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Tuesday, December 13, 2016 VIRGIN ISLANDS The Virgin Islands Daily News 3 Work stoppage threat gets Waste Management to table By JONATHAN AUSTIN Daily News Staff A Waste Management Authority contractor had planned a work stop- page this week because the Virgin Is- lands Waste Management Authority owes vendors a lot of money and they can’t keep working for nothing. However, discussions with adminis- trators at Waste Management led Peter Caproni, owner of Your Environmental Services Inc., to say he’s holding off on urging garbage collection vendors to stop work on Wednesday. “T’m not intent on messing up our communities,” said Caproni, whose company picks up the bin sites on St. John. “We've created a dialogue. I am a fair person,’ Caproni said. “I want to listen to what they have to say. It seems as though they’re going to put together an offer.” Caproni had told The Daily News. on Monday he was announcing a work stoppage beginning Wednesday. He said he and other haulers were go- ing to stop emptying scores of bins across St. Thomas and St. John be- cause Waste Management had failed to pay them for weeks or months. Caproni said he has worked 26 years in trash removal and roll on/ roll off services in the territory. He said his company empties “all the rear load bins on St. John,’ and does emergency Waste Management Au- thority work on St. Thomas. Contacted by The Daily News, Waste Management Authority execu- tives were unaware Caproni and pos- sibly two other haulers were walking off the job. Roger Merritt Jr., the newly hired executive director of the agency, said Monday evening he wants to meet with all the contracted haulers to see what they are owed and come up with a plan to get them paid. “T understand that the haulers need to get paid,’ Merritt said. “We need to ensure we are able to make timely payments.” Caproni said he is willing to lis- ten, but the answer has to be that the Waste Management Authority comes up with payment for services already rendered. “The solution is, you pay your bills on time,” he said. Patrick Charles, one of the vendors Caproni mentioned, said Monday that he has “reasons to be on board” with a work stoppage, though he couldn’t make such a decision alone. “T realize that he is upset,’ Charles said, referring to Caproni. “It is time Police: Ex-employee filing By BRIAN O’CONNOR Daily News Staff Police officials dismissed this week multiple complaints filed by a former employee against high-ranking mem- bers of the V.I. Police Department. The complaints are all filed by Lynne Harrison, the former director of the Police Training Bureau. In one such complaint, Harrison alleges Deputy Commissioner Curtis Griffin Jr. was “receiving compensa- tion when absence from employment without proper leave documentation,” and “payroll fraud/embezzlement — falsifying timekeeping records, or when employees are not working while on the job.” In a letter attached to the claim, Harrison says that from August 2016 to the present, Griffin received com- pensation while not reporting for duty at the department. “In addition, he has not left for- warding contact information to those under his supervision and often was not available during contact attempts occurring during normal working hours,” Harrison wrote. “Griffin was available only via VIPD email which was delayed or not deliverable, thus leaving him ineffective and not suit- able to be classified as working tele- commuting.” Griffin dismissed the complaints against him, and said he welcomed an investigation. “IT want them to investigate be- cause I’m hoping — when all is done — I’m hoping that maybe I can sue her for slander,” he said. “I have noth- ing to hide.” Harrison’s letter calls for Griffin to be investigated. “While his explanation of absence has been reported as a long term med- ical procedure, due to the extraordi- nary length of absence, previous ab- sences, and non-contact information, a full investigation is warranted to in- sure the people of the Virgin Islands have not been deprived of its funds due to improper payroll deductions or notifications,” she wrote. The complaint was one of 10 filed after Harrison lost her job as direc- tor of the police department’s Train- ing Bureau, according to copies fur- nished by Harrison. She filed a citizen’s complaint after her termination alleging that Police Commissioner Delroy Richards Sr. had violated department policy and that he had ignored requests for the correction of a violation. Harrison also filed a complaint alleging Griffin’s administrative as- sistant, Le-Reeda Lake, was absent on sick leave for four weeks without prior notice; that special assistant to the commissioner Capt. Mary Dug- 66 The solution is, you pay your bills on time. — Peter Caproni, owner of Your Environmental Services Inc. for anybody to get upset. I’m in agreement with him.” Charles said his firm empties bins on St. Thomas and hauls trash from Waste Management Authority collec- tion sites in a number of government housing communities. Regarding how much Waste Man- agement owes him, Charles replied: “It depends on what you call a lot. They’re two months behind, now.” Caproni wouldn’t say how much Waste Management owes him in total. “It’s a big amount of money,” he said. “I’m fed up with the whole thing.” Caproni said he estimated that Waste Management owes various vendors millions of dollars. The Waste Management Author- ity’s inability to pay vendors has been a topic during Senate testimony over the years. Steve Aubin, who was interim ex- ecutive director of the Waste Man- agement Authority for most of 2016, told the Senate Finance Committee in July that the contractors needed to be paid. “Tt is clear that the contractors are bearing the brunt while trying to provide critical services in hopes of payment by the authority as soon as possible,” he said. Aubin ran the agency after the re- tirement of May Adams Cornwall un- til Merritt was hired last month. “The financial condition of the Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority is dire and requires im- mediate attention and relief,’ Aubin told senators in July. “The author- ity’s available cash to pay its con- tractors/vendors timely is critically limited, resulting in delayed pay- ments to its contractors/vendors; growing accounts payable, which is currently on the order of $10 million for its major contractors/ vendors; and non-compliance at the Anguilla and Bovoni landfills with court ordered mandates.” An example of the outstanding obligations owed by Waste Manage- ment has been highlighted for the last two years in Senate testimony during the budget process. For Fiscal Year 2016, the agency noted it owed vendor Gem’s Construction $200,000 from fiscal year 2012 to pay for gar- bage collection services on the island of St. Thomas. The Waste Management Authority noted that it was “unable to identify a revenue source” to pay Gem’s for the years-old debt. During testimony on the Fiscal Year 2017 budget, Waste Manage- ment again listed $200,000 owed to Gem’s Construction for garbage collection on St. Thomas. However, Waste Management officials said the $200,000 was owed from the 2011 fiscal year. No one from Gem’s Construction was available for comment Monday afternoon. Merritt said he believes the Waste Management Authority can address the overdue debt owed to the vendors. “T think we can. We’ve got to get a plan in hand and get them paid. If they provide a service, they should get paid,” he said. — Contact Jonathan Austin at 340-714-9104 or email jaustin@ dailynews.vi. ‘frivolous’ complaints against top cops gan had potentially disclosed confi- dential department information to a third-party vendor for personal gain, and had used threatening behavior to create a hostile work environment, and that she had obstructed Harri- son’s performance of her duties. Harrison further alleged that Lt. Maria Colon-Jones had disrupted a training presentation, and she said her termination was retaliatory for asking for sick leave to be treated for Zika. Harrison said that she eventually fled the Virgin Islands in fear of her life and that the police department still owes her $5,000 in back pay, Harrison said. Harrison said Monday she’s sub- mitted her complaints to Gov. Ken- neth Mapp. “T was the director of training and was fired without cause,” she said. “I had filed several complaints.” Harrison said she requested 10 days of medical treatment off-island to com- bat a Zika infection on Oct. 18. “Two hours later, I was terminat- ed,” she said. Documents provided by Harrison show she was suspended without pay on Oct. 18, and terminated on Oct. 28. Griffin said that while he was un- dergoing cardio rehab in Florida, he started hearing about issues involving Harrison. Ultimately, Richards made the decision to terminate Harrison, Griffin said. “Subsequent to her termination, she started sending complaints,” he said. “She said she heard that while I was away I was practicing law and not really sick.” Harrison wasn’t his supervisor, and wasn’t aware of how the accumu- lated sick time was being used, Grif- fin said. “She submitted so many com- plaints against so many people,” he said. “It’s obvious that it’s frivolous.” The complaints have not yet re- sulted in an internal investigation, Richards said. “T found she was too much of a distraction for us to move forward with the actions as required of us by the mandates of our consent decree,” Richards said about his decision to terminate Harrison. Harrison had failed to submit to a department background check in a timely manner, Richards said. “The department brought her in on an interim basis initially, and then she was asked to comply with the package that we provided in order to conduct a background investigation,” he said. “She offered resistance. She believed she could complete her own timeline.” Harrison said she had asked for 10 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_014500 days to secure her college transcripts. “My email specifically says I am not saying I don’t want a background check,” she said. Richards said he ultimately direct- ed Harrison’s complaints to the legal department, but he said Harrison continued to send letters and emails. A response from the department’s legal counsel provided by Harrison says simply that Harrison couldn’t use the citizen’s complaint process to complain about things that happened while she was the director of the Training Bureau, and that each com- plaint will be closed as it is received. “In some of her letters and emails, she appeared very threatening,” Richards said. “In one of her emails she wrote ‘You are sicker than a tree branch that’s going to be cut down very soon.’ It’s one ignorance after another.” Harrison disputes that charac- terization. “T’m very professional,” she said. Griffin was on legitimate sick leave when he was in Florida, Richards said. “He was being treated and he en- tered into a program in Florida,” he said. “The woman is on a witch hunt all over.” — Contact Brian O’Connor at 340-714-9130 or email boconnor@ dailynews.vi.