What was to have been a public meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday of the Senate Finance Committee to hear testimony from 20 subpoenaed individuals from the Internal Revenue Bureau will instead be a closed meeting of the committee with Gov. Charles W. Turnbull and the man he named acting IRB director Wednesday.
With the 11th hour removal of Claudette Farrington as bureau director Wednesday, Finance Committee chair Lorraine Berry said in a release issued late in the day, the committee members agreed to cancel the hearing to meet with the governor and his interim choice to succeed Farrington, Louis M. Willis.
The events rendered moot two motions filed in Territorial Court – to void the subpoenas of those called to testify, or to let them stand.
Berry had called the meeting and issued subpoenas June 27 for Farrington and 19 of her IRB supervisors – 12 on St. Thomas and seven on St. Croix – to appear.
The first motion before Territorial Court Judge Brenda Hollar, dated Friday, June 30, was submitted by Attorney General Iver Stridiron on behalf of Farrington, petitioning the court to void the subpoenas on the grounds that they "are vague and subject the bureau to an undue burden."
Berry's counter-motion, dated Wednesday, July 5 – the next government working day after June 30, asked the judge to deny Farrington's motion, contending that the subpoenas were "not vague, and will not subject the bureau to an undue burden."
Turnbull announced late Wednesday that he had replaced Farrington with former IRB collections chief Louis M. Willis as acting IRB director.
Berry stated in her release that the governor had agreed to meet privately at 10 a.m. Thursday with Finance Committee members and Willis. She said she hoped the meeting, closed to the news media on grounds that it would deal with personnel matters, would result in an "objective appraisal of the numerous complaints the committee has heard regarding excessive management deficiencies" in the bureau.
Reportedly 22 people – 19 in the St. Thomas-St. John district and three on St. Croix – have quit their jobs at the bureau since Farrington became commissioner. Workers staged a one-day job action in June.
Berry said the committee had been informed that individuals within IRB with "vital information" would make it public only if "forced to do so under subpoenas." Because the committee had received so many complaints about bureau mismanagement, she said, she had no choice but to subpoena the IRB officials.
According to the release from Berry's office, the committee has received "one report in writing which we would have made available to the public at the appropriate time. The complaints therein defy credibility."