Executive Branch Skips Senate Meeting on Raises for Top Officials

Lawmakers lined up behind a measure to “prevent or rescind” the implementation of raises for top government officials during a Committee of the Whole meeting Monday, despite the absence of any testifiers from the central government.

Virgin Islands Personnel Division Director Cindy Richardson, Finance Commissioner Kevin McCurdy and Government House Chief of Staff Kevin Williams Sr. all sent correspondence to Senate President Milton Potter noting their unavailability due to scheduling conflicts, according to letters read into the record Monday.

“This is the first time I’m actually speaking to no one,” Sen. Hubert Frederick said after greeting the “invisible testifiers” and his colleagues. “We have all these questions but they, the executive branch, chose not to visit us today for whatever reason, which is, to me, it’s an affront to the people of the Virgin Islands.”

The raises were recommended by a V.I. Public Officials Compensation Commission report submitted last August, two years after the deadline established by Act 8384 in 2022. The commission’s recommendations included bumping up the governor’s annual salary from $150,000 to $192,000 and the lieutenant governor’s salary from $125,000 to $168,000. The public became aware after news of the raises broke in early January, and Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. issued a statement saying he had accepted the VIPOCC’s recommendations.