WAPA, HAVE YOU HAD ENOUGH?

RUN THE POWER LINE FROM PM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Run it from the AM too. Power to the people, 24/7!

WAPA is and will be the biggest challenge of the VI's. Second is the amount of excessive Government Payroll and the lack of action to preserve votes for the politicians of VI's. Third is the Hess Agreements with STX and Territory.

WAPA is draining wallets of individuals and closing business's in the territory. There is no plan and no one wants to get serious about correcting the problem.....apathy and fear. Entirely too much waste and overhead!

It is a crime the way WAPA is allowed to operate.......a crime! The new FBI building on STX needs to start with WAPA!

The other bitch I have is the fact Hess is not required to sell fuel here on island at greatly reduced cost to the citizens of STX! Why not like Trinidad? The citizens of STX should have the benefits of cheap fuel to put up with the exposure.
Is it too much to ask of Hess to sell just the fuel to the consumer's of STX at their refined cost here on island? Someone should start a class action suit to cancel the agreement with Hess and gov't! I am sure somewhere over the years, Hess has failed to meet conditions of the agreement. The residents should demand better treatment from Gov't and Hess. Just challenge them!

For the unfortunate residents of the territory, their well being is deteriorating at a rapid pace......It is the perfect economic financial storm that is exposing the short comings of past agreements and inefficient legislative oversight!

Frankly, as a independent employer/tax payer, there are much better business environment's to operate other than VI's. I am sick of the shit!

When I wrote the above I had not read the paper. Mr OVERPAID Hodge says that the criticism of WAPA is not warranted. And that the workers did a great job during the black outs. We guess what, we agree that they did the best they could. But don't confuse work under a problem and planning.

Well met me tell you MR. OVERPAID Hodge your JOB is to plan to avoid these things from happening. And your job is to get the rates down lower. You must not understand this or want to keep things going the way they are.

SO NEITHER OF THESE THINGS YOU DID OR ARE DOING!. SO YOU HAVE FAILED US.

WHY WOULD WE WANT TO KEEP YOU ON THE PAYROLL? EVERY PERSON in the islands IS PAYING ABOUT $2,.00 a year for JUST YOU! We all got the shaft. You did not perform. You workers did. GET IT? Do you understand the difference?

PLEASE LEAVE!

billd

Some people think that it was a better investment to spend $38m on broadband, including Hugo Hodge. Why did he not ask for that money, could it be because he took a position on VINGN board?

We are screwed. Every man for himself. No wonder people are ready to take this government to task.

Which businesses have we lost to WAPA/LEAC in the past months?
1) Kicks. 2) Motown 3) Case Place

Who else?

How much does the VI GVT. owe WAPA???

It's pretty hard to run a biz when a major consumer does not pay you millions.

Wapa knocks cuts individuals who don't pay, at the same time it lets the VI GVT. not pay.. There's the class action suit?

sloop

I'm not going to say that I'm a fan of Hodge or not a fan of Hodge. He inherited a mess. I don't know what he's doing to fix it though. I really wish we had journalism here that could do in depth stories to show what the reality is at Wapa.

I feel like if we all understood what the challenges were we may be able to intelligently comment on Hodge's effectiveness and either understand the shortcomings or demand his ouster from the place of an informed opinion. But so much of what goes on in the VI is done in such an opaque fashion that it is hard to tell who is effective, who is not, what is the fault of someone and what is do the difficult circumstances that one has to work under. Many in leadership like this because they can't be blamed as easily for their failings, fear of failure prevents them from desiring transparent honesty. But transparancy is the key to making things run more effectively.

Like Sloop says, one thing that is well documented is Hodge's biggest customer doesn't pay its bills on time if at all. But he can't shut them off because his biggest customer is the government. What the government does with Wapa is basically an illegal tax on the citizens. They don't pay so we do. They don't have to pass a tax increase, they just get more "revenue" available to them on the backs of our Wapa bill. They think we don't see this but many of us do.

I know everyone is frustrated but calling and during times of frustration we look for scapegoats. Who else should be a scapegoat but the head of Wapa, it makes sense in that regard. But I'd suggest that what is really needed is for the VI Daily News, Avis, or Source to give us the real story so we can make an informed opinion. Let's say we get rid of Hodge, then what? Is the problem really his doing or is it possible that we have a system that is so broken it's beyond one man's ability to fix and we end up with an even worse head of Wapa? I don't have enough information because frankly I don't know anything about the inner working os Wapa.

Maybe we should all write the papers here urging them to do a serious story like the one that won the VI Daily News a Pulitzer in the '90's on crime. That was good journalism, on par with what I was used to when I lived in Washington D.C. from the Post.

Sean

There is a more fundamental problem in the VI. The government needs to look into itself and understand that it can not protect the ones that they have put into power. Look at the senator reduction plan as an example. It it time to clean house. Get WAPA to be a stand alone company. Then the government would need to pay or the non-linked WAPA would cut off the service to those who do not pay. The the government would need to budget that amount.

What a novel idea!

CHANGE or IT WILL NEVER CHANGE!

billd

e

I'm not going to say that I'm a fan of Hodge or not a fan of Hodge. He inherited a mess. I don't know what he's doing to fix it though. I really wish we had journalism here that could do in depth stories to show what the reality is at Wapa.

I feel like if we all understood what the challenges were we may be able to intelligently comment on Hodge's effectiveness and either understand the shortcomings or demand his ouster from the place of an informed opinion. But so much of what goes on in the VI is done in such an opaque fashion that it is hard to tell who is effective, who is not, what is the fault of someone and what is do the difficult circumstances that one has to work under. Many in leadership like this because they can't be blamed as easily for their failings, fear of failure prevents them from desiring transparent honesty. But transparancy is the key to making things run more effectively.

Like Sloop says, one thing that is well documented is Hodge's biggest customer doesn't pay its bills on time if at all. But he can't shut them off because his biggest customer is the government. What the government does with Wapa is basically an illegal tax on the citizens. They don't pay so we do. They don't have to pass a tax increase, they just get more "revenue" available to them on the backs of our Wapa bill. They think we don't see this but many of us do.

I know everyone is frustrated but calling and during times of frustration we look for scapegoats. Who else should be a scapegoat but the head of Wapa, it makes sense in that regard. But I'd suggest that what is really needed is for the VI Daily News, Avis, or Source to give us the real story so we can make an informed opinion. Let's say we get rid of Hodge, then what? Is the problem really his doing or is it possible that we have a system that is so broken it's beyond one man's ability to fix and we end up with an even worse head of Wapa? I don't have enough information because frankly I don't know anything about the inner working os Wapa.

Maybe we should all write the papers here urging them to do a serious story like the one that won the VI Daily News a Pulitzer in the '90's on crime. That was good journalism, on par with what I was used to when I lived in Washington D.C. from the Post.

Sean

very even-handed look at a trying situation stiphy. mr. hodge did inherit this, but i am sure he knew what he was taking on when he took the job... AND he does not need me to defend him so i am not trying to do that.

A little history:

WAPA welcomes back Bruno-Vega as executive director http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-27406305.html

Alberto Bruno-Vega works to replace old equipment while dealing with financial turmoil http://stthomassource.com/content/news/local-news/2006/08/17/wapa-board-okays-bruno-vegas-financial-requests

Alberto Bruno-Vega discusses OTEC via Op-Ed in response to a poster http://stjohnsource.com/content/commentary/open-forum/2004/09/07/wapas-bruno-vega-responds

Alberto Bruno-Vega advocates consumers leaving WAPA http://stjohnsource.com/content/news/local-news/2006/09/13/psc-reconsider-wapa-petition-concerning-line-losses-0

Alberto Bruno-Vega fires salvo at PSC http://stthomassource.com/content/news/local-news/2007/05/15/bruno-vega-wapa-would-be-better-without-psc-yoke

Bruno-Vega resigns, in wake of VI Gov't debt, resistance to green energy http://stcroixsource.com/content/news/local-news/2007/03/23/bruno-vega-resigns-wapa-chief

hope this is enough to get started.

Thanks for those posts. I'm curious as to what was the "on the street" impression people had of Bruno-Vega when he was running things?

Sean

I had dealings with him and his office through my job...not good...and not good on his first go-round either.