Jan. 17, 2002 – Members of the Senate Finance Committee said Thursday that they want greater accountability from the Public Finance Authority, the body that oversees the funding of major capital improvement projects such as school construction and sewage treatment plant improvements.
In a hearing Thursday on St. Thomas, Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen, the committee chair, said she wasn't satisfied by some of the answers she got to questions about PFA finances.
Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole went further, saying the Senate should consider restructuring the makeup of the PFA.
The authority board consists of five members: the governor, the commissioner of Finance, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and two independent members. Cole noted that this gives the executive branch — and, in essence, the governor — control of three of the five votes.
"I'd like to see the power out of the hands of the executive branch," Cole said. "We don't know what's going on in the PFA."
Several senators commented on the power the PFA wields, with oversight of nearly $170 million in bonds for such diverse projects as the Lockhart, Peace Corps and Bertha C. Boschulte school construction projects; improvements at wastewater treatment facilities on all three main islands; prison construction at Golden Grove on St. Croix; and renovations to Government House in Christiansted.
Kent Bernier, economic adviser to Gov. Charles W. Turnbull, testified Thursday that he has temporarily taken over the day-to-day administration of the PFA since Turnbull fired Amadeo Francis from the position of director in November.
Bernier said the PFA board is scheduled to meet on Jan. 25 to take up the matter of replacing Francis.
Sen. Carlton Dowe told Bernier and the other PFA officials present that he is planning to introduce legislation to use PFA bonding authority to fund the construction of a third high school on St. Thomas. He said the project is estimated to cost $25 million.
Dowe asked the Finance Authority officials to work with the Senate in seeing such a project through. "Tell us how, together, we can make this work," he said, noting the severe overcrowding at Charlotte Amalie High School. "Play with your numbers — turn them upside down, so we can build a new high school."
The PFA officials fielded a wide range of other questions from senators.
Some had to do with the new Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School on St. Thomas, which is still under construction more than six years after Hurricane Marilyn destroyed the old one. The school now is projected to cost about $29 million, up from the original estimate of about $20 million, the officials said.
Ira Mills, OMB director, said he would need to do some research before he could tell the senators where the money is coming from to pay for the cost overruns. He said the authority regularly uses outside managers to oversee construction projects.
According to other testimony, the interest rate the PFA is earning on money obtained by floating bonds is now about 2 percent, down from about 5 percent several years ago.