May 20, 2003 – Between last November's elections and mid-April, the executive branch added 271 new hires to the payroll. Many are entry-level and low-paying positions, but also among the new public workers are a $50,000-a-year Government House protocol officer, a $50,000 Tourism Department marketing director, a $42,000 Human Services Department public relations officer and lawyers to work for the Board of Education, Planning and Natural Resources Department and Public Employees Relations Board.
As far as is known, all hires were to fill vacancies in existing positions.
Most of the highest-paid personnel were upper-level replacements — Elton Lewis as acting Police commissioner, at $80,000, replacing the terminated Franz Christian; Rita Howard as assistant Education Commissioner at $84,000, filling a vacancy created a year ago when Noreen Michael was named acting commissioner with the firing of Ruby Simmonds; Lt. Gov. Vargrave Richards at $75,000, succeeding Gerard Luz James II after the elections.
Other higher-priced hires were for a physician ($70,000) and a psychiatrist ($81,950) in the Health Department, for a physician ($71,856) and a psychiatrist ($81,614) at Juan F. Luis Hospital, and for two special assistant attorneys general ($88,000 and $80,000) in the Justice Department.
In the Governor's Office, Angela Belfon, owner of the former World Wide Travel agency on St. Thomas, was named protocol officer at $50,000. The position, which has gone vacant for years at a time, is for an individual who oversees, according to diplomatic etiquette, the proper order of presentations, introductions, appearances at programs, seating at tables, listings of names on programs, and the like. Such niceties typically come into play when heads of state or other representatives of other governments are paying official visits to the territory.
Belfon's travel agency filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last October. Government House officials said the agency was the last willing to do business with the government because of chronically late payments for plane fares which cost the companies money in penalties. (See "Local travel agency files Chapter 11".)
Tourism hired Steven Bornn for $50,000 as director of marketing. Bornn has had a long on-again, off-again relationship with the department and its predecessor division. An agency he owned was at one time under contract as Tourism's local liaison to the territory's national public relations and advertising agencies.
Of the Human Services Department's 56 new hires, Monife Stout as public relations officer was the highest paid, at $42,000. The next-highest was a family services coordinator, at $38,000. Only one other new Human Services employee was hired at more than $25,000.
In numbers of new hires, the Police Department was second after Human Services, with 52, and the Education Department was third, with 47.
Following, in number of hires, were Roy L. Schneider Hospital (19), the Internal Revenue Bureau (15), Juan F. Luis Hospital (13), the Justice Department and Labor Department (10 each), Health Department (9), Lieutenant Governor's Office and Planning and Natural Resources Department (5 each), the Agriculture Department and Licensing and Consumer Affairs Department (4 each), the Governor's Office, Personnel Division and Public Works Department (3 each), the Board of Education and Property and Procurement Department (2 each) and the Adjutant General, Finance Department, Housing Parks and Recreation Department, Public Employees Relations Board and Tourism Department (1 each).
In per-agency average salary for new hires, the Lieutenant Governor's Office was well in the forefront: Out of five hires, in addition to the lieutenant governor at $75,000, the office added an executive assistant to the lieutenant governor at $55,000 and an administrative assistant to the lieutenant governor at $38,000. Also added to the payroll was a chauffeur, at $25,000.
The Board of Education added only two new staff members but they were relatively pricey — Nandi Sekou as staff attorney at $70,000 and a guidance counselor at $40,004.
The other lawyers among the hires were Ann C. O'Neill-Killy as Planning and Natural Resources legal counsel, at $65,000; Richard Evangelista as PERB legal consultant, at $60,000; and within the Justice Department, a regular assistant attorney general at $52,000. Justice also hired a special assistant at $50,000.
Within the Police Department, of the 52 new hires, 28 were new police officers, most at an entry level salary of $29,748, and 15 others were police officer trainees, at $27,753. No one but the acting commissioner was hired at more than $30,000.
At Schneider Hospital the new employees included a clinical care coordinator, at $59,750; a director of rehabilitation, at $52,000; a senior special procedure person and a respiratory care practitioner, both at $40,000; and two nurses, at $39,600 and $37,000.
At Luis Hospital, in addition to the physician and the psychiatrist, seven of the 13 new employees were nurses, at $37,000 to $52,000; two others were licensed practical nurses and the other two were certified nursing assistants.
Within the Education Department, out of the 47 new employees, 20 were teachers hired over the range of November through March at salaries of $26,583 to $48,598. Most of the others were central office and schools support staff, at salaries under $35,000.
At the Internal Revenue Bureau, a network systems manager was hired at $53,470. Two revenue office trainees were hired at $26,717 each; the other 12 new employees were hired at less than that.
In the Labor Department, the highest-paid new employee was an adjudicator hired at $31,200.
Licensing and Consumer Affairs' costliest hire was an executive assistant at $40,000.
A chauffeur also was hired by Property and Procurement, at $15,101.
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