Mapp To Reveal New Commissioners And Other Appointees At Press Conference On Tuesday

As inauguration day draws closer for the Kenneth Mapp-Osbert Potter administration, the transition team has been working to form the new government before January 5, 2015. On Tuesday, Dec. 30, a press conference will be held at the WTJX studio on St. Croix, at 10 a.m., where Mapp will reveal many of his cabinet appointees, members of the transition team with direct knowledge of the event have confirmed to VI Consortium.

Earlier this month, during Mapp’s first televised meeting where he announced the names of the 14 chairpersons of his transition team, the Governor-elect asked that all de Jongh administration commissioners and assist commissioners submit their resignations by 12 p.m. on Jan. 5.

Mapp also gave insight into the type of government he expects to lead and the quality of persons whom will be hired in his administration, stating that the Mapp-Potter team “will not be paying anyone for showing up on the job; we are only going to pay for performance.”

The Governor-elect said the move is important because it gives a signal to the community “as to how we anticipate the transition of power from one administration to the next.”

Mapp added that his administration is committed to meeting members of the Legislature and Stacey Plaskett, the newly elected Delegate to Congress, in order to forge new relationships to better the Virgin Islands. Furthermore, he said his team is already in talks with business people who want to invest in the territory.

Thanking his supporters for the victory at a celebratory event in Cramer’s Park, St. Croix, Mapp said he and Potter were elated to have won the contest against Donna Christensen; however, he reminded them that “the rough job is now ahead.”

“The work is now ahead,” Mapp said, “and we want to provide opportunity, and we’re going to offer people to sit at the table to work with us, because Osbert and I, standing alone, can’t do this job. But we’re asking people now when they sit to the table with us, ‘how many hours you really work a day?’ ‘How many hours are you willing to work a day?’ Because this is about hard work and we are going to be the first two to set the example of the hard work — we’re going to play hard; this is the Caribbean, but we have serious work to do.”

VI Consortium will be present at the press conference.