Rupert Ross has held many administrative positions over the last half-century, including chairman of the St. Croix Board of Elections, but Tuesday he announced he won’t serve on that board after Jan. 4, in part due to “political agendas” and a “dysfunctional board.”
Ross made the announcement at a press conference at the Elections office and told media and supporters, including his wife, it was time to move on.
“I feel comfortable where I stand today, but it’s time to go,” Ross said emotionally.
At times during the announcement, Ross, his wife, Cheryl, and board members had tears in their eyes, but Ross spoke deliberately and resolutely.
The first reason for leaving, Ross said, was a pledge he made at a Democratic Party meeting before the election. If all three Democrats were not elected to the Elections board, he promised to resign and let someone younger take his place.
Current board member Raymond Williams will be the next Democrat to be seated if he accepts the position.
Ross said the St. Thomas Board and St. Croix Board are “dysfunctional” for different reasons. He described acrimonious meetings that were witnessed by some of the audience and the disruptive behavior of the current board chairman, Adelbert Bryan.
“Both boards turned into political instruments,” Ross said. “People used it, joined it to pursue political agendas.”
Ross said after they elected Bryan the first thing he did was “throw the community into turmoil” with accusations that the board members were “crooks, liars and corrupt.”
Ross brought up the failed lawsuit Bryan lodged to have the board members recalled. The cost of that court case was “$54,000 to redeem ourselves,” Ross said, adding that the bill hasn’t been paid.
Other accusations Ross lodged included a changing of the office locks, driving the government vehicle, renting a car, hiring part-time workers, as well as putting the 2012 voting machines in storage – at a cost of $8,000 to date. According to Ross, Bryan did not seek approval from the board to expend the funds.
“He made the board dysfunctional. He made the system dysfunctional,” Ross said.
And Bryan has not participated in counting ballots or certifying either the 2012 or 2014 election, Ross said.
“I’ve done as much as I could for this community for the last 51 years,” Ross said, talking about his satisfying career of public service. In addition to serving on the Elections Board for the last 12 years, he was the St. Croix administrator who supervised the structure of the Point Udall Monument in 2000, he worked as a teacher, school principal, St. Croix superintendent and assistant commissioner of V.I. Education Department.
“I will continue, in a defined way, to serve the community,” Ross said.
After retiring from the board, Ross said he plans to continue working with Rotary, where he served as district governor, and with the Boys and Girls Club. Over the years, his community work has included chairmanship of the Frederiksted Economic Development Association and establishing the Jr. ROTC program.
Ross said he fully supports the governor-elect and hopes Kenneth Mapp will form an elections reform commission to revamp the system and Title 18 of the V.I. Code where necessary.
Board members Lilliana Belardo de O’Neal, vice chair, Lisa Harris-Moorhead, Raymond Williams and Roland Moolenaar attended the press conference.
According to Belardo de O’Neal, if the board’s quorum remained, they planned to finalize the tally sheets for the recount of votes that started and stopped several times this month.
VI Watchdog
Good riddance, Mr. Rupert Ross. Your legacy is that as chair
1. Rupert Ross approved the candidacy of a criminal still serving a sentence to control the purse string of the VI in the senate
2. Rupert Ross oversaw the past supervisor’s missing $1.7 million dollars of elections money
3. Rupert Ross blocked the voters’ right to use the certified machines and you were defeated in court, and it wasn’t Bert Bryan who sued you
4. Rupert Ross tried to block the people’s constitutional right to a recall and Judge Brady ruled that you obstructed and intimidated the voters. You used tax payer money illegally to block the recall. We want our money back. You called signatories to the recall to harass and intimidate them. Bert did not start a recall. Mr. Ross lied on the air about that.
5. Rupert voted to block the people’s right to use the certified machines in 2014 causing a 2 week count; the Supreme Court ruled that you had no right to do so.
6. Rupert Ross voted to use tax payer money to recount votes for a person who is not on the ballot in violation of law.
7. Rupert Ross voted to block the voters and media from seeing the recount in order to count in secret. The court blocked you, not Bert Bryan
8. Rupert Ross was manipulative in meetings and it wasn’t until meetings were video taped that we saw that it was not Bert, but you.
The list goes on. The Virgin Islands and the Election System is finally to be rid of you and your collusion and obstructionism. Thank God for Bert Bryan who is vindicated. Thank God for the other 5 litigants who have demonstrated your malfeasance. Thank God for the Supreme Court of the VI for their defense of lawfulness.
Good riddance to you. You are only leaving because the thieving Shooptronic programmable machines are gone. You are only leaving because the meetings are now filmed. You are only leaving because the people have found a friend in the court.