Lieutenant Governor Debate Presses Potter on Lack of Epstein Hearings, Francis on Compensation Report and Moorhead on School Leadership

Candidates vying for the Democratic nomination as Lieutenant Governor faced tough, policy-based questions during Sunday night’s debate hosted by the Virgin Islands Consortium and WTJX. From the beginning, Rodney Moorhead and Senators Milton Potter and Novelle Francis were asked to put meat on the bones of their various pledges and promises to the people of the Virgin Islands.

The hour-long debate began with the topic of banking. Here, moderators Ernice Gilbert and Marcellina Ventura-Douglas pressed participants to provide details on what they could do as Lieutenant Governor to increase the provision of banking services in the territory. Senator Francis cautioned against the perception of conflicts of interest within the Lt. Governor’s office, whose Division of Banking and Insurance holds a regulatory role over the industry. Both he and Mr. Moorehead suggested that the banking board needs to be empowered, with adequate staff and otherwise, to perform the important role of attracting additional banking business to the territory. Moderators also extracted a promise from all three candidates to strengthen the Community Reinvestment Act by requiring island-by-island lending scores to be made available to the public, so that lending activity in St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John can be measured more actively.

Individual questions came next. Senator Milton Potter, who is sharing an electoral ticket with current Delegate to Congress Stacey Plakskett, told moderators that his colleagues in the legislature decided not to hold any local hearings on the activities of Jeffrey Epstein. “In a collaborative spirit, we decided that there was nothing constructive to be gained in going down that road of opening big Jeffrey Epstein hearings in the territory,” said the sitting President of the Senate. “In speaking with individual members, it was clear that that was not something that we were prepared to do at this time.”

Senator Francis seemed surprised at this take, saying that he certainly was not one of the legislators who was queried by Senator Potter. “I know several of the majority members that were interested in having a hearing and…vet this very same Epstein issue in broad daylight.” There was even a draft bill to that effect “that was circulating and should have come to the floor,” said Senator Francis.