A press briefing led by Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. Monday included new details about a landmark land acquisition tempered by budget concerns, doubling down on the West Indian Company’s right to opacity and frustration over a bomb threat and school monitor sickout, which temporarily shuttered St. Croix schools.
Bryan called the bomb threat, which circulated over social media this weekend, a “reckless act that disrupted the lives of students, parents, educators and administrators … as a matter of fact, it really upset the entire community, and we simply will not tolerate it.”
“Let me be clear: there is no place in our community for threats that endanger our children or undermine their education, and we will pursue every avenue to hold accountable the individual or individuals responsible for this disruption,” he said before thanking school personnel for their response to the potential threat. “And I thank the students and their parents who endured the anxiety and uncertainty of this day.”
He was less thankful toward the multitude of school monitors who reportedly called in sick to work Monday.
“I understand that our monitors — like all members of our education workforce — may have concerns that they want to address, and I respect their right to make their voices heard,” he said. “But I also want to remind us, all of us, that there are already enough challenges beyond our control — storms, emergencies and now today’s threat — that interrupts regular instruction in our schools and our workplaces. Taking actions that needlessly add to those interruptions, no matter how well-intentioned, does not serve the best interest of our students.”
The V.I. Education Department confirmed Monday that campuses had been cleared and schools are set to reopen on Tuesday, but local and federal law enforcement’s investigation into the threat is ongoing.
Bryan, DPNR Sign Resolution Protecting Maroon Ridge, Annaly Bay
During Monday’s briefing, Bryan and leadership from the Planning and Natural Resources Department also formally announced the territory’s $17.5 million purchase of protected land in the Maroon Ridge and Annaly Bay area of St. Croix. Funded through a $69 million grant from the U.S. Commerce Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded by the Biden administration, the land acquisition amounts to a 2,469-acre expansion addition to land managed by DPNR’s Territorial Parks and Protected Areas Division.
“The secured lands represent not only breathtaking natural beauty, but also our sacred heritage: land tied to our legacy of resistance and resilience,” DPNR Commissioner Jean-Pierre Oriol said, adding that the process began years ago and was spearheaded by Territorial Parks and Protected Areas Director Kristina Edwards in partnership with the nonprofit Trust for Public Land. “And now, after two years, we can see that the public’s access to this land is now protected in perpetuity.”
Edwards said she had “about a hundred thank yous” to share.
“We worked really hard over the past two years, but this has been decades in the making,” she said, lauding the work of local community organizations and Virgin Islanders for their input and guidance. Edwards said later that the NOAA grant included funding for a management plan to be formed after a series of public meetings and stakeholder surveys. Oriol said that the nature of the grant restricts use of the area to “low impact conservation-related activities.”
“But we don’t want to make those decisions for the community in a vacuum,” he said. “Again, it’s our park, so we’re going to engage the community in terms of what they would like to see throughout the islands at each of the different park system holdings.”
Oriol teased that another acquisition will be announced in the coming months.
Bryan Warns Legislature Against ‘Self-Inflicted Wounds, Unforced Errors’ in Budget Markup
As the 36th Legislature nears the finish line in putting together the government’s 2026 budget, Bryan voiced concern over financial obligations set to go into effect in the coming weeks and months. Those included: the Legislature’s own mandate to raise salaries for the government’s lowest-paid employees to $35,000 per year; the Government Employees’ Retirement System’s 3% increase to employer contributions; and an overall $20 million increase in health insurance costs.
On Monday, Bryan reiterated claims that the raises will have a “cascade” effect.
“All the people who are making … anywhere between 27 and 35 [thousand dollars per year] will all be making 35 — of course, those people will ask for separation because of tenure, job complexity, et cetera, et cetera,” he said. “And then once those get adopted, then everybody else is going to want an adjustment on their salary, and so on … creating a cascade that could rise as high as $27 million.”
In one of several broadsides against the Legislature, Bryan said lawmakers empowered GERS to raise employer contributions because “they didn’t want to have the pressure.”
“Which I don’t think makes any sense,” he said, “because who would give their … retirement system the ability to raise the contribution?”
Factoring in the salary minimums and the GERS increase, Bryan said hiring any new public employee will cost the government $53,000.
“Together, these factors create kind of like a perfect storm, and it shows how, you know, we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot when it comes to fiscal finance. We’re already behind $140 million in retro pay for government employees over the 40 years,” he said, adding that another $20 million is owed to employees who are members of United Steelworkers. “I have not even ventured upon the continuing debt problems at the two hospitals, which owe at least $40 million. WAPA, Waste Management, that’s well into $30 million as well. So we have to choose priorities, and it’s tough being an elected official, and I always have to show up and be the bad guy, but so be it. The fiscal responsibility has to be taken on by all of us.”
Bryan said he was willing to work with lawmakers and open to implementing a 10-percent raise each year until salaries reach $35,000, “but this vast increase — rapidly, without any research and no financial planning by the Legislature — is foolish at best and irresponsible in reality.”
On Questions About WICO, Bryan Points Finger at Legislature, Judiciary
Asked Monday about the West Indian Company’s lack of financial and organizational transparency, Bryan instead found fault with the other two branches of government.
“The Legislature has been arguing this point — about whether WICO has to comply or not,” he said. “Their job is to write the laws. It wouldn’t dawn on one of 15 of them to say, ‘hey, if we want WICO to comply with every government law, why not write a law that says WICO has to comply with every government law? Instead we have this stupid debate all the time. They have the power to do it. They’ve always had the power to do it. So I’m just a little confused.”
The West Indian Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the V.I. Public Finance Authority. During a bruising Senate Budget, Appropriations and Finance Committee hearing last week, WICO officials declined to disclose basic information about the entity’s finances because of their status as a publicly-owned private company. Sen. Novelle Francis Jr., who chairs the committee, eventually called the hearing an “exercise in futility.”
The following day, Sen. Hubert Frederick asked PFA’s director of finance administration, Nathan Simmonds, if WICO is public or private. Simmonds said that the PFA “believes that WICO is a public organization” and said the government owns all of WICO’s shares.
“‘Nuff said,” Frederick replied, adding that lawmakers needed to collect on approximately $10 million owed in Payments in Lieu of Taxes. “That’s it. If we own it, we need to collect every dime, and that money needs to go to the general treasury so we can pay our bills.”
Simmonds’s assessment is in line with findings by the V.I. Superior Court, the V.I. Supreme Court, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, a former V.I. attorney general and WICO’s own board chair, who told WTJX last week that WICO is a public entity and “as such, it’s subjected to all the rules and regulations of a public entity.” On Monday, Bryan waved away the years of legal precedent.
“Everybody thinks that the judiciary is perfect. These are judiciary statements — lawyers and judges are wrong all the time. That’s why the decisions are overturned,” he said, though it’s not clear which, if any, findings about WICO have been overturned or even challenged. “And when we make statements about what is said, it’s like: it is maybe a public company for some instances — public regarding some instances and not the other. The court said, in terms of transparency, they have some transparency requirements, but in other divisions they don’t. So the courts have been very specific about [what] WICO can and cannot do. Like I said, if the Legislature is concerned, they need to just pass the law — it’s clarity.”
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