The Legislature’s Finance Committee agreed unanimously Tuesday to hold the central government’s feet to the fire when it comes to following procedures for buying property.
At issue was Property and Procurement Commissioner Lynn Millin-Maduro’s insistence that the department followed its usual practices when it came to requesting the Legislature’s approval for two parcels it wants to buy. The sales came up at a Feb. 19 Finance Committee meeting, and the senators agreed at that meeting to hold the matter because the law mandates a process be followed.
“The days of rubber stamping is apparently gone,” Sen. Nereida Rivera O’Reilly said at Tuesday’s meeting held at the Earle B. Ottley Legislative Hall on St. Thomas.
The price of the land at Cotton Valley stands at $48,000. The Bovoni price is $31,000. The money for both would come from Property and Procurement’s business and commercial fund. The sizes of the parcels were not indicated.
Millin-Maduro returned before the committee on Tuesday to explain that she didn’t think Gov. John deJongh Jr. needed to put it in writing that he wanted the government to buy land at Cotton Valley, St. Croix, for a fire station and land in Bovoni to provide access to Bovoni Cay. She said he told her he wanted the purchase at meetings.
Additionally the senators wanted Attorney General Vincent Frazier to put it in writing that the need for a warrantee deed can be waived.
Initially the Phyllis M. Saunders Trust donated the land at Cotton Valley to the local government so it could construct a building to house the Police Department, Fire Service and Emergency Medical Service with the provision that Saunders’ name grace the building. Millin-Maduro said that by the time her department learned about the donation and tracked down one of the trustees in Jamaica, the deal had lapsed.
The scope of the project was reduced to a police station with room to expand the building to include the other two agencies.
At issue for several senators were indications that even if the government builds a much-needed police station on the Cotton Valley property, the Police Department won’t have enough officers to staff it because of the government’s current fiscal crisis.
“I don’t want to spend money that’s going to go to waste,” Sen. Judi Buckley said.
Finance Committee Chairman Clifford Graham told Millin-Maduro that, if they receive a number of missing documents, the committee could take up the matter again at the meeting.
In discussing the purchase of the Bovoni land from the Patti Birch 1991 Trust, attorney James Casner said the trust plans to donate its 5 percent undivided interest in the 50 acre Bovoni Cay to the territory. The government already owns the other 95 percent undivided interest.
Casner said the proceeds from the Bovoni land sale would go to the Patti Birch Foundation to support charitable works.
In other business, the senators unanimously approved the transfer of $700,000 within the Bureau of Corrections budget and $800,000 within the Bureau of Internal Revenue budget. The IRB is using the money to pay expenses for former federal Internal Revenue Service employees to train local staff in order to improve collections.
In discussing the Bureau of Corrections request, Director Julius C. Wilson indicated that the bureau’s medical director is also employed full time at Juan F. Luis Hospital’s emergency room.
According to Wilson, the medical director puts in 10 to 14 hours a week on the Bureau of Corrections job. He indicated the person in the position earned around $70,000 for the work in addition to $205,000 earned at the hospital.
Wilson said the medical director is needed to sign off on papers that deal with prescriptions and surgeries.
“The medical director does not see patients,” Wilson said.
Wilson said his department needed to transfer funds in its budget so it can pay Trinity Foods the $300,000 it owes for its food service contract that costs $2.16 a meal for each prisoner.
Additionally the money is needed to pay $400,000 on the bill it owes to Virginia Department of Corrections for housing 54 of the territory’s prisoners. The territory owes $466,589 for services in 2012 and $631,406 for services in 2013.
Wilson said it costs $124 a day to keep a prisoner in a local facility. It costs $80 a day at Virginia prisons and $66 a day at a prison in Citrus County, Fla.
In addition to Graham, Buckley and O’Reilly, Sens. Donald Cole, Myron Jackson, Terrence “Positive” Nelson and Clarence Payne III attended the meeting. Noncommittee members Tregenza Roach, Kenneth Gittens and Senate President Shawn-Michael Malone also put in appearances.
