On Wednesday evening, Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett held a town hall meeting at the Legion Hall-Post 133 in Frederiksted, St. Croix, to accept questions and open discussion from the community, but later encountered some backlash from a few angry community members.
Representatives from the Water and Power Authority, Human Services Department, Our Town Frederiksted, Inc., and other agencies provided information and answered questions from a crowd of about 30 people. A town hall also took place on Tuesday evening on St. Thomas.
“A couple of weeks ago I said maybe we need to have a town hall not really about anything, but that allows everyone to just talk about the issues that they are facing and things that are happening in the community. Also, I was very specific we didn’t want people to come and complain but sit and reason together and possibly come up with solutions,” Plaskett said.
Plaskett said that she has held town halls like these throughout the year regarding postal services, veteran’s affairs, USDA, and farmers.
On behalf of Our Town Frederiksted, Inc., the current Board President, Shomari Moorhead, shared some of the organization’s goals. Moorhead said that they have been working hard over the past year and had applied for a $15 million grant to help with some improvements in Frederiksted. He has also met with members of different government agencies, including V.I. Sports and Parks, Tourism, DPNR, and others.
Members from the Human Services Department also took a moment to explain the difference between the SNAP program and D-SNAP which is used after a disaster and offered applications to those interested in qualifying for SNAP. Members from WAPA were also present to answer questions and take suggestions from community members.
The town hall then encountered a turn of events when a few community members took to the street to protest after being denied entry into the building.
Plaskett immediately addressed the issue and said, “There was a question about having every member of the community or others being excluded. I have talked to my staff and told them that I initially said, and I said this on St. Thomas as well that this was a discussion and it was going to be a productive discussion to present issues, but they also must have solutions. We are going to reason with one another, and we are also going to be respectful of one another. I have had experiences with certain individuals who are not respectful of one another and definitely not of me in having discussions with each other and I do not have time and tolerate that.”
“I am not going to tolerate disruptions that I have the ability to exclude individuals or those who I think will not create a safe environment and also have made threats,” she continued.
“There used to be a time where we could have disagreements with each other but be respectful of each other,” she said.
Another question from an audience member questioned Plaskett accepting money from Jeffrey Epstein “while he was a convicted child predator,” the gentleman said.
Plaskett said that she had previously responded to this question publicly and in press statements. Plaskett said that she did accept money from Epstein following specific rules, and when she learned that he was being arrested for being a child predator, she gave the money to organizations in our community that are doing things for women both on St. Croix and on St. Thomas.
“What I don’t appreciate is that people will say that I Stacey would give up my career and jeopardize my bar status for money,” Plaskett said.
Plaskett went on to list her career as a barred member, life career of public service and a member of the Ethics Committee to ensure other members of Congress are not breaking the law.
Meanwhile, outside of the Legion Hall across the street, a protest of about seven people who were not allowed into the building spoke on a microphone requesting the congresswoman to leave her position and other comments negatively addressing her reelection.
“We are out here today because there is a town hall going on for Stacey Plasket and it is a public meeting, and you could imagine she called the cops to bar us out of the meeting. Nobody was going in there to make disruption,” Karen Dickerson said on the microphone.
Quest for the Source staff, and for the Congresswoman: why did we only learn of this “town hall” meeting after the fact? Events like this should be publicized in advance.