ST. CROIX — After learning during a Senate committee meeting on Friday that recommended pay raises for the governor and lieutenant governor have been enacted, retroactive to December 2, 2024, senators are weighing their options to challenge implementation of the raises.
Senator Kenneth Gittens, Senate vice president, issued a letter dated the same day to Senate President Milton Potter, copying all members of the 36th Legislature, urging Potter to direct the Legislature’s chief legal counsel to file a temporary restraining order and pursue injunctive relief to halt the salary increases previously recommended by the Virgin Islands Public Officials Compensation Commission.
Potter agreed the ball is in the Legislature’s court to act on behalf of the people of the Virgin Islands.
“Whether we are going to specifically recommend a TRO or some other type of injunctive relief is something that we’re going to talk about,” he said.
Potter said an option to rescind the law that allowed the governor to enact the pay raises would also be considered. He said the discussion would be between the Legislature’s legal counsel and its executive leadership, including Gittens, Senate Majority Leader Kurt Vialet, and Senator Avery Lewis, secretary.
WTJX asked Potter why the Legislature is only now seeking to block the raises for Governor Albert Bryan Jr. and Lieutenant Governor Tregenza Roach considering the governor’s consistent assertions that he would execute the raises. The governor maintained his position even after Potter sent him a letter urging him not to implement the raises based on a determination by the Legislature’s chief legal counsel that doing so would be illegal without an amendment to the Virgin Islands Code.
Potter said he did not think the governor was going to go through with it.
“I think the general public clearly was opposed to it,” he said. “We were opposed to it too. So, I think at least just speaking for myself, although the governor said, ‘yeah, I’m going to do it anyway,’ I still did not think that he was going to do it.”
WTJX broke the story about the raises in an article published on January 5 that included details from the Public Officials Compensation Study.
Senate Minority Leader Dwayne DeGraff attempted to stop the raises during the waning days of the 35th Legislature when he circulated a petition to his colleagues on January 7 calling for a special session on January 10 to consider repealing the two acts — Act Nos. 7878 and 8384 — that created the Compensation Commission. January 10 was the last opportunity for a special session during the 35th Legislature before the swearing-in ceremony for the elected members of the 36th Legislature. Although a seven-day notice is required before members of the Legislature can meet, DeGraff said the issue was important enough to waive the rules. The only other senators who signed his petition besides him were his two fellow members of the Senate minority — Senators Alma Francis Heyliger and Franklin Johnson.
“I’m going to first blame my colleagues in the 35th Legislature because when I brought out a petition to be signed to remove, recall, refurbish, do away with the commission and their findings, we didn’t have that meeting,” DeGraff said during Friday’s Committee on Budget, Appropriations and Finance meeting. “So hence, what you get, you take.”
While the governor took the position that his implementation of the raises was in line with the law, Potter urged him in a letter dated February 3 to not implement the raises at the time, as doing so would “exceed the scope of executive authority and conflict with the established legal framework.”
READ MORE: “Potter urges governor to not implement pay raises for himself, lt. governor; Bryan doubles down”
Potter wrote in his letter to the governor that it was the Legislature’s position that the authority to establish salaries for executive positions rests solely with the lawmaking body based on a legal analysis by the Legislature’s chief legal counsel and pursuant to the law, specifically the VI Code, Title 3, Sections 1 and 31, and the Revised Organic Act of 1954, Sections 11 and 20.
Heyliger said the governor told her during a meeting with senators on February 11 that he was processing the paperwork after she asked him if he planned on implementing the raises.
The Legislature established the nine-member Compensation Commission to review the salaries of public officials and make recommendations for changes.
Beginning January 15, 2021, and every four years thereafter, the governor shall convene the Commission to review the salaries, according to the law creating the Commission as amended. Members appointed to the Commission only serve until the Commission submits its final report.
The Commission’s report, which recommended raises for a dozen executive branch officials including the governor and lieutenant governor, was transmitted via email on August 13, 2024 to Bryan, then-Senate President Novelle Francis Jr., and Chief Justice Rhys Hodge.
READ MORE: “Public Officials Compensation Commission clarifies no raises recommended for senators”
Heyliger has since drafted a bill to rescind the raises. She spoke in opposition to “wasting money” with a legal battle over the raises considering the Legislature has the authority to impose salaries for the executive branch.
“Why are we going to court when we could just pass a law to rescind this?” she asked.
Heyliger’s measure, Bill No. 36-0085, is expected to be heard during a Committee of the Whole meeting on June 2. The bill calls for any salary adjustments or payments made pursuant to the recommendations of the Compensation Commission to be rescinded. Enactment of the bill would keep the salaries of all public officials at their August 1, 2024 levels.
Now that the pay raises have been implemented, Potter said the Senate will act.
In a letter dated May 23 in response to Gittens’ request for legal action, Potter wrote that he would convene an emergency meeting of the Senate leadership within 72 hours to discuss the matter and determine the most appropriate course of action for the Legislature. He indicated he would provide Gittens and all senators with an update on the body’s legal assessment and proposed course of action no later than Wednesday.
“Should our legal counsel recommend proceeding with the requested legal action, I am prepared to authorize such measures promptly,” Potter wrote.
