Potter Living In $2,800 Monthly Condo Rental In St. Thomas, $7K For Furniture – Paid For By Tax Payers

ST. THOMAS — At a Committee of the Whole hearing held at the Earl B. Ottley Legislative Hall on Thursday, which sought to gather information on the events that lead to Governor Kenneth Mapp’s Estate Nazareth monthly rental of $14,500, Randolph L. Bennett, acting commissioner of Department of Property and Procurement, revealed to senators that the government, as of April 1, has agreed to a lease of $2,800 monthly for a condominium at the Mahogany Run here for Lieutenant Governor Osbert Potter.

The agreement, Bennett said, was signed by Governor Mapp, and the government will also expend $5,000 to $7,000 to furnish the condominium for Potter, who has a home on the island. The acting commissioner also said that the money will be coming from the lieutenant governor’s budget, although he was not able to confirm the revenue stream through which the rental was being funded.

Senator Vialet, as was the case throughout the hearing, voiced his disapproval with the ongoing activity at Government House without the 31st Legislature’s consent.

Vialet wondered aloud why was it that Potter, who has a home in St. Thomas, and with an official lieutenant governor’s residence on St. Croix, want to live in a condominium on the island. He said with the governor already being commissioned by law to reside in the capital, Potter should — as has been the case with most lieutenant governors in the territory, the last being Gregory Francis — live on Croix, in the Sion Farm complex.

Senator Janette Millin Young, vice president of the 31st Legislature, echoed Vialet’s sentiments. She said her father, Henry Millin, was a lieutenant governor in the Juan Luis administration, and although he was offered housing, he refused because he lived on the island.

“It shouldn’t be a decision here to say we’re renting a house or an apartment for the lieutenant governor who lives right here on St. Thomas,” Millin-Young said. “And then you add to it that we have to buy him furniture, too.”

The revelation follows new information provided at today’s hearing revealing that the Government of the Virgin Islands, through WICO, had paid $107,563.56 in 4.5 months for the governor’s monthly mansion rental in Estate Nazareth, and that over $200,000 would be expended if the lease agreement had lasted a full year.