Bill Aimed at Protecting the Jobs of Assistant Attorneys General From Political Influence Approved in Committee

Members of the Committee on Rules and Judiciary on Thursday gave their approval to an Act that seeks to amend V.I. Code relating to the tenure of assistant attorneys general serving within the V.I. Dept. of Justice by giving legislative protection to their jobs.

“This bill recognizes that our assistant attorneys general should have employment safeguards against wrongful termination,” said Senator Novelle E. Francis, Jr. who is the sponsor of the legislation.

“This protection itself is a public good and safeguards against executive abuse of these tireless public servants. This bill essentially removes the politics from the tenure and retention of assistant attorneys general and protects the integrity of the collective bargaining agreement,” he said while urging other members of the committee to vote favorable for the bill, numbered 34-0107.

Mr. Francis said the issues raised in the measure were first brought to his attention in 2017, and he described the bill as being "about employment rights and protection of bargaining rights."

"Under the existing statute, questions remain as to whether assistant attorneys general can be terminated at will. Assistant AGs should be able to act independently and upon their conscience as attorneys without fear of reprisal,” he told committee members.

Cindy Richardson, acting director of the Division of Personnel who was one of the testifiers, applauded the objective of the measure. “This is a straightforward and necessary change,” she said while explaining that the language of the current statute says that assistant attorneys general “serve at the pleasure of the governor and can be effectively removed during a subsequence transition.”

“The language in the proposed bill changes the language in the existing bill to allow for assistant attorneys general to be removed only under the terms and conditions of a collective bargaining agreement, and these employees have functioned within a collective bargaining agreement represented by the industrial steelworkers for the past four decades,” she said.