A section of St. Croix’s Route 70, from Bassin Triangle to Krause Lagoon, could soon be renamed for former Gov. Kenneth Mapp.
The Committee on Rules and Judiciary voted Thursday to send the renaming bill, as well as a provision awarding Mapp the Virgin Islands Medal of Honor to the full Senate body.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1955, Mapp and his grandmother moved to St. Croix in 1961. He graduated from Central High School in 1973, and then from the New York Police Academy a year later. Mapp was a police officer in Brooklyn, then, in 1977, on St. Croix, where he was elected president of the Virgin Islands Police Benevolent Association.
Mapp joined the V.I. Legislature in 1982. In 1985, he was appointed assistant director of the Industrial Development Commission, now the Economic Development Authority, and later served as the director of the Consumer Services Administration, now the Licensing and Consumer Affairs Department. Mapp was a senator again in 1988 and 1992.
Mapp was elected lieutenant governor with Gov. Roy Lester Schneider in November 1994.
In June 2000, Mapp became only the third student admitted to a Harvard University graduate school and conferred a degree not having first attained an associate or bachelor’s degree. Mapp was director of Finance and Administration of the Virgin Islands Public Finance Authority under Gov. Charles Turnbull.
Mapp ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2006 and 2010, then won the gubernatorial race in 2014.
Through tenacity and common-ground building, Mapp successfully secured some $9 billion in federal funds for damages caused by the hurricanes of 2017.
Most of the senators spoke glowingly of Mapp at Thursday’s meeting, with the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Franklin Johnson, choking up as he spoke. Chairperson Diane Capehart said she hadn’t thought to bring tissues but maybe should have.
In a different line of questioning, Sen. Carla Joesph asked if there had been any conflicts of interest during the Mapp administration. Former Mapp employees said they had no knowledge of any.
Joseph pointed to newspaper articles in 2018 outlining Mapp’s using $51,000 of public money to hire a nurse for his mother shortly after being sworn in as governor. A Source editorial suggested it was not an isolated ethics lapse. In 2016, Mapp was accused of soliciting a senator’s vote by dangling pension money owed to her father.
Directly after the committee unanimously voted to approve the renaming — with Joseph declining to vote — Johnson told a story that was supposed to highlight Mapp’s rapport with people less accomplished. The story about helping a supporter gain public employment seemed to outline a potential conflict of interest.
Johnson said a woman who had campaigned for Mapp came to Government House asking for a school cook job. The problem was she didn’t have a high school diploma, as required.
“She said, ‘Governor I campaigned for you and I want to work in the kitchen to the school and they’re telling me I have to get my GED,’” Johnson said. “The governor said, ‘Miss, I could get you this job, you know, but you’re going to have to get your GED.’”
Mapp bought her the GED study book. To Johnson’s surprise, the woman returned sometime later, having passed the high school equivalency exam.
“I called the commissioner and said the governor promised this lady a job,” Johnson said. He gave the commissioner the woman’s name, as Mapp requested. “The commissioner called in this lady for an interview. That’s the process. She was interviewed. The lady called me again, crying, saying, ‘I have to do an interview.’ I said miss, the governor promised you this job and if you did good in the interview you worry about nothing. That lady got that job.”
Next, the committee started exploration of two bills establishing a Virgin Islands Commission on Ethics and Conflicts of Interest, as well as a third bill adding criminal punishments for lying to the Legislature.
The proposed ethics office would have investigators, legal experts, and support staff. Experts from the attorney general’s office, the public defender’s office, and the League of Woman Voters offered many potential changes to the bills sponsored by Sen. Kenneth L. Gittens, Sen. Marvin A. Blyden, and Johnson.
“This commission will serve as the cornerstone, or as a foundation, in our commitment to upholding ethical conduct, transparency, and public trust in our governmental organizations,” Gittens said. “Corrective and preventative action is needed as the U.S. Virgin Islands has had its share of special interest cases involving government officials such as governors, former senators, and former commissioners and directors.”
The ethics bills were held in committee for further debate.
