The Virgin Islands Sixth Constitutional Convention will convene for a plenary session at the VI Port Authority Conference Room in St. Croix’s Henry E. Rohlsen Airport on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Saturday session will mark the first Committee of the Whole meeting since May 16, though individual committees have convened in the interim.
The meeting will include a presentation by the Convention’s legal counsel, Mark D. Hodge, as well as a presentation by the Convention’s Constitutional Advisor, Professor Richard Albert, regarding their respective reviews of draft text submitted by the Standing Committee on Government Structure.
Albert, who serves as the director of Constitutional Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, stressed that “federal supremacy is not optional” in his May 16 presentation, underscoring the Convention’s critical task of authoring a text that passes congressional scrutiny while delivering provisions that work for Virgin Islanders.
In a virtual Committee on Human Rights meeting last week, delegates debated questions of public access to the drafting process. After submitting approximately 4000 words of draft text to the Convention’s legal counsel and constitutional adviser, the Committee on Human Rights received roughly 15000 words of legal commentary. Some delegates argued that allowing the public to view legal commentary on an incomplete draft would not be in the Convention’s best interest, while others pointed to a responsibility to maintain transparency in government.
In a press release, a representative of the Sixth Constitutional Convention stated: “The [June 27] meeting is open to the public and media, and all are invited to attend and witness the critical discussions shaping the future governance of the Virgin Islands.”
In an email to the Source, Convention President Usie Richards confirmed that interested members of the public may attend in person or online via Zoom.
The following are the Zoom links for the meeting and other information:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting chat link
https://us06web.zoom.us/
View meeting insights
https://us06web.zoom.us/
Meeting ID: 821 0796 0345
Passcode: 585180
