Sen. Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg got an update this week on his struggle to get legislation on the floor to reduce the number of senators to nine. The measure was mandated by the voters in last November's election.
Donastorg has declared his determination to get the measure on the floor at the next full session of the Legislature. "It's not about me," he said, "It's about the people — what the people want."
Constance E. Krieger, Senate chief legal counsel, wrote Donastorg that the delay in drafting the bill was due to an extremely high workload, not favoritism toward the draft requests of the majority senators, which she said Donastorg had suggested. She included a draft of the bill in her correspondence.
Krieger said her office has "almost 1,000 bill requests on file, and more than 50 amendment requests for the next session." She continued, "As you well know, the Office of the Legislative Legal Counsel normally has a staff of seven attorneys . . . the number is down to two, a reduction by over 70 percent."
According to the year 2001 Central Staff appointments list released by Senate President Almando "Rocky" Liburd, there are two legal counsels each on St. Thomas and St. Croix. Also, according to published contracts for the 24th Legislature, at least one senator has hired his own legal counsel.
Donastorg has said the nine-member Senate would save the territory millions of dollars per year. His current bill cuts the Senate budget at least 25 percent.
Sen. Celestino A. White Sr. in a Rules Committee meeting earlier this week declared, "We need 15 senators." He said the people weren't informed on the issue before voting. That view was earlier voiced by Sen. Adelbert Bryan, who said on a radio talk show last week that the overwhelming vote in favor of the referendum showed that "the community is ignorant."
Donastorg said, "That amounts to telling the people they're stupid."
Calls to the legal counsel's offices on both islands have not been returned.