Bump in the road

But . . . they'll only lose their pension if convicted. So he has nothing to worry about.

As a dear friend says, "It makes my head want to explode!"
He needs to be removed from office.

That is just so nuts. :X And although I can almost try to understand where Nelson is coming from, I don't back what he is saying. If you are the sole bread winner for your family, and you commit a crime, or lose your job, it only makes sense that your whole family suffers, because that is how the real world works. I support this legislation. We NEED to hold our elected and government officials to a higher standard.

That "bump in the road" comment was not mentioned in the VI Daily article that I could see. Hmm....

The "bump in the road" comment it turns out was out of context. I watched Sen. harrigan's testimony on video. His opposition to the bill was that it was only included "high level" government employees and not all government employees. He was making a hypothetical statement that any government employee may hit that bump and feel they can take "borrow" money. After hearing testimony Sen. Harrigan may be one of the good guys.

Regardless, if money is taken illegally, even if it is returned the next day, it is still a crime and the criminal must face the consequences.

i think that is something most of us can agree with

(tu)

He was putting a scenario out where people might "think it's ok" to borrow money. Not that they should. The bill needs to pass, but I have to agree with him on this one, it should apply to all government employees.

De tiefing must stop.

We're still wondering where our $6.9 Million Dollars are that the VI Legislature misspent, misappropriated, mismanaged, wasted and stole.

Now they don't want to release financial info pertaining to those employed by the legislature.

He was putting a scenario out where people might "think it's ok" to borrow money. Not that they should. The bill needs to pass, but I have to agree with him on this one, it should apply to all government employees.

That's so unfair to him if they did take him out of context. And I wouldn't be surprised because that site loves to go with the sensational headlines.

most comments are taken out of context-just watch most any news show

(tu) speedy

I used to watch the government access channel like some kind of addict. Reported news is often so different than what you gain when you watch the actual sessions. I was making my husband mental, so I had to give up watching the government access channel. But I think I might have to start watching it again so I can gather my own opinion about all of these hot topic sessions.

Stjohnjulie, you are so right. You get a different perspective when you see the news being made.

lol, thanks for the morning chuckle. i think news makes us more stupid in most cases , and nuts

Here's a Port Authority worked that just got arrested for her little "bump in the road."

http://virginislandsdailynews.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/iphone/homepage.aspx#_article9952bfb5-51af-4a06-ba91-2921f326aa17/waarticle9952bfb5-51af-4a06-ba91-2921f326aa17/9952bfb5-51af-4a06-ba91-2921f326aa17//true

I do not even understand how something like that could happen.

It could happen because Mapp is governor. I finally read the article. IMO, almost every attorney "associates" with criminals, because that's part of their job. This has the potential to get very interesting.

I guess what I was trying to say is that I am dumbfounded that no one has been keeping track of credit card expenses. More than $213k in 15 moths. It was going on for a very long time, and that is an extremely high number and no one noticed? This is just such a very basic thing that someone should have caught a really long time ago. This is a SINGLE person.... can you even imagine how many more there could be and going back how long? And now that government employees know they will lose their job by exposing such things how likely is it that we ever know the full extent of it?
Mapp's claim of firing for association with your licensed attorney is just BS. From top to bottom. There is no WAY anyone should be fired by hiring a licensed attorney to represent them. If he has a problem with it then he needs to protect ALL of us by making sure that such attorneys lose their license to practice. This about him covering his butt. If his claim was just in any way then he should do what he is supposed to and protect all of us by making sure that 'criminals' are not available for his people to hire for representation.

I guess that is what Harrington was alluding to when he gave his "scenario". It sounded like he knew people had been "borrowing" from the government to get over the hump. Well, at least it's in the open now, so hopefully some of it will stop.

Mapp's doing some major borrowing.

The amout is just mind boggling. I can shop with the best of them and I'd have trouble spending that much in just 15 months.

Wow! I work for the State of Illinois, which is about as corrupt as they come. I am pretty sure that even in Illinois we wouldn't be able to get away with spending that much money in just over a year.

Wow! I work for the State of Illinois, which is about as corrupt as they come. I am pretty sure that even in Illinois we wouldn't be able to get away with spending that much money in just over a year.

And the Illinois government's budget is many times larger than the VI's. This makes thier failure to detect even more egregious.

Mapp's claim of firing for association with your licensed attorney is just BS. From top to bottom. There is no WAY anyone should be fired by hiring a licensed attorney to represent them. If he has a problem with it then he needs to protect ALL of us by making sure that such attorneys lose their license to practice.

This is the real issue. If I were the VI Bar, I'd be piping mad at his usurpation of their authority. The real issue here is whether the Governor may fire government employees who seek representation from validly-licensed lawyers simply because he doesn't like the lawyer.

A contract for legal services is not exactly a social "association." Mapp and Emile's logic is faulty. How far does it extend? Should we inquire as to whether our physicians have ever been caught with weed? Should government employees lose their jobs because they hire a validly-licensed professional who committed a crime once? It's not like he caught them planning illegal endeavors.