnel have you lost of folks have retired from the police department it's not an actual 38% it's actually a 12% reduction expand on that for me please the variance is 5.6 million dollars and the the actual decrease is 12% based on my calculation. 0:36:45 12%? Yeah, that is the personnel cost and the fringe cost is a reduction of 17.34. What's the reason for the decrease? Mr. Richards, the HR can answer that question. Mr. Richards, good afternoon. Good afternoon, good day, Director Richards. issue of the variance is one, of all our vacancies are only funded by 50%. The second issue as well, we also budget for lump sum, which was about $1.4 million, as well as fees and compensation. At this time around, those wasn't budgeted in this budget, compared to last year. So those items were removed. Okay, thank you for the explanation. Let's go to the supplies. 0:38:36 Yes, another large amount for $266,000 when it comes to your supplies, so we are anticipating utilizing that supplies for the 23 budget season. We decided because we had a fixed budget to reduce our supplies and instead increase our other services including our professional services, our maintenance, contract, janitorial, of our fixed costs or WAPA and all that stuff. So we figured we had office supplies covered. 0:39:22 Okay, but then you had an increase of $2.2 million when it comes to other services in charge. What's included with that category and why is such a large increase? In that category is professional services and for our janitorial, our maintenance, our custodial, all of our exterminating. We actually had 100% increase in our cost this year for maintenance of our buildings. We also had a $150,000 increase for repairs and maintenance to our dilapidated buildings. Also included in that is, what else did we have, one second. included in that is an increase in our rentals. Our rentals increased by 50% from what it was in fiscal year 2022. Increased by 50%? Yes. What are we there for that? Additional in all facilities that we're intending to accommodate. 0:39:58 Let me ask you, expenditures to date, say for personnel costs, what's your expenditures year-to-date for your personnel costs? The only choice to date for our personnel cost is, as of August 10th, is $40,742,684. That's our personnel cost, and our fringe is $11,943,054. 0:41:14 Okay, very well, and let me inquire in terms of your overtime, because I know the actual for 21 was $18.5 million. What's that total to date for overtime? Overtime cost to date is $17,466,148. Oops. Exactly. Is it both federal and local combined? 0:41:57 or just general? Just local. Local? So it seems like we're going to surpass the 18.5. Yeah, projected two. What was the projection? 20 million. 22 million. 22 million. 22? Okay, thank you for that. I don't want to abuse my time, but thank you so much for your response. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair, for the time. Thank you, Senator Blight and Senator Bulquist. Point of personal privilege. 0:42:27 Point of personal privilege, Senator Kennedy Gettens. thank you mr chair it must have been an oversight but i just sat here and listened to uh this full testimony and there was no mention of the fallen officer who observed 19 plus years and i just think that we should ask for a quick moment of silence for detective corinne smith if we may mr chair Yes, we may. A moment of silence for Fallen Officer Ms. Corrine Smith. Thank you. Let me correct that term of Fallen. She was an active duty officer who have served this territory for more than 19 years within the Virgin Islands Police Department. Thank you. 0:42:54 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) 6 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 Thank you. Thank you, Senator Gettin-Solat. Senator Volkwes. Thank you Mr. Chair Good afternoon Commissioner Martinez and administrative team of the Virgin Islands Police Department Good afternoon sir I'd also like to mention recently our office was made aware of a hit and run incident on St. Croix where an individual was hit and dragged a number of feet and was dislodged in between of a vehicle and reports say that the vehicle broke down and then the police officers caught up with that individual, but there wasn't an arrest made for the hit and run. I was wondering if any developments had come forward with that. We'll talk offline about that. 0:44:12 We can definitely speak offline on that. Thank you. Okay. I'd like to start off with your vacancies. Outside of your basic rules, Are you planning to enhance the department with different types of officers? I know that you have about 29 vacancies currently. Is that what I saw? 30 vacancies last fiscal year and now 29. 0:45:06 So for the upcoming, for fiscal year 23, I think we're looking at 47 or 49 police vacancies and I think 18 police auxiliaries. And that's just on the police side. I know Director Richards can give you the exact numbers. On top of that, from my testimony, we're also looking into, we've already started to attempt to hire, to bring on several National Guard members who were formerly working at the airports. And that's a huge initiative between us, the National Guard, and Customs Enforcement, where we want to hire these individuals to be additional eyes and ears for us against the illegal firearms coming into the territory at both the airports and through our cargo, air, sea, and land as well. Now with that, we're looking at attempting to hire anywhere between, I think it's 15 per district there as well. And again, it's still early in the budget cycle, but as we move along, as from our civilian side of the house, and again, Director Richter can give you those numbers, there are some civilian staff as well that we're going to need to bring on. 0:45:36 So concerning the auxiliary officers, do you believe you have enough of them on a regular basis to augment whatever is going on in the department? Oh, definitely not. We don't have enough officers, and we don't have enough auxiliaries. So are you familiar with police reserve officer programs? Yes, there are a number of police departments on the U.S. mainland that have reserve programs. Okay. I think perhaps we should talk a little bit about that. 0:47:06 I think it will further help with some of the setbacks that you're experiencing. We could. And, you know, the reserve, the difference between the reserve programs and the police auxiliaries is that the reserve programs are really made up of officers who are retired and come in really part-time on a case-by-case basis, on an unneeded basis. But that is definitely something that I am more than willing to pursue. Okay, thank you for that. But with the weed and seed program, I noticed that there was a difference between the $85,000 on St. Thomas and $90,000 on St. Croix. Could you expound on that, why there was a difference between the two? 0:47:36 I don't have an answer to why there's a $5,000 difference in that. Okay. Concerning body-worn cameras, for me, I know that they serve as a tool to monitor civilians and officers. Two minutes. Concerning what potentially could happen on both sides of the table. But what I'm really concerned about is how the data is going to be utilized and kept and want to make sure that it's secure and not sold to private entities like much of the other law enforcement agencies in the states have done in the past or are currently doing. How do you intend to secure that data? Well, great question, Senator. 0:48:22 And thank you for bringing that up, because that's something I really was hoping that someone would, you know, so we could expound on it. The program, we just launched the program just in a couple of weeks now. First of all, the data, we own the data, we keep our own data, and I'm going to allow our director on Kishana Tweed to expand on that just a little more, but that is our data. On the mainland, the issue has come up where there are third-party companies that are hired by police departments because they're so large to keep the data and to monitor that data. With us here, we're a little different in that we maintain our own footage, we maintain our own cameras on our own systems. But if you may, I'd like, you know, again, Director Tweed can expand on the system. pleasure pleasure mr chair please go ahead you may proceed that's your time called no ms tweed exhaust your time before yeah if ms tweed can uh respond um good afternoon kishana tweed um yes um the versions police department manage um the evidence that um is stored from the body one cameras and we also have a procedure um to make sure everything is secure and automatic for that information thank you thank you senator you want to conclude yes please are there any um regulations concerning that process that you could follow to this body for to look over we have a body our body The one camera policy is public, but we can forward you a copy of that. Okay. Thank you. 0:49:06 Thank you, Senator Bulquez. Thank you, Senator Bulquez. Your personnel has a decrease of $5 million. What does that mean for the police department? Well, Senator, first of all, with that thing, we're going to actively pursue utilizing in the CAPS program once more. Again, we've have, right now we're looking at two million and we haven't been as efficient as we should have been in the past. There's no reason why- But you have the CAPS program this fiscal year also? 0:51:02 It's available every year. We just have- Did you utilize it this year? We're utilizing it as we speak. We have five individuals on it. We have seven vacancies. Those vacancies will be placed in the upcoming class in November. And the 0:51:39 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) 7 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 2020, which we're speaking of, expires in June of 2023. We have one more year that we can request an extension, but in the interim, we're going to continue to ask for additional funding. What's the amount in that program for this fiscal year? Sure. This fiscal year, how much is available in the COPS program? Give me one second, Senator, it's $2 million. Is it $2 million over two years, or is it one year? This was just one year. So $2 million. Go ahead. Correct. What's here is $2,144,180, and that was just for fiscal year 2020, and that's what we still continue to use. 0:52:10 And you're saying that's to fund 12 positions? funded 12 positions. That 12 position will be $178,000. You can fund more than 12 positions. Well again, that's what was funded here. That's what's left from, hey, we just haven't done our due, over the years we haven't done our due diligence. I know, but what I'm saying, if we have two million dollars, we need to fund as much positions as possible. Does it have to be new officers coming on, or can we place X amount of officers, we look at the starting salary or the first two years salary and we place those officers under the particular account and pay for that account? So we can't supplant Senator, so we can we can we have to start with with officers that would be coming through the Academy as recruits and place them on they stay on the program until the monies are expended and once they're expended we have to move them to the general fund. Okay so then what's the starting pay for the police officer? 0:52:44 40,953 40,953 correct and you probably add on the next 20,000 for a fringe so with that you i'll come back with that particular number you have a lot of money left in that that particular grant? Again, Senator, that doesn't mean that we can request a grant. It doesn't mean we'll get two million, but that's just what was afforded in the 2020. For the Virgin Islands? Correct. That means we could get the money, but we're only going to be spending about $816,000 with friends, so we still have about $1.3 million, so if we could get some classes going as quick as possible senator James good afternoon to the people of the US Virgin Islands thank you testifiers for being here as we speak about a budget do you have anything factored in into this FY 2023 budget for renovating or any kind of capital outlays for the Frederickstead substation. Is there any funding that this body can provide to you to get the Frederickstead substation, that's the one right next to UCA up and running? 0:53:40 If I may pose that question to Ms. McIntosh, our facilities manager, but the short answer is we have not in the budget, but that doesn't mean that we can't move monies towards maintenance. So before she answers that question, what is, well, you know what, let me go to her, because she would tell me the issue what's going on with that facility. So proceed, facility manager. Good afternoon, Andrea Brian-McIntosh, director of facilities and maintenance of the property. 0:55:21 You're gonna have to talk a lot, you're gonna have to talk louder. One second, sir. can you hear me any better much better okay you're talking about the substation right next to Yucca yes that station is up sir okay so when we pass when we pass there it looks when we pass there it looks mr chair if i could just this this is not working yeah like a serious echo it's gonna work um miss brad mcintosh take off your device when he's speaking and then put it back on when he's completed his sentence losing a lot of time here i'm gonna give it back to you don't worry Okay. Time is all we have on this planet, man. 0:55:51 Say the second verse. Yeah, so in all seriousness, you said it's up and running. I'm always in Frederickstead, but when I go to Frederickstead, that place is poorly lit. You know, I'm not sure of the coordination you have with the surrounding areas, but forget about them. Just you having your own light just to show like, hey, it's up and running. It does seem like it's dormant, like nothing is happening there. Do we have bodies in there? Do we have activity going on in there as far as police officers, law enforcement officers physically being in there? To the best of my knowledge, we do, Senator. 0:56:55 But again, I think Chief Santos is on the line, and he can provide an answer to that. Good afternoon, Senator James. This is Chief Santos. Whenever we do have initiatives running in Frederickside Town, it is being manned by our Special Operations Team bike unit. At this current juncture, you wouldn't see officers there on a 24-7 basis, but you will see them there periodically. the majority of the time is pretty much manned as a substation so that if they are going out and they're patrolling within the town here anywhere from rainbow beach or from down by the vincent mason pool um so to say that you have somebody stationed there they're pretty much out on the field more because we don't have a desk officer at that location our desk officer is at the Rainbow building. But, you know, if necessary, we do have our bike unit station down there, Officer Guzman. Everybody speaks about Officer Guzman very nicely. So he is down there, but majority of the time he's in the field, in the Frederickstead location, sir. 0:57:31 And my question to the facility manager or anyone who can answer this question, that building is there a need for renovation is there any need for fixing of anything you need funding to fix it is it in a great condition as you speak about a budget because acts actually you shall receive we want to help you all and it does seem like like like no one wants to answer like we really want to help Frederickstead because the reason I'm asking you that you have C-Bonet you have Yam Yam you have all these restaurants in Frederickstead Frederickstead is finally getting a nightlife we recently saw a 0:58:43 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) 8 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 lounge got open up things are moving as far as a nightlife and fredick said we want to protect the business owners and to have a substation there would definitely help so do you need funding to renovate the substation is that simple yes or no well senator i think that is um it's i don't think we can answer yes or no right now i don't know what the answer is i've been to the substation myself uh it's in working order but um let give us the opportunity to to respond back to you when we leave here to what you know and we can provide you whether or not the it is in need of some type of renovation and we can tell you that and assess that for you and they need to be some coordination there to make sure that we have adequate light light in there you don't want individuals who supposed to be operating as a law enforcement officer entering into a dark environment that's unsafe the enemy can us right there lurking but we're going to move on to the lorraine substation any hopes to the lorraine substation that seems to be very dark like nothing is happening there do we plan to utilize it moving forward is it operable right now as far as around the clock uh the lorraine uh sir the lorraine station houses our juvenile and school security bureau okay just want to make sure kind of growing up in my younger days you always had police presence there that was the police presence between the Montbeju area and anything that was going on in that area. So I'm just going back to the good old days when you saw police presence and I just want to make sure if you need any funding for these buildings and for any capital outlays this is the time to ask for it and I guess we still have time because the budget hearings are still going on to just put in our requests. And then do you feel there's a need to establish a substation in East End? Do you think there's a need for that? 1:00:34 Well, again, there's always a need. It's always good if we can do things like this, but those are catch-22 questions because you established this substation. You better have the bodies to have it in a substation. Right now, then my most politically correct answer would be we'll continue to increase our initiatives to the eastern end of the island, and as soon as we have the requisite amount of personnel that can be sitting in a substation then then we'll you know we'll cross the bridge then and and place a substation in the eastern end of the island until then we'll have to continue with our patrols I miss a chair with the indulgence because a lot of time was taken away from me then ask one last question it's regarding the collaboration I'm not sure which department or agency will be responsible for this but as far as the AMBA lot system is that VITEMA is it VIPD or a collaboration and if so, is there any funding that the legislature can provide to really establish a working AMBA lot system? As you know, we had a series of situations where individuals went missing, our children have been missing, elderly people. Is there any funding that we can give you or talk to me? 1:01:09 Good afternoon, Senator, Assistant Commissioner Mary Brooks. We have implemented the Everbridge system, which is basically the same system that Vitema currently uses for their emergency alerts across the territory. We'll be utilizing it for our silver and amber alerts. We're in the final stages of that. We just had a meeting, what, last two weeks ago with property procurement to secure that contract. So we should be online here shortly. So to my question, funding, is this funding needed? no no we're good we're good on funding okay thank you mr chair for the time thank you senator james quick point of inquiry senator bolquist thank you mr chair i'm curious to find out if the virgin islands police department owns any property because i'm seeing some contracts for rentals that are on the higher side of 250 000 and I think that that's an exuberant amount for an annual rent are there any plans to try to secure property we entertained a discussion earlier today concerning derelict buildings of the government and trying to repurpose them are there any conversations with perhaps the Department of Property and Procurement about such things we've had ongoing thank you for that question we've had ongoing conversations with property and procurement we do own property We, the Virgin Islands Police Department owns the Patrick Sweeney headquarters property. 1:02:24 And when we say the Virgin Islands Police Department, the government of the VI, and as well as, if I'm not mistaken, the Jurgen Command as well. But of course those two properties are now in, you know, need extensive repairs. And therein lies our greatest issue, is the fact that all of the other properties that that we're housed in, we've rented, and we've rented for years. Going back, since I've accepted this position, the Property and Procurement Commissioner and I and his team, our teams, have worked extensively, Senator, on trying to obtain property. We've gone out and actually attempted to purchase several pieces of property utilizing some ARPA funds, as well as we've taken a look a number of pieces of property to include a scenery building in sub base and other pieces, large properties as well that we can utilize. The issue that we're having today is the fact that we, the VIPD, needs to move out of CJC. We need to move out of the Jurgen Command in order for us to repair those buildings. So we don't have the luxury of putting some $6 or $7 million into the Shinnery building to bringing it back to its glory. 1:04:00 We need somewhere that we can go to tomorrow. And that's where the issue is. That's good. That's good. We have to try to make your answers a little more concise. That was quite a long answer for a direct question. To my knowledge, APA funds can be utilized to purchase buildings. So if you guys are trying to use APA fund, please, please restrain. So there are some, and I hope I'm not speaking out of time, but there's some fine printing there that speaks to law enforcement purposes that we've been trying to utilize. 1:05:29 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) 9 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 And does it speak to purchase of buildings? Purchase of land or buildings? Again, Senator, as I said, I hope I'm not speaking out of time, but you know that's what um you know i've been i as i understand it that's what we've been trying to do so we have money and we have landowners that got that that that have vacant buildings that are on the market and they don't want to sell to the government again that i can't speak to that that's a that's a strange one senator the graph you're recognized good afternoon thank you mr chair good afternoon colleagues good afternoon testifiers of viewing listening and present commission is your first one i get your back man my first your first budget hearing we we we let them jump up on you today man i get your back okay so you're covered so feel free okay um crime stoppers a hundred thousand dollars is that sufficient for the crime stoppers we we think it is um the um crime stoppers hasn't reached out to indicate that they require more um but again the um because they do get a number of donations from the public sector as well uh so you know as as we see it now um the hundred thousand is sufficient okay because again i'm looking at in terms of trying to assist with solvability of some of the crimes you're having but people don't want to come forward so maybe i don't know if you had to up the ante would that help you know so we could look at that no um you it just seems as if you're taking a budget cut to me man you're taking a cut well i think all the departments are um we ain't giving up no money as a take of this your first go wrong we've given up nothing good said that and i'm saying that because i'm looking at um your cfo i think she mentioned what was your personnel for not yet not yet take it easy i can hear you no um you were saying for for personnel is what 40 1:06:05 million your personnel um yeah 47 40 okay because again with the post auditor report that we have page four they have the recommendation at 41 million 342 224 which is a variance from 22 is a 562 5 million 672 139 at 41 million but you'll see you have you're asking for 40. You have a copy of the post auditory report? Yes. Okay, so you see on page 4, 2023 recommendation, 41 million, 342, 224, but you are saying you have, you are saying 40 million, which is still another 1 million less. I guess I may have misspoken, I don't remember, I think. 1:08:11 Okay, for me, what is, and like I say, it becomes again confusing again where he says, the same page, expenditure report, the governor has recommended a general fund appropriation of $71,372,356 for FY23. This represents a decrease of 8% or $6,350,274 below fiscal year 222. So I'm saying, even when you mentioned at 8%, when my colleague mentioned the variance is 38%, you corrected him and said it was 8%. Then if it's 8%, and it's showing 6,350,274, numbers are really, I'm just trying to figure out which is the right numbers again, so. These numbers that the post auditor has is correct. 1:09:12 I was only mentioning that the 5.672139 is a 12% reduction in personnel services, and the fringe of 3,261,210 is a 14% reduction, is a 17% reduction. I was just clarifying the poster. Yeah, and that's what I say. So we're going from 38 to 17. It's totally confusing. To go 5, 6, 5 million, 672, where you have 40 million, the recommended is 41, and then we have from 71, which is under, from 77, 8% at 6,350. Two minutes. 1:10:10 Which is a set of numbers we should be looking at? The 8%, which is 6,350, 274, or the variance of 5,672? The total personnel costs, the total reduction in the budget is $6,352.74, which is 8%. Yes, $6,352.74. So then $5,672.00 can be right. Yes, $5,672.00 is the reduction in personnel services. However, other services increased by $2,185.00 to offset. 1:10:52 oh okay okay so i see what you're saying you added in other services and charges for the entire total personal car but but they only show variants and supplies so is is the the numbers just seem to be a little confusing to me um and i want to address that because the personnel in regards to have anybody unions negotiated and receive any wage increases for the 22 budget fiscal year 2022 correct uh yes our um both our unions both police unions are online with their contractual agreements for 2022 the fiscal year 2023 the um lesu is go is has i think their contract expires in september of this year and um so that's and i think when just a week ago when i saw sorry earlier this week when i spoke with the uh chief negotiator they've already started to have communications between her and the um union attorney so but both the pbas sorry the pba and lsu are up to um are on par they're they're up to the level they should be with their contractual agreements and how about the civilian employees the steel workers um they're still in negotiations as we speak okay and again so with those budget increases therefore wage increases going forward if i may wrap up mr chair um i guess i i'll come back to that but I ain't going to beat a dead horse. 1:11:33 In regards to how many retirees have you had? Retirees and how much revenue has the department received this year? And then I'll just wrap up. That would be my ending, so I don't abuse my time. Director Richards, St. Croix, we had eight retirees. Say again how many? St. Croix, we had eight retirees. 1:13:14 In St. Hamas, we had two retirees, and if you're asking for civilian as well, we had three retirees in St. Croix, and we had four retirees in St. Hamas. Okay, and all paid up in the GRS? That, I don't know. We'll have to wait and see when GRS does an assessment, and then they'll let us know if anything is owed. Okay, okay. But for my knowledge, most of them have been getting their retirement. Okay, good. And finally, like I said, the revenues generated for the year. 1:13:43 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) 10 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 For which the entire department? Yes. Overall revenue generation. The revenues for fiscal year 2021. 2021 um so thank you for the time you can't change your time but it was just one question with the two parts that's all it was the revenues for fiscal year 2021 was 490 608 and for 2022 to date june 364 850 okay thank you so much in in reference to um the budgetary questions uh three Three of the categories have decreased, personnel, fringe and supplies, and three of the categories have increased, other services and charges, utilities and capital projects. What is the largest, what is the increase, the $2 million increase in other services and charges? 1:14:19 A $2 million increase in other services and charges. Speak into the mic. Okay, so in other services and charges. Turn on this website mic for me, please. we had rental of land and buildings we had an increase how much it says 1 million however it's actually not 1 million or it says our budget on ERP says 465 for rent no what is it what is the what is the total we pay for rent in fiscal year 2022, it's supposed to be $1,473,000. 1:15:42 It's supposed to be $1,473,000. That's the 2022 budget. So there's an increase of $1,000,000 there. In our professional circle... Hold up, hold up. Increase in the 2022 budget of $1,000,000 for rent? Yeah, that's what the ERP report shows for our budget For fiscal year 2022, however, our budget was actually $998,000. When it went on the EMP, ERP, it reflected $468,000. It reflected $468,000 more? 1:16:35 No, actual. Somebody on jail, don't, because I am a bit confused. Point of inquiry, under Gregory. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the question is, there is a $2.1 million increase in other services and charges. What is the reason for that increase? It doesn't have anything to do with what's on the ERP. It has to do with what's in your operations. You made reference to a million dollars tied to your leases. you have new leases that's increased by a million dollars no our leases increased by commissioner what's the reason for the 2.1 million dollar increase the the fact that we're going to have to move out of where we're at and acquire um more rental space and we were at where where yeah where you're at where we don't know yet that's the thing you're going to have to move out from Where? 1:17:12 Oh, sorry. The CJC and, um, CJC and Irrigan Command. So you're asking for a $2.1 million increase prior to knowing what it's going to cost you to generate a new lease? No, because that doesn't, that's not specific to just leases alone. What else is it specific to? specific to what the cost of the operating costs you know whether it's the leases the everything that's associated with what is everything that's a big number again but it's not two million because it's it's an increase of a million dollars no for salary for page 4 of 37 it's a 40% increase over FY FY2022. FY2022 is 5.4 million. FY23 is 7.6 million. That's a 2.3, 2.2 million dollar increase which equals 40 percent increase in your other services category. Through the chair, VIPD needs to provide the legislature, or this committee rather, what the 2.1 million dollars entails. Thank you. Thank you so much Senator, certainly. I'm gonna come back to that category but I'll leave it alone because the next senator will probably pick it up senator carry on good evening good evening good evening commissioner i have a question to um personnel on page five um you speak about uh fy 2022 you hired 17 individuals in civilian positions and 15 police and auxiliary recruits um i i realize you said you mentioned you have a total of 180 civilians 1:18:28 and 317 officers but for fy 22 so those new hires you got an fy 22 um can you break them down per district uh mr richards um good afternoon are you talking about school and civilian everything uh and give me both categories okay uh for for new hires we hired um community speak into the mic we're not hearing you we hired a community service officer we also hired a criminalist a legal office administrator I just wanted to break down per district. Oh, sorry. 1:20:36 17 total we hired in 2022. That's for St. Croix. And then for St. Thomas, we hired 17. So say it again, 17 on St. Croix? Correct. And 12 on St. Thomas? 17 and St. Thomas. Okay. 1:21:20 And that's, that includes civilians and, uh, sworn officers. Um, it includes civilians, well technically civilians because police recruits and exterior recruits, technically they're in the academy. So they haven't graduated yet to become, to become sworn. Okay. All right. So 17, okay. okay all right and on page eight of the testimony you when you mentioned about the camera and license plate readers are those up and functioning you said page eight implementation of public finance authority PFA funded 1 million in IP based cameras and license plate reader system has been completed as the system is up and running and functioning that is correct senator 108 cameras between st. Thomas and st. Croix are up and functioning with ability to read license plate that is correct senator okay um when will they have you then issue any citation based on the license plate readers or you do mention here you tell us who has proven a major success factor with investigations can you explain maybe the number of investigations that this has served and assisted you thus far I don't have the number of investigations they have they have served us but I can tell you that it's a qualitatively they have served us Well, and how long have they been up and active the system has been up several months now Okay Several months as three months six months 1:21:47 If I can have miss our director tweed give the exact month less to when the system went live um good day kishana i'm gonna have to get the exact date but the system has been live over six months um technically the system has been live 1:23:50 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) 11 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 from time the cameras have been installed they have been recording from the completion of the installation of the cameras okay so i would say for the whole year of this year um the cameras have been functioning the whole of 2022 and they're being monitored you have someone personnel has been trained two minutes so i'll repeat your question senator i'm saying personal has been trained and they're being monitored the um i i the personnel are not trained to monitor the system is monitored and we go back to the system at this present juncture when we need them and extract the information that's required. The system won't be 100% manned and viewed until we have the real-time crime center in place. And okay, let's talk a little bit about a real-time crime center. What's the timeline for that? I see that you mentioned in your testimony on page nine. The real-time crime center, as far as a timeline, we've already have the positions for the center manager and the seven analysts have been approved, partially approved by OMB, and we are seeking a place, a building for rent to start putting the, to start building out the center. As far as a time frame, I am hoping that we can have this stuff in the, start building this stuff out as soon as we acquire and go through the renting of the space and stuff and then start acquiring the equipment. It could be anywhere from three to six months before we're actually getting a move on things. So three to six months is the time frame for us to start to put stuff together, physically put stuff in the center. Once you have located the spot and you have that lease agreement, then the building time will be three to six months? That's the intent, yes, sir. Okay. And have you ordered the equipment? 1:25:56 No, it makes no sense to order the equipment because with technology, it's always changing. Once we're closer to that developmental stage, we'll start to purchase the equipment. I did not want to order the equipment now and then just put it down and it starts to age. We run into some technicality somewhere and then we're a year out of getting the center up but now we've got a year old piece of equipment. So have you identified potential sites? 1:26:25 We've identified three potential sites territory-wide, yes. So we should be closing pretty soon, right, Commissioner? Closing soon, no, but again, we've identified three potential sites between two islands, and we're moving expeditiously to select at least one. Can you share a little bit about the expansion program for the surveillance system territory-wide, there's 1.5 from the Department of Interior, the capital improvement project grant funding. That would allow, how many more cameras, or what's that expansion plan that you have in mind? Certainly, if I can again, and just have Ms. Tweed delve into that, Director Tweed. I'm sorry, could you repeat that question for me? yeah the expansion plan uh for the 1.5 million from department interior capital improvement project grant funding sorry what is your question what that looks like how many more cameras what what's what's the plan for that funding and i have to get the exact number but we do have some identified locations that we did provide the vendor to um for us to obtain a pool so that we can continue with that expansion but as far as the um the amount of cameras i'd have to go back and look at that and that number changes based on the cost of those cameras so giving a static number for the amount of cameras would be kind of impossible but i can give you an approximate number okay so what's that approximate your time has been called senator so you can wrap up on the next just give me a few minutes and i'll look for that information i can 1:26:53 provide that okay thank thank you um and thank you mr chair just in closing i'm a little bit concerned also about on the post audit report page nine there's some uh rental leases that have expired so if he could on the chair's time expound on uh what's the plan with that thank you mr chair thank you thank you senator carrion You have Michael A. Simmons' building, lease expired. The again, Senator, if I can have Ms. McIntosh respond to those questions regarding the leases and the properties. Ms. McIntosh. Good afternoon, Senator. Yes, that lease has expired and it's being worked on. It's currently in progress with property and procurement. It's something we're currently working on right now, sir. It just expired in June. Whenever you're answering, please turn on your camera. So whenever you're called, those who are appearing virtually, please turn your camera on. Thank Thank you so much. You said Alisa you're working on renewing the lease, that was the answer? 1:28:38 Yes sir, the lease expired in June and we're currently working on the property and we commit to have it renewed. Okay, because you had a one year extension. In this budget are the individuals identified in their vacancies or new positions for the RCC centers? No, those positions for the RCC were covered in the ARPA. They're covered in the ARPA? Correct. They were covered under the opera fund. A submittal was submitted about three months ago to the Office of Management and Budget, and it was approved. 1:29:54 How much positions? It was seven for the rank and file real-time crime centre analyst, and also for one manager. And how are they going to be split? How are they split as far as... District? I'm not districtizing the real-time crime center. The real-time crime center, you don't need a center around St. Croix and a center around St. Thomas. We can have everything come into one center for now, and then we can also have a backup. Is it presently configured that way? 1:30:30 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) 12 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 Yes, for one center for starters. So right now we have one spot or one location where we get all the data? Correct. Which island? It doesn't make a difference. If you could go on on all islands, everybody know where it is in New York? It's going, everything is coming into St. Thomas right now. And we don't have sufficient personnel right now to have somebody monitoring that in real time? The, no, we do not. That's a short answer. What's the training for the personnel that's needed? 1:31:01 For the real time crime center? They're trained as analysts who are, and again, let me just, Dwayne, if you... So, we have anybody presently in training? I'm asking these questions because it's only five years we've waited for this. We haven't, we currently have nobody in training. OMB just recently approved the memorandum understandings for use of the ARPA fund for the positions. So, we're about to more likely advertise in a week or two. Once the listing comes down from division personnel that we move forward in hiring, when those individuals are hired, then we'll proceed with necessary training. We need a sense of urgency for the camera system. 1:31:41 That's how we fight crime. We need real-time information. That should be one of the main priorities to get the technology going so that we can be able to fight crime. I still don't understand with the cameras all over that we have presently how we still give ourselves spotty information. They had a triple homicide in St. Croix. we're asking businesses to show us a camera footage if they have footage from this time period to that time period you don't have the right to go into those businesses get a subpoena and say I need to see your camera system for this time period why are you begging business to show you a camera system when you have the authority to get a warrant and go in to look at those camera system why are you asking for that so what I'd like senator is to have you appointed as a judge because i don't need to be a point because and i was just okay i i i you know um we have hold up hold up hold up we have department of justice that have attorney generals that is supposed to be assisted the police department those attorney generals matter of fact the attorney General assigned to criminal cases should be on the scene with the police department and should be able to determine well this took place at that particular gas station, I mean Smoke Shop, the gas station right across the road have a camera, 2 plus 2 have a camera, you go down towards One Love, Avis, all of them I'm sure have cameras, that they're saying well this is the case right now, let's go to those stations right now let's pull the tape and let's get information so we could put out that it was a black car a white car and this or that so that people know and people could be able to give info and this is with all crimes and it happens all over the all over the united states senator 1:32:19 if i may that is something that is done that is sub subpoenas are requested and obtained and given into businesses all the time the issue here is that it makes it a lot it simplifies things a lot more if we go and we ask folks for them to volunteer the information before we come with the heavy-handedness to issue them the subpoena so we always start out by asking them first for the information Point of inquiry quickly, and then going to Senator Fred Gregory. 1:34:13 Hello? Yes, since you mentioned that it's germane to what you just spoke about, I just want to find out your success rate as far as being able to follow through with subpoenas and being able to follow through successfully. I know you made mention about asking, and they say asking you shall receive, but in the Virgin Islands, it's a little difficult when it comes to doing that, but as far as your success rate when it comes to subpoenas, when it comes to confiscating materials for the camera system, or their cameras, can you just speak to that? And thank you, Mr. Chair, for the time. Since you're on the topic of that, I follow the lead of the chair. 1:34:59 Well, I can't give you what a percentage, if you're looking for a percentage, what the success rate is when we issue subpoenas. I can tell you more times than not, once we issue the subpoenas, we obtain the information we're requesting. Okay, thank you so much. Senator Saro, Senator Fred Gregory. Oh boy, thank you Mr. Chair. So I want to go back to the numbers, because I think my Savanero colleague, cousin tried to drill along on these numbers on the personnel services and I did not get what I'm not sure what was said so let's go back to personnel services so in FY 2022 you're you had a 47 million dollar budget for personnel and an $18 million budget for associated fringe benefits, 23, 41.3, and a 15.4 for personnel and fringe. 1:35:38 There is a reduction, an overall reduction in personnel of $5.7 million and a fringe reduction of $3.3 million. What positions are suffering as a result of this, what is it, five and three, nine million dollar reduction in personal and fringe? What does this relate to? And can you live with this reduction? And if you don't have the information in front of you, it's on page four of the post audit but you should be able to see or you should know that your personnel services last fiscal year was 47 million and fringe was 18 million so i'll give you an opportunity to look at a understood senator okay because this is very serious and then um supplies also has a 266 that was not a reduction. What is being impacted as a result of this reduction? 1:36:45 The chair did ask about the increases on the other services and charges and I think we still need to get an answer. If we come in to discuss the budget, we should know that we had a $5.8 million budgeted amount on the other services and charges in 2022. This is this fiscal year. We see a recommendation of an increase of $2.1 million, 2.2, which is 7,663. We 1:37:56 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) 13 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 need to know what's included in that $2.1 million. You talked about the leases, and you said that was not it, only it. What is it? And I don't know how you come up with your utility numbers either. And this $402,000 for capital projects for FY 2023, is for what projects? You want me to respond? Yeah, go ahead. So the entire general fund $6.3 million variance reduction needs an explanation. Of course. And in the testimony, there was no explanation. So are you ready? Yes. Okay. You want me to start with personnel, Yes, start with personnel. Okay. So classified personnel reduction of $604,575. Unclassified reduction of $282,577. Temporary employee salary reduction of $220,720. Overtime reduction of... 1:38:54 Overtime increase of $562,019. Start over the numbers again. Okay. Give me the total reduction. Total reduction for personnel services is $5,672,136. And the question is, can you live with those reductions? That's the question. Well, Senator, the... Two minutes. 1:39:41 The answer is... You're losing a lot of positions. Correct. Let's just keep it real. The answer is we live with what's been provided to us and when we run short then we have to go back to the governor and to the office of management and management and budget to request supplementals. So what's your mission statement again? To protect the people and property of our islands. Okay so we You don't sacrifice our VIPD for all the other things that we've seen in here. That's a problem. Okay. So you need to give us what it is that you need. So I know that, because I've done, I've worked for the executive branch as well, and I know that we are told, live within your means. 1:40:07 But not VIPD. Understood. And I respect that, Senator, but you have to respect the fact that the- Just leave it right in. Good. Thank you. I need the information. And again, through the chair, we need to get it into a category for the general fund, Mr. Chair. Let's start with the school bureau. Bureau. You call it the school something bureau? School security. 1:40:58 School security bureau. With all that's happening on the national level, have you included any training within your FY 2023 budget, or do you have any training funds in your 22 budget to ensure that our school security bureau personnel is appropriately trained? All our school security bureau personnel are appropriately trained as it pertains to their, as is every other police officer here, as it pertains to responses to school-based incidents, especially active shooters. Okay, so let me ask you another question. What conversations are you having with our school leadership or the Department of Education leadership to ensure that if we have an incident in the territory that, in fact, our school's leadership is prepared, our teachers are prepared, and our school bureau officers are, in fact, prepared? Because you'd like to give them kind of answer. So break it down for me. 1:41:24 We have had numerous conversations with them. If I may, Senator, I'll have Assistant Commissioner Brooks answer that question as he's been the lead. So, I don't want to hear about conversations, I want to hear about earnest training and earnest discussion. Thank you, Assistant Commissioner Brooks, thank you for that question, Senator. Training-wide, I can tell you, as of right now, we have ongoing active shooter training that has been in conjunction with that of the Department of Education. They have recently hired an employee that is the director of the school security program that actually liaisons directly with VIPD, and we actually just constructed a training. We have some active shooter training going on in the district right now in St. Thomas. 1:42:21 It just started yesterday. In our schools, respectively? Yes, in the schools. Yes, the schools. All of our schools? Some of our schools have a training plan? Yes, yes, yes. The schools are directly included. And then on St. Croix, the training starts on the 14th. Okay, so you have a training plan. Yes, we do have a training plan. Okay, let's go back to, because my time is going to be called in a minute. Let's go back to the camera sites. The commissioner was asked, he said that he identified some sites. And then, Ms. Tweed indicated that you order the cameras based on your available funding based on the cost, which is somewhat a little troubling to me. It should be, this is what my needs are, this is the amount of money that you have, and this is the difference that I need. Because you need to ensure that your sites are covered. Is that a reasonable expectation? 1:43:13 That is a reasonable expectation, Senator. Okay, so when Ms. Tweed made that response, you didn't give us a, well let me share what I want to see, because I was concerned when I heard the response. So as I indicated earlier, we have 108 phase one, we have 108 cameras installed as we write today, active cameras, both license plate readers and CCTV cameras. Those were purchased and installed with the first $1 million of the PFA funds. The $1.5 million now of the DOI funds, we've taken a look now at another some 70, I think 75 plus sites. on those 75 sites, we're going to install cameras at those sites. It just so happens, though, that some sites will have one camera wave versus some will have three or four depending on the intersections. That's where she spoke about she can't tell the exact amount of cameras because, again, it would now depend on the cost. 1:44:13 But that's what I just said, I have a problem with. But again, we're talking about... It shouldn't depend on the cost. You should say what your need is, and then the cost is figured out. Meaning if you're short $5, then you come to this body in 1:45:23 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) 14 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 this discussion and say, listen, we have X dollars in federal grants available for this, however, we are short $2. That's all I'm saying. It can be based on the amount of money we have. Because I asked you what your mission was earlier for a specific reason. Senator, we have $1.5 million in DO. We're going to expend the $1.5 million to purchase those cameras. And it's going to cover all of your needs? Correct. And what is short, we still have an additional $500,000 in FEMA monies for additional cameras. Okay, so you're covered. So then, my concern regarding the response was still spot on. Let's go to... Last question, Senator. Tell me what's been called away. Tell me what's called? No. Oh, my God. 1:45:58 Let's talk about the amount of employees that sworn officers that you have on extended leave, which is a little troubling, the consistent of military, sick, etc. Tell us, how is that impacting your agency, the VIPD? I could just imagine, but it's important that you put it on the record. And also, you know, in some of these instances, I'm certain, I mean, this has been a long-standing issue this is nothing new but I'm certain that there are things that should be occurring in your HR office if there is any you know where I'm going with this so any what any officer does out on a single day one officer out every day impacts our operation go straight to the extended leave the extended leaves are the same thing we've been working to be been We're bringing folks back, those that have not been able to come back. We've been moving folks to forced retirement, to termination. 1:46:25 If you can't help us, then we need to move you in the direction where you need to be. Those that have been out on these extended leaves, we're moving them to forced retirement right now. You know, the lies, the lies, the law. And there's some folks, I'm surprised the unions haven't come to you in some regard, but the law is the law. We have to follow the law. Your chair is working on it. Yes, they are. Okay. Thank you so much. Senator Sarum. 1:47:31 Thank you, Mr. Chair. Quickly, so your overtime was 19 million last year, roughly. This year, did I hear you right? You're projecting some 23 million? We project 22 million this year. 22 million in overtime? Yes. And this is coming from a general fund? Yes. Nothing coming from CARES Act funding one and two, nothing. What are you doing to, besides hiring more officers, what are you doing to, you know, manage overtime? 1:47:57 Well, the· Because I know some people, a lot that don't want to get killed for this, I know some officers that, you know, decide to go to work or they want to make overtime. Not because there's a need or nobody call them, they just put a uniform and say, I can go work overtime. may be necessary but who's managing that well and that's and that's that's been a long-standing issue that um we got on the tight end over time i'll be the first to admit senator that that is something that um we are that is is an issue that i myself have um been really working on directly with hr with our personal with internal affairs uh we just have to get to do a lot better on that. We got to commit to that because when people say hey I can't get income tax return you know what you're dipping into because this isn't budgeted for 22 million and we have to understand the government everything it's a domino effect so when one thing goes wrong or we do something in one category you can't ask me for income once I'm when somebody asks me for income tax check I just say ask the VIPD because you're dipping into somebody else fund that we allocate for our next purpose so we really have to get I'm not saying officers don't work I'm not saying anything I appreciate what you guys do on the front lines but we got to get a hold of that 22 million in overtime let's go to st. John the young and come on I heard that you you know I know that you have no generator in hurricane season I know you have mole have the lights blown out you see the walk on one end you don't walk on the next end I'm fully aware of the command the young command situation your testimony says that disaster recovery you've been working closely with them and FEMA and the meters have been fruitful done do you have a PW obligated have you been able to settle an amount to fix the Yergin command and St. John and that's critical because that is the only police station right correct that is correct it is so that's that's of the utmost importance so have you been able to settle with FEMA and what the cost would 1:48:26 be no the what we have and who's who's in charge of a disaster recovery projects and you know the the team is but I'll have a miss the mr. cent can I'm can speak to exactly yeah mr. sec oh and my time is my time is very precious wasn't meeting with FEMA, have you agreed on full replacement, prudent replacement, a number? We've had conversations with ODR. Obviously the $247,000 that's allotted is woefully inadequate to take care of what needs to be done. So we've actually gone back to ODR, and ODR on our behalf has requested of FEMA to you know take a look at it and to reassess it again. So what does that timeline look like? Because you hurricane season something happen you don't even have a generator. And that's one of the things why again you know and St. John is even by you know in a place by itself where again we're looking at trying to get out of there as soon as as possible to effectuate at least to get out of and just get us into some temporary quarters that can sometimes temporary to become permanent in this government whatever building i can't temporary and if the other building that we actually own we leave it there and it just becomes an eyesore yeah so any command is our example now quickly let's go to um your crime scene text was a discussion with um ocb and hazardous p i'm not aware of mr richards hazardous space for your crime scene tech do you allow that 1:50:33 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) 15 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 is it in the contract currently director riches currently is not in the contract and currently we're in open negotiations so i can't really say too much um which you just have to wait so while you add that too i think your crime syntax also need to be able to um i we have a former commissioner and special assistant across the way but your crime scene texts are out there i've passed a few of them out there on the front line pointing little cases next to the bullets they have no um the the vest says police they don't have any weapon to protect themselves if anything has to happen to them people would like to destroy evidence and i think that we need to do um in that negotiation hazardous pay and we may have to look at um you know i know this is a long-standing issue of our crime syntax being able to protect themselves but i think the time has come are we seeing our criminals becoming more ruthless on the streets so that's something i i'm i'm really asking for chief of police vacancy is it still vacant well the um it's temporarily filled with on as a st thomas district okay chief of police plans um we'll um i've got plans for it yes but we have a lot of acting acting acting in a lot of agencies i'm not saying you you have to pay them, after two pay periods, you have to pay them the salary, okay? So we don't have one in short order, chief of police? 1:52:18 I've got plans for the chief of police position. What's your, like, you're talking about a week, two weeks, a month? So I have plans for the position, Senator. Okay, I didn't like the plans, I like timelines, you know? Now let's go with the salaries. I'm seeing your crime scene techs in the salary, in the vacancy section, the personal listing. Quickly, do you, a crime scene tech with a degree and a non-degree makes the same entrance salary, Mr. Richards? 1:53:49 Correct, since it's grade, I think it's grade 23-1. So there's no incentive for somebody that goes to school with a forensic degree, there's no incentive for that? Just like any classified position, it don't matter if you have a degree, the starting pay is is grade one um that's the pay um you can request a higher starting pay when they come in but the only way to become eligible for it if you currently have members in department at a lower salary then it's often difficult to bring somebody higher amount i'm sure that the chair will drill under because i can't see myself going to school getting a degree in forensic science and then there's no differentiation and lastly i 100 agree with you okay um so we are taking various variety of steps one is creating um level one two and three to help help augment that as well in negotiation we try to address the pay situation okay and and lastly just mr um mr commissioner commissioner martinez quickly crossing guard uniforms we talked about us some time back they're still in their polo shirts they don't look nice and adorn what's the status of the police um not of the crossing guard uniforms if they restate they receive that um their uniform stipend that's budget matters and then your evidence room what are the plans do you have anything in a budget in capital outlay because the evidence room and evidence you know that the the chair could tell you about evidence you know being it deteriorates it affects your ability to prosecute crime turns into a budget matter because people may not want to come because the crime rate high blah blah blah so police so crossing guard uniforms and the status of the evidence room Capital Outlay What's the status on that? 1:54:21 Thank you for the latitude Mr. Chair From the school crossing guard uniforms Thank you Senator St. Thomas did receive the new polo shirts They received three each And St. Croix And pants as well They received pants and And can I continue? Yeah, they received new pants And also they received three new polo shirts So the crossing guard uniform Has transitioned to a polo shirt? They should have transitioned If you're still seeing them in an old uniform then I have to have a conversation with the commander. Okay, so that is the new uniform, the Polar shirt and the pants? Correct. Because I personally dealt with it, and I personally sent those boxes over to St. Thomas, and it's actually signed for those shirts. 1:56:02 And what does the Polar shirt have on it? It says school crossing guards, regional school department. It's multi-coloured, so it's different colours, and it's bright, being that the fact that it directs traffic. Very, very quickly. So Chair, I googled crossing guards across the nation. You have your little whistle in your package. You could blow your whistle. I think the easy way out was to buy some polo from someplace and put a name on your shirt and say, here's our uniform. We have to do better with the crossing guard uniforms. We have to. That's not our uniform. Thank you for the latitude. That's a good response. Thank you so much. 1:56:42 Based on the meeting I had with school crossing guards, this is what they chose. No, it shouldn't be what they're chosen, it should be what is needed, so we can't just go, oh they want that, it's got to be what is really the adequate uniform, I don't know if that is what it is, it might be, it might not, but we have officers that are coming up next to speak, so I'm sure they can provide some input, Senator Joseph. I thank you so much Mr. Chairman a pleasant good evening to all of you and thank you so much for being here for Virgin Islands Police Department for being here and I know the men and women in blue are really working hard to protect us and keep us safe I just need to run down with your CFO some of the actuals if you haven't given them already just so we could have some actuals based on year to date especially in the area of the personnel and fringe I want to focus on that because we have I'm looking at the post audit report, and there is that big 5.6, well, 5.7 million dollars reduction, and we want to assure that our citizens remain safe and you have the personnel to respond in times of emergency. 1:57:18 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) 16 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 We all count on that. Now tell me, based on your itemized budget, how much do you have year to date for personnel services? How much is your actuals you've expended? We had a budget based on Act 8474 of $47,008,853. How much of that have you expended? In Personnel Services, to date, we've expended $40,00742,684 in Personnel Services. 1:58:48 $40,00,000? Mm-hmm. $742,684. $684. Mm-hmm. and infringe 11 million 943 054 okay so your your cut is not going to help you you're going to need that money because you have already expended almost your entire budget so if you take a cut right and you're reducing your budget to 41 million okay this is what is being appropriated to you based on your personnel just the personnel services mean even thinking or looking at the fringe just the personnel services you're having and the recommendation is 41 million 342 224 and year to date and what date is a 40 million for the personnel that you have so far you didn't give me a date um uh yesterday's report so it would be of August 10th yeah so that um the the actuals take into consideration the 17 million dollars in overtime that we currently have expended okay and that's 17 million in overtime included what services this didn't have anything to do with the COVID task force correct because that has to be paid out What are COVID federal monies? 1:59:31 So what that overtime included? That overtime included overtime worked by enforcement officers. It include overtime worked for COVID that we're getting reimbursed for. Okay. So you are supposed to be able to pull out that overtime for COVID because those monies are supposed to be covered under federal funds. They have to be paid through the general fund and then reimbursed. okay so we need to just remove that because you're going to you should be able to get reimbursed for that okay so how much is that over time for the covid task force um 1.2 million two minutes 1.2 million okay and that's not a significant amount amount but go ahead um and this is what other uh overtime you were indicating that was that was it it was overtime for um for outside agencies that worked the covid um so you covered so let me just understand the vi police department covered the whole amount of overtime payment for the covid task force yes we do out of your allotment yes we do Okay, to the tune of what? 2:01:06 1.2 million. Okay, that's just the overtime. That's just the overtime, 1.2 million. Okay, now I'm understanding. Okay, but still, if you subtract 1.2 million from the 40 million and some of your fringe benefit, you're still going to be grossly undercutting yourself and being unmanned based on your recommended budget. and that's why you need to really let us know how much you're going to need because you're not going to be able to protect and serve us your citizen in the manner that you need to do and especially if you're looking to also ramp up your personnel services so that's that's some of my question let's just get down to the other services that you provide and tell me some of the actuals i'm going into most of the actuals here but we are going to need the actuals in the budget markup the police athletic league st thomas and st john how much of the of the monies that you have expended based on act 8474 you got an appropriation and you're asking for the same amount forty thousand dollars how much of that have you expended time mr chairman I'm gonna need the actuals for all of these line itemized budget items based on Act 8474 we're going to is necessary for us and it needs to be as recent as 2:02:29 possible because that helps us to be able to build the budget for this year you know the incoming fiscal year 2023 that's how we know how much you're going to need this 41 000 this 41 million in a walk i'm going to tell you right now it won't work for you because you already expended 40 million dollars and we ain't finished with the fiscal year yet Okay, Mr. Chairman, I would ask that VIPD submit their actuals based on the line itemized budget outlined in Act 8474 to us, so we could at least have that information provided. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. 2:04:19 So if you're able to get that, Ms. Webster, before we leave, that would be fine. And I just want to point out that in the 2022 budget, we did allocate some $13.9 million for overtime. So we included overtime in the FY22 budget to the tone of almost $14 million, okay? No, she spent $17 million in overtime thus far. 14 million of that was in the FY22 budget. 2:05:06 Quickly, Senator J. Van James, I need to go to St. Croix. Senator. You have a charter flight man. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the time. A quick point of inquiry along the same line of questioning that we had earlier with the camera systems. I know in the Christian State Town and the Frederick State Town, we do have camera systems prior to the newly installed camera systems that was put in place by the BIPD. Without saying much, because I don't want to let out to let out certain information but as far as a cost and assessment that has been done by the Virgin Islands Police Department to get those up and running can can you speak to that do you want to put that you do you need funding to be placed in this budget to get those cameras revived because as you know you have a shortage and your guys can't be everywhere but those are your eyes and ears as far as the camera systems in Frederick Stead Town and Christian said on their cameras. Can you speak to that as far as funding? Thank you. Thank you, Senator. So, Senator, the cameras you spoke about were destroyed by Irma and Maria. We received funding from FEMA, I think for St. Croix. It's roughly $600,000, just over $600,000. And for St. Thomas, St. John, it says just under, I think it's $900,000. So, we have that additional funding to replace cameras in those areas so when we start speaking about the cameras we're talking about a million dollars from the pfa 1.5 million dollars from doi and in addition to that this for saint croix an additional 600 000 plus dollars and in saint thomas 2:05:40 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) 17 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 saint john an additional 900 thousand dollars so we are um pretty much set at this point with monies for camera systems and for the LPRs. Thank you so much. Mr. Chair, if I may, I just needed to correct a question that you asked earlier about where the data is stored for the camera systems. I stand corrected. The data for St. Croix is stored on St. Croix at this juncture, and the data for St. Thomas is being stored here on St. Thomas. And the data for St. John, St. Thomas? St. Thomas. Okay, thank you so much. But Senator Johnson, you're recognized. Good evening to all. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good evening to my colleagues. Good evening to the testifiers. Commissioner, I remember when you came here, I said to you, if you can get 50% of what you spoke about going, we'll be in good shape. And I still stand to that. What's the percentage of personnel-issued body cams in the police department? the percent the so we have um senator we have two we we have if you just give me one second the um um my time is going on this year like i gotta go so we're looking at um So, 90% of our personnel are trained in the body cameras, and all of our uniformed officers... 2:08:01 Sorry. 90% of our uniformed officers are wearing body cams from the Chief's write-down. The officer that got knocked down, did he have on a body cam? i'm not certain i'll have to refer that question to chief um chief santos that senator i'll have to check into the system to see if that body cam was on and when i mean on if it was on his body or on as activated um don't know if he was investigating the case at that time sir but majority as per policy when they're out on the field and in uniform those body cams are answered this this does this doesn't sound right your officer was knocked some 80 feet and and today when i asked in this question nobody can't answer that and has to check into this this doesn't sound good at all commissioner um in your entire testimony i didn't hear you speak anything about your canine dogs what's the status on your fleet of canine dogs and do you need more canine dogs senator we have um four active dogs in each um canine dogs in each district the um and we have funding set aside from donors for additional canines we just at this juncture don't have the personnel and the vehicles um to house those dogs to accept those dogs right now additional dogs oh if am i if i'm right you you went to new york with a team i think the governor and and and and a few of your staff went new york to look into the camera system my question to you the camera system that you signed new york that's the camera system we have 2:09:07 here in the virgin islands uh senator we didn't go to new york to look at the camera system we We went to New York to look at the real-time crime center. Now, okay, all right. What about the cameras that we put in place? Can they read license plate? Yes, they can. And are. All right. And they are. We had an accident by Jiffy Mart. Saturday gone. How much information did those cameras give you? 2:10:59 I'm not certain as to the incident that you're speaking about, Senator. I'll have to check with the chiefs or the investigators on that. What I would like to request from you, Commissioner, for time's sake, I would like to come and see your camera in live time and see what is being shown and what can be seen. Because I'm not getting a good feel of the cameras that we have in place. if they was worth our purchase and if they're doing the job that we need them to do. So on your time, I'm requesting, you tell me, I make myself available. 2:11:33 I would like to see these cameras and see how they're operating. You spoke about $1 million for shot spotters. And I remember some time back, we don't have sufficient shot spotters covering the territory. And I'm specifically speaking about St. Croix. I know areas that when I spoke to the prior commissioner, he said particular areas didn't have shot spotters. With this $1 million, would it be sufficient to cover the territory in most of the areas that are frequent for gun shooting? Yes, sir. Yes, it will. It will take us from 4.6 square miles where we're at now to 9.2 square miles territorially. And that's sufficient as far as from your perspective? Yes, it would. Coupled with all the other technology we're putting in place. 2:12:13 Why aren't the auxiliary officers available the opportunity to have insurance? That is a question that's been coming up most recently. It is something that, as I understand it, a lot of it has to do with the fact that the auxiliary offices are part-time, and that I don't recall if it's the personnel rules or the statute itself prevents them from that. But again, that is something I'll have to look into, or I can refer the question to my HR director if he knows the answer to that. 2:13:15 Mayor HR? Director Richards, they can't get insurance because they're part-time, but I'm in conversation with the vision person after reviewing the law to switch the auxiliary position to a full-time auxiliary position. By doing that, they'll be eligible for insurance and all the benefits of a full-time employee. And GRS. And GRS. This is a little risky hearing this because any of these men or women that That's solving us right now. So who will take care of the medical expense if they're supposed to get out on the job if they get sued? Who will assist these people? They're fully covered by workers' comp. 2:13:53 Time. But, excuse me? They're fully covered by workers' comp. Workers' comp to cover their medical expenses? Correct. So if the injured workers' comp will deal with their therapy, any medical expense they may have, they may be flown out 2:14:36 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) 18 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 of the territory for any emergency surgery because they were injured on the job, workers will cover them. Thank you very much. I heard my time being called, and I don't want the mic to get shut off on me. Thank you very much, Commissioner. Again, I would really appreciate if you afford me the opportunity to come and see what we're seeing on these cameras. I really would like to see that. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator Johnson. Senator Francis. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and good evening to everyone. Commissioner, please take a few seconds to defend the surveillance cameras and the effectiveness of the surveillance cameras. I don't want for the public to believe that in fact that there is some dummy cameras out there that's dysfunctional or not capturing any information. Thank You Senator. Again the the cameras as I indicated in my testimony have done a your person's job in providing us with with information that has led to an inordinate amount of of information while it you know that from to direct arrests or as well as to just information that our detectives have utilized to to move them even closer to arrest from homicides right on down to doing even better with the issue in traffic citations, and a host of other crimes in between. It's important for the public to understand, Senator, that the surveillance cameras and the LPRs are not the save-all. They are a tool that has to be used and incorporated in all our other initiatives, and that's exactly what we're utilizing them for very well and also in respect to the real-time crime center that in fact that that will assist and support the surveillance cameras as well once they're monitored 24 7 or for some period of time so that the information could be readily available to the officers on the street is that correct oh that's correct senator very well so commissioner in your testimony today you spoke about 317 officers and that is of grave concern to me i think that there needs to be a active a very very active recruitment and retention um campaign by the versions police department because we cannot we should not allow for the continued bleeding of officers and not being able to fill those positions has become very critical So 317 offices, 22 separation, 34 that's out on some type of leave is very, very concerning to me. 2:16:40 What do you believe is your short? How many offices do you believe that you're short in order for you to continue to carry out your mission statement at optimum levels? Minimally, I would say 35 officers more per district for starters and probably 20 auxiliaries per district would help us to get over the cusp of where we're at right now. And those numbers would lend tremendously to decreasing some of our overtime expenditures, of the burnout that we're experiencing with our um with our rank and file at this time uh as well as um as assisting with um increasing the longevity of um of some of the officers that we have very well and i heard some discussion about the the uniforms and the um you know both for our school crossing guard as well as police officers we would admit that in fact the um current uniforms are extremely dark at night and i think it's critical that there are some hazard vests that should be worn um you know especially after dark so that individuals that's involved in traffic stops um traffic enforcement or just out of the patrol in dark areas especially in light of our place being so dark our communities being so dark our highway being so dark i think it's critical that as part of the ppes uh that they should be should have access to hazard vests what do you think about that uh senator the um you are on point we have um i are being told that we've already have some offices who already um issued vests others um and other vests are already on order okay what about explosive units is there any any intent for us to um to once again re-engage reactivate the explosive unit uh yes senator the uh we can ill afford to have to utilize the folks out of puerto rico to um come in when we have um large-scale incidents the uh again the issue is that we had our equipment was um not maintained over years it's um we've already started to reach out to the atf the equipment has to be all turned back in and and reissued of course we're gonna have to go through the grant process so we're not unfortunately we're not speaking about something that's going to be done over time you as much as I know how long it took for us to obtain what we have so we're looking at a minimum of the process that can take easily anywhere from about nine months on up to probably 18 months for us to get that that unit reactivated very well and in respect to 2:17:49 the Patrick Sweeney retrofit is it the intent of the police department to rebuild Patrick Sweeney in his current footprint no no senator the the intent is based on the specs and based on our recommendations is to triple the size of of the Patrick Sweeney headquarters in its current location no sir the senator my recommendation again we're doing soil boring tests right now on the most of the property around and based on the findings of those tests we are going to move the the building from its current location and place it based on those that those testing results in the area that is best suited for the type of of structure that we're going to put back time very well um mr chair just two more real quick uh commissioner what is your three areas of priorities as you go into fiscal year 2023 this budget three areas that you intend to um work hard on three years of priorities the um senator my My three priorities, I would say, of course, first and foremost is increasing our ranks, both on the sworn side and on the civilian side, because again, you know, we tend to, because it's the police department, to overlook the fact that we're short in many of our civilian areas as well. And that's where the bread and butter is, as far as bringing in funds to the department. Secondly, of course, the real-time crime centre is a high priority. And third, it is revamping our operational prowess, getting back and getting a true operational plan in progress that is going to assist us with not just responding to calls, but actually decrease over time and increase the um the activities of the department from an operational standpoint very well thank you mr chair if you could just have miss 2:20:46 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) 19 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 webster uh kind of uh give us a wrap up in terms of rental costs uh on your time i'll appreciate it thank you very much for the time thank you so much senator francis you have any new numbers mr webster for Yes. Not new. Same. Okay, so if you refer to the post-audit report of fiscal year 2022, page 9 and 10, our appropriation for our rent is $999,132. Once the budget was transferred to the ERP, it was $468,547. Therein lies $530,000 difference in our rent. So, of course, It's looking like· Okay. One second. 2:23:13 Page nine. Of post-addit report from last year, our appropriation was supposed to be 999.132. Page nine and ten of fiscal year 2022 post-addit. That is our appropriation amount. When it was transferred to the ERP, it was transferred in the amount of 468,547. So it looks like our rent is now a million dollars. However, there's a difference of $530,000 that was not put on our rent schedule in the ERP. Our rent actually increased by $474,000, not a million dollars. Okay. But that was a problem at OMB in reference to how the information was transferred? Yes. Okay. And now your rent is $900,000 and... Our rent is $1 million. 2:23:46 Wait, wait a minute. $56,072 for St. Croix, and $517,108 for St. Thomas? Yes. Okay, thank you. Yes. Senator Gittins? Is he there? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good evening to all. It's now 6.56 p.m. Previously, Commissioner, you were asked about government-owned properties properties to uh operate out of uh and according to you on page 11 you have some 11 rental spaces totaling some 1.4 million dollars uh you also spoke to moving into a castle coakley office space location i wanted to ask the uh cfo uh how much monies are we paying for this castle coakley uh location per month or annually Senator, that's $194,400 annually. 2:24:40 $194,000 annually? $194,400. And how long have we been paying for this office space? we've entered into an agreement from about december 2019 and i've been paying for this office space from december 2019 and we just uh started to occupy this building in march i'm saying this to say and this is uh predating your appointment that we could have taken some of this money and put it towards act 8 4 3 7 where this body authorized the transfer of government-owned property in hannah's rest on st croix for the construction of a state-of-the-art modern-day police station and we're also looking to propose uh the same for saint thomas for it to have a government-owned state-of-the-art police station on the eastern end in addition to having this state-of-the-art and commissioner you are on the walk through and you see that the property is conducive to also set up your motor pool and an impound lot which will generate funds to this government I will reach out to your office to see if we could make some movements on this now the there were talks about the manpower strength. And we have seen a little different on this as the previous commissioner, but I wanted to ask, have you all done a deployment strategy plan, a new deployment strategy plan? 2:26:05 We have not, Senator. And again, it's philosophical differences. I do not believe that there is such a thing as a deployment strategy it's either a deployment plan or a strategy towards how we're going to operate the we do however we do it we need to strategize and put the plan in place I'm looking at the the number and I don't want to repeat the number because I never like to put out the number of sworn officers in the public but looking at the numbers again If we were to strategize, we can do this because it will take, and I will dare to say this, it will take 90 sworn personnel per district to be able to man at least two police stations on St. Croix and on St. Thomas. and you will have adequate manpower on all three shifts without killing the same officers over and over that has to stay over for overtime. We're talking about $17 to $18 million in overtime. 2:28:21 Two minutes. Which brings me to ask the HR director, are you conducting exit interviews? correct we are conducting exit interviews correct we are conducting exit interviews good and i'm hoping that we're tracking to see uh what's being said in the exit interviews now i want to ask uh are you doing any stay interviews i'm currently not stay interviews stay interviews are for those who we're here through the grapevine looking to give officers before it's too late you kind of broke up for a second stay interviews are you conducting any stay interviews for officers that we're looking to lose currently not at this time So, I would suggest that we look at some state interviews to see if we could hold personnel from leaving. We need to see what we can do to retain our officers within the territory. 2:29:43 We spent a lot of money on training these officers. now on page eight uh make conclude here uh mr chair go ahead i'll skip that um and the let me go straight to i'll close out with the premium p whether or not we have submitted all documentation to the office of management and budget for the premium pay because i know that there's a number of officers uh ranking officers and tenured officers that make in excess of seventy thousand dollars i want to know if all those officers names and information was submitted to the office of management and budget um that is correct especially was submitted to to vision's police department to complete to verify each and every employee that was done so by the the payroll unit and was resubmitted to division personnel and omb and that's from the rank of commissioner right down correct that listing contains every single employee that worked during that period of time we just had to verify Commissioner, write down. Correct? Every single employee. Sometimes we don't can answer this. They may not be eligible for it. From the commissioner, write down. Correct? Correct. From the commission to below. It's an overall 2:31:09 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) 20 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 listing and we have to indicate if they qualify for the premium pay, yes or no, based on the qualification that was set by 1b it was a simple one thing and say you know all i wanted to make sure was from the commissioner write down name was submitted for this premium pay thank you uh mr chair thank you so much senator getting senator whittaker Good evening, good evening Chairman, good evening colleagues, good evening central staff, good evening to listening up in the audience, good evening to our testifiers. Commissioner I want to just jump right in here on page 8 of your testimony of course as you know you and I have been over since you got even so in your position have been really back and forth with this office of an interior grant and I'm just a little concerned because the last communication we had was back on back in June where you much of what you're saying in your testimony around the approval of the Army Corps of Engineers I just can't really give a timeline are we gonna this grant has been opened up since 2020 correct? And it's a five-year period. Can you really express the urgency of moving forward? Because we've had this kind of back and forth over the cameras for quite some time. 2:33:10 And what is the real timeline with this? The, Senator, you're asking for us to provide you with a real timeline. The real timeline is that we, again, in June we had the conversation, we obtained the Army Corps of Engineers' approval. I think just in the last week, based on my testimony, we received the quote from the vendor, and we're reviewing that quote right now. Moving forward, the next steps are, once we review the quote, is to, and again, my, you know, what the next step says, I think it's best for me to just have my IT director to answer that question, what the next steps as far as moving this along would be, and if I may, I can have Ms. Tweed answer that. 2:34:29 Thanks, Scott. Tishana Tweed. After we have finalized the code, the next step would be to amend the existing contract that we have with the vendor for the cameras that are in place right now. So as soon as we have finalized the code, then we will proceed to amending that contract. And then once that contract is approved, that amendment to the contract, then we will have a timeline as to when the installation will begin for the expansion of the cameras. Because it just seems, you know, this bottleneck and we just continue on, and even just the whole process. So just hoping you guys can continue to move it on. So we don't, you know, we keep talking about the cameras. like just constantly talking with the cameras and it just seems like a circle of discussion but i appreciate the fact that you're all moving forward but i believe you have to speed it up and also too as you know i'm all also i would also respecting my position with interior to give me the information as well as the body in general we should also have to wait for the hearings to get certain updates on page 19 of a testimony commissioner you indicated that out of the 47 project worksheets and indicate approximately let me see how much was the four million three hundred eight three three three thousand dollars and six hundred and thirty five are pending completeness checks can you really clarify what do you mean like a completeness checks when you say it's pending completeness checks and what type of equipment are we talking about what what type of worksheets does these entail but that's a pretty large number The number's still outstanding. 2:35:25 Ms. Webster. We're continuing to verify the information requested by EY and Will O'Brien, but we continue to make sure that the information that we're submitting is accurate, and the justifications are provided, and the invoices are provided to them, so. Yeah, because we're clocking some years now since the hurricanes and, you know, I just sometimes, it just seems it's always a lot of delays and you're supposed to, Wood O'Brien's supposed to really help with the process and it just doesn't seem like it's really working out that well for us. The Commissioner, I've asked this question before, you've come before this committee on professional development. What is the actual budget for this year for professional development of the rank and file staff? 2:36:59 Ms. Webster can provide that for you. Professional development for the entire department is $402,000 for this year. And can you break down some of the elements of the professional development, is this software, this um obviously training can you really break down some of those numbers what are what do you have 360 reviews are you all doing review updating the evaluation system um we have the instructor trainings for instructors to come down to do in service training um for the officers we have off island training and we also have um online training I would really suggest that you all get into a more regimental evaluation. 2:37:52 That simple form that is used throughout government is not really a proper tool of evaluation. I've continued to cross that bridge with division personnel. So we've got to really elevate how we evaluate rank and file and not just the, I mean, training component is important, but we have to actually put funds towards actual evaluations. I want to follow up on my colleague's question around this school security. There are a lot of fights going on on campus constantly, and also to even to address truancy. Commissioner, are you collaborating with, who are you collaborating in order to execute school security? In other words, you state that this is part of a crime prevention activity effort. 2:39:00 No, Senator, I didn't say it's a part of the crime prevention effort. It's a part of our response to our operational response efforts. So the School Security Bureau collaborates daily. We've got officers in the major middle and high schools. The School Security Bureau collaborates daily with the Department of Education. When we start speaking about truancy, 2:39:44 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) 21 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 again, that really goes towards the Department of Human Services in collaboration more with the Department of Education. Of course, we have stepped in over the years and assisted them with a number of these initiatives. It is something that has, again, has not been followed in as much as it should be. But again, we've just, at the end of the last school year, we started having, again, more conversations because of the urgency of it, and it's going to follow through this year as well. Tyne? Yeah, so I just hope to see more presence of police presence, but you're doing so in such a way that you're with following up. We said that Human Services is the lead. I still think the police department has a role where the officers even do presentations to the school, something like where they had the D.A.R.E. program and just, you know, you become more engaged in the school activities. Thank you so much for the time, Chairman. Thank you, Senator Whitaker. Before we close the meeting, U.S. Department of Transportation grants, all of them are expiring 9.30, 2022. 2:40:50 Have they been spent? No, Senator, they have not been spent. However- Who's in charge of grants now? The highway safety grants are still Ms. Daphne O'Neil. The- And we have had the same problem for the last eight years I've been in here and no change and the money's just continue to go back and it's always an excuse as to where we can spend the money. I'm looking at the monies here, it's easily over $2 million. So if I may- If I may, Senator, we haven't had any monies de-obligated for fiscal year 2022. Based on the highway safety plan, I myself have stepped in. We've had the conversations with NHTSA. Those monies are being forwarded over to 2023. 2:41:28 The monies, I understand, and I thank you for getting an extension, but the monies have to be spent. The monies have to sit there and ask for an extension every year. Some of these monies we had from 2021, I mean, some from some of the grants go back to 2018. The monies are to be spent. And Highway Safety needs to develop a plan to spend the money, not to ask for extension consistently. And that is one of the problems that we're having with central government, in which monies are not being spent. And we ask for an extension from the feds. And then we ask for an extension from the feds. and then the monies are returned. So Ms. O'Neil needs to be told that she needs to complete her job and spend the money, come up with a plan. 2:42:18 I mean, there are monies here for e-citation, CVS-P, occupant protection management program, MP driving management program. There's so much creative stuff that could be done out of the department to utilize those grant monies. Just do it. So Senator, again, if that's the point I was trying to get at is the fact that in the system right now, there's approximately close to $3 million, I'm sorry, over 2 million, I think $2.6 million that is in the pipeline to be spent by highway safety on all of those very same projects that you spoke about. Okay, you had the same problem when they've been in LEPC, you know, that they weren't spending the monies you were giving to them, so. Again, the- Don't come on now because it was right there, couple of years about LEPC, you're giving them the money, they weren't spending it. So you're there now, you gotta make sure that they spend the money. Agreed. All your positions are funded at 50%. So you need to work out a strategy as to how you're going to be able to bring individuals on. If you have a class early this year, or bring civilian on, you gotta come up with a plan because it literally cuts your position in half. So where you have 41 new police officers, but if you cut it in half, that's 20.5, 14. And vacant police officers, and they also seem to be cut in half, and 18 auxiliary, that's really nine because it's cut in half. So we need to look at those numbers and see exactly what it is, because that is going to be a bit more to the budget, and that's one of the reasons why it's 41 million, because you have almost 70 position that are funded at 50%. So how much at a 70 position vacant and new positions do you believe you're going to be able to hire? What is the time period to get them on? If you think you could get individuals on in October, then they need to be funded at 100%. If you don't get them on in January, they need to be funded at 75%, March 50%. So we need to get that data. We will be definitely calling you during markup for us from specific concerns that I am sure my colleagues always have in terms of trying to make sure that the police department is funded adequately. I want to end by that Castle Coakley property, we spent $800,000 almost before we move in for one day. 2:43:04 $800,000, we have had that rent for four years. That lease, empty, and those monies could have gone someplace else. Those in the community that get upset when I speak about rental, That is what I talk about, fiscal responsibility. You can't spend 800,000 and nobody's in there, and then as soon as you talk about rent, whoever is the landowner, they get all upset and they say I don't like them, but my job is the finance chair, and I gotta be responsible in making decisions and making sure that this government has adequate money to spend. And when we save money is when we're able to pay tax returns. So I want to thank you for being here. I want you to put a short closing statement on the record, we're gonna call it that night. 2:45:37 All right, again, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for affording my team and I the opportunity to present our fiscal year 2023 budget recommendations to you this afternoon, this evening. I'd also like to thank my team here with me and those who are live streaming for all of the time it took for us to just be ready to come to present. And then I'd like to also thank just all of our men and women in blue and as well as our civilian staff for the work they put in each and every day. They're 2:46:22 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) 22 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 the ones that actually make the department into what it is today and I appreciate the work that they all do. Lastly, I'd like to just thank the community for the assistance they've been providing our department as of late with the information they provided on a number of crimes and I just ask and urge them to continue to work alongside us. Again, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for having us today. Thank you so much. And I want to give a special thanks to media. Media, thank you. It has been a very long day from 9 o'clock this morning with just a short 25-minute break, and you guys are stuck through it. So I just wanted to tell you, I appreciate that you've been here, working the entire meeting. I think I use the one entity that really can't leave and go down and take a break. So thank you, media. Thank my staff. Mr. Craig is here with me late tonight. So thank you, the Committee of Finance is hereby adjourned. 2:47:21 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. 4x Commissioner Mario Brooks heard in this transcript as: Brooks, Mary Brooks 3x Senator Angel L. Bolques, Jr. heard in this transcript as: Angel L. Bolques Jr., Bulquez 3x Senator Franklin D. Johnson heard in this transcript as: Johnson 3x Senator Fred Gregory the surname alone also matches: Donna A. Frett-Gregory; Donna Frett-Gregory 3x Senator Kenneth L. Gittens heard in this transcript as: Gittins, Kennedy Gettens 3x Commissioner Ray Martinez heard in this transcript as: Martinez 2x Senator Angel L. Bullquist Jr heard in this transcript as: Bulquist 2x Senator Carla Joseph the surname alone also matches: Clifford Joseph; Karla J. Joseph heard in this transcript as: Joseph 2x Senator Genevieve R. Whitaker heard in this transcript as: Whitaker 2x Senator Janelle K. Saro heard in this transcript as: Saro 2x Senator Javan James heard in this transcript as: J. Van James 2x Senator Kurt Avila 2x Senator Marise C. James the surname alone also matches: Javan James; Giovanni James Sr heard in this transcript as: James 2x Senator Marvin Blyden heard in this transcript as: Blyden 2x Senator Novelle Francis heard in this transcript as: Francis 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) 23 of 24 Legislature USVI · | Committee on Finance pt2 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. Act 8474 Act 8474 · An Act providing an appropriation from the General Fund of the Government of the Virgin Islands for the operation of the Government of the Virgin Islands during the fiscal year October t, 2021, through September 30, 2022 =) 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) 24 of 24