Gov. Albert Bryan named as dozen new commissioners Tuesday at a press conference at the Arthur Abel Complex in Frederiksted, and there were quite a few familiar names.
Most of those selected have had previous experience in their field and Bryan said he also chose them based on courage, logical thinking, education and commitment to the community.
The departments and new commissioners are:
– Bureau of Motor Vehicles: Barbara McIntosh, a former Highway Safety administrator.
– Virgin Islands National Guard: Col. Kodjo Knox Limbacker, a Virgin Islander who served in the Pentagon before returning to St. Croix.
– Tourism: Joseph Boschulte, a previous director of West India Company and other government agencies.
– Finance: Kirk Callwood, a past chief operating officer at International Capitol Management and VIYA.
– Health: Justa Encarnacion, former vice president of Gov. Juan Luis Hospital.
– Veterans’ Affairs: Patrick Farrell, current VA director appointed by the previous administration.
– Energy Office: Kyle Fleming, previous operations manager at Pro Solar.
– Labor: Gary Malloy, former superintendent of St. Croix schools.
– Planning and Natural Resources: J.P Oriole, past Coastal Zone Management and DPNR commissioner.
– Public Works: Nelson Petty, current commissioner appointed by previous administration.
– Property and Procurement: Anthony Thomas, Education Department chief of staff
– Bureau of Internal Revenue: Joel Lee, certified public accountant and past BIR employee.
Bryan said other commissioners have been named but won’t be made public for up to 90 days due to job and other conflicts those chosen may have.
Those departments heads that have not been named are: Education; Public Safety; Licensing and Consumer Affairs; Justice; Sports, Parks and Recreation; Port Authority; Human Services; Personnel; Agriculture; Collective Bargaining; Fire Services; Information and Technology; VI Territorial Emergency Management Agency; Corrections; Economic Research; Law Enforcement Planning Commission; Lottery, Waste Management; and, Inspector General.
Before he listed his appointees, Bryan took a few minutes to talk about the recent violence in the territory and said that he and his family knew two of the recent victims. There needs to be a more comprehensive approach by involving federal partners, he said, and promised to provide more information about the action to be taken during the state of the territory speech.
“I just want people to know, Tregenza and I are very aware of the situation,” Bryan said.
This article needs to be reviewed and edited for scrivener errors.
I am not a fan of a heavy-handed government, federal, state, territorial or local, but the brutal violence and the frequency of it happening in the U.S. Virgin Islands right now is beyond the pale, imho. The idea that anyone can get killed on any day by a stray bullet in the Gallows Bay Hardware store parking lot or Ziggy’s out on the east end or get robbed and killed driving your car anywhere on island demands URGENT ACTION.
Government’s prime directive is to PROTECT ITS CITIZENS… PERIOD. Everything else is secondary. If USVI law enforcement is under-staffed, under-trained, under-equipped, under-motivated or otherwise unable, unwilling or not up to the task, then maybe it’s time to invite our “federal partners” to come here, declare martial law and go door to door looking for felons, would-be felons and illegal weapons.
And while we’re at it, let’s make it much easier for good-guy citizens to conceal-carry.
My wife and I fell in love with St. Croix above all other islands in the Caribbean by accident on a cruise almost 8 years ago and finally bought a tiny unpretentious 1 loft-bedroom retirement condo here to live out what few years remain of our lives. We realized long ago that the crime rate in the U.S. Virgin Islands was higher on average than the mainland; but, the more we read about the frequent loss of lives and families shattered by bullets and violence, the more we’re thinking we made a terrible mistake.
Did we make a mistake? Say it ain’t so.