Sen. Millin Young Says Mapp Holding Her Mother’s Pension Hostage Because She Voted Against ArcLight Deal

ST. THOMAS —  For more than a year, the mother of Senator Janette Millin Young, Graciela Millin, had been working with Government House during the former Governor John P. de Jongh administraiton to settle a pension debt owed to her deceased husband, former Lt. Governor Henry A. Millin. After seeking advice from his attorney general, then-Governor deJongh wrote a letter to the V.I. Finance Department to release the pension payment. The pension obligation was an option Mr. Millin made to provide for his spouse after having served his tenure as lieutenant governor.

But according to Mrs. Millin Young, the Mapp administration took a full year to consider releasing those funds, and waited until the ArcLight/GVI operating agreement senate hearings, through Finance Commissioner Vladimir Collens, to contact Mrs. Millin Young and her mother, about the pending release of the owned monies.

“The fact remains that the governor and his commissioner of Finance repeatedly made calls to my mother, and the Finance commissioner called me, regarding a pending pension matter that concerns my father’s pension while the ArcLight agreement was before the Legislature, actions I find to be reprehensible,” Mrs. Millin Young said.

She added: “Despite the fact that Gov. deJongh and I disagreed on a myriad of issues, I respect the fact that he did the right thing before leaving office by separating my mother’s issue and our political differences. In stark contrast, Gov. Mapp and his administration have had a year to make the payments, instead, the administration chose to begin calling my mother and me while the ArcLight negotiations were going on to let us know that the payment would be released before December 31, 2015. The end of the year date is the same deadline imposed by the ArcLight negotiators to seal their deal.

“Why call me and let me to know monies would be on the way? Why call me about ArcLight and in the same breath mention the monies owed to my mother?” Mrs. Millin Young questioned. “Now Gov. Mapp has chosen to hold hostage a widower’s pension due to political reasons. This hurts because my father served this territory honorably for decades. I implore Gov. Mapp and Finance Commissioner Valdamier Collens to put aside political interference and to do the right thing by honoring the legally required pension obligation former Lt. Governor Millin earned from his tenure as lieutenant governor.”

The response comes by way of press release issued late Thursday after the governor allegedly questioned Mrs. Millin Young’s character on Wednesday on St. Thomas talk radio.

“It is disappointing, yet not surprising, that Governor Kenneth Mapp would attempt to impugn my character on the public airwaves by saying that it was inappropriate for me to mention a personal family matter during the deliberations of the ArcLight Agreement before the Senate in the last days of 2015,” Senator Janette Millin Young said.

“I need the people of the Virgin Islands to know that I did my due diligence in reference to the ArcLight Agreement vote. I was present at all public meetings and sessions called for it, and I took into consideration the negative legal and economic analyses by our hired firms and our own Legal Counsel’s opinion. I am very comfortable with the vote I cast and articulated as much during the brief minutes we were allotted during the final debate on the issue,” she added.

The ArcLight agreement was approved on December 29, 2015.