You can take the fireman out of the station, but you can't put out the spark that former fire chief and freshman Sen. Carlton Dowe has brought to his office.
Dowe's many years in the fire service are reflected in his jumping on what needs to be done. In khakis that are belted with a beeper, and wearing a short-sleeve white shirt, the youthful-looking senator—he's almost 43—seems to be conducting three things at once as he confers with his secretary, then his chief of staff Luis Sylvester, all the while escorting an interviewer into his office.
"What bothers me," he starts out, and corrects himself, "one thing, that is, that bothers me, is the federal funds that go unused." As he gets adjusted in his comfortable-looking leather chair, he looks suddenly very serious. "Let me assure you," he said, "you're going to see movement there."
Dowe said he had written to Gov. Charles W. Turnbull urging him to immediately sign a provision of the Omnibus Bill that creates a separate fund for federal monies, so that $361,000 can be released to the Police Department to purchase equipment and supplies.
The majority bloc senators met with Conrad R. Hoover, U.S. Marshal for the District of the Virgin Islands, early this week to discuss the imminent return of approximately $1.3 million to the federal government, Dowe said.
Hoover told the group he had trouble justifying financial assistance for the V.I. when it doesn't fully utilize funds already sent for the Corrections Bureau, Dowe said. Hoover pointed out the government hasn't completed the renovation for the Sub Base Correctional Department Annex for which the government received $1.3 million in 1997.
"There's dollars sitting there, and yet we are taking prisoners to Puerto Rico to be housed," Dowe said. He said Hoover told him the federal government is contemplating a breach of agreement guaranteeing that it pays the V.I. government $46 a day to house up to 65 inmates.
"The Marshal Service is under court order not to use the Sub Base facility because of the conditions," Dowe said. Hoover told Dowe that the V.I. could make over $1 million a year if all beds were used, and $2 million when immigration criminals are housed. "We could have been making all that money recently with the Adriatik trial instead of housing the detainees in Puerto Rico," he said.
He holds up a white booklet, one of many items crowding his desk, "This is the Federal Forfeiture Law." The federal funds must be kept in a separate account, Dowe explains. "They should never get commingled with local funds," he said. "We need to have one clearing house for all federal grant programs, from writing to tracking and disbursement."
How about all his committee obligations? Dowe is chairman of the Rules Committee, Vice-Chair of the Government Operations, Planning and Environmental Protection, and a member of three others.
"It's no secret I wanted to chair the Government Ops Committee," he said. "I have experience in all three branches of government. But (Committee Chairman Donald "Ducks") Cole is here to work, and we'll get it done." Dowe said he saw no problem with the 24th Legislature's combining the two important committees. "Cole is already working to bring the land and water use bill back," he said.
"My personality," Dowe said, "is this. I come from an emergency services background, the fire department, and then I was a Deputy U.S. Marshal. I don't have the patience for the way we do things around here. I'm by nature an aggressive person."
He said the land and water use bill has been "sitting around for years—they have spent a lot of man-hours, a lot of money. They hired all kind of consultants, and where is it at now?" Dowe leaned forward, pushing aside the almost two-inch-thick Legislative Procedures book he had been using as a podium of sorts, and gestured emphatically.
"One of the reasons I decided to work with this group (the majority bloc) is that they are an aggressive group of people," he said. "They're not afraid to chart new waters."
One of the first things Dowe plans to do is get the per diem bill back on the floor. The bill was one of the majority's first pieces of legislation. It was combined with another unrelated bill, which the governor also vetoed.
This time it will stand alone, Dowe said. The bill applies to all government workers who are not under contract, so it wouldn't affect people on lower salary scales, Dowe said. "It may not be all that much, but like giving up our vehicles, it shows the people that we are trying, that we care," he said. Senate President Almando "Rocky" Liburd has ordered all Senate vehicles turned in except his own. The senators can request a ride from the motor pool when necessary.
Dowe said, "There's a piece of legislation that is law today that I brought to the territory for the very first time." Dowe said when he was with the City of Miami Fire Department in the '80s they charged for inspections, "and here we were doing them for free." As fire chief, he brought the Miami practice to the attention of the Senate, and a minimum inspection fee of $150 per structure is now law in legislation passed in 1998.
Dowe said since April last year when the system was implemented, the inspectors have collected about $200,000 on St. Thomas, and $30,000 on St. Croix. The disparity in amounts, he said, was because St. Croix has fewer businesses and there were internal problems in the department.
"I have a bill request in right now to offer incentive for fire inspectors," he said. Dowe said the inspectors don't get the pay differential for the 24-hour shift "which everybody wants, and they don't get holiday pay." The incentive system would give the group 12 percent of their salary after they collect $350,000 annually in St. Thomas, and $250,000 annually for St. Croix. Dowe said the incentive proposal also applies to individual Internal Revenue Bureau agents after they collect $800,000 in delinquent taxes.
As to leading the Rules Committee, Dowe smiles. "It's ironic that the governor asked me to act quickly on the nominations he just sent in when the positions have been vacant for months, but we will act quickly," he said. However, Dowe is quick to add that he will work with the governor and any minority senator on anything he thinks is a good idea. The Rules Committee acts on all nominations and all legislation before it goes to the full Senate.
Dowe, like all majority senators, is enthusiastic about his recent trip to Washington, D.C. "We made the contacts," he said, proudly showing a photo with Mel Martinez, the new secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He said the majority is preparing a position paper right now in anticipation of testifying before the U.S. Congress House Ways and Means Committee later this year. Some subjects covered in the paper are the gas tax, earned income credit, the rum revenue issue and Medicaid. There is no time yet set for the testimony, nor a decision on who will testify.
"I don't like cold and snow, and I don't smoke or drink, so I wasn't there to party," Dowe said. He also doesn't eat meat, as testified to by his high school nickname "Ital."
A native St. Thomian, Dowe finished high school on St. Thomas in 1978 and went on to the states where he received a number of associate's degrees, a B.A. in criminal justice,
and graduated from the National Fire Academy, the largest in the country.
In 1983 he became the youngest Fire Chief ever in the district of St. Thomas-St. John. He has also worked as a deputy U.S. Marshal.
Dowe has been active in community youth groups. "What got me started was one time when as a Marshal, I had to escort a 19-year-old to pr
ison in the states to serve a 45-year term. That really got to me," he said.
Along with former Sen. Allie-Allison Petrus, a childhood friend, and several other community members, they started Positive Tree, which became a highly successful
mentoring program for at-risk youth.
Dowe now inhabits Petrus' office, where he had worked as a legislative aide before his election. It's a spacious and very active place. Dowe said his allotment to run his office, including the Rules Committee budget, is "about $300,000."
Along the way, Dowe, who is married to the former Jacequline Smith, has fathered six children. The two girls and four boys range from a 23-year-old daughter in college to a five-year-old son at Joseph Sibilly Elementary School.