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Good Morning, first and foremost I want to thank God almighty for giving me the strength and health to be here today. Just four years ago, I greeted you as the ninth elected lieutenant governor of the United States Virgin Islands. It is with immense pride and gratitude that I intend to serve you as Lieutenant Governor for four more years with the respect and honor you so richly deserve as Virgin Islanders.
I want to sincerely thank Governor John P.
de Jongh, Jr. for his strong commitment and support. It is because of him that the Office of the Lieutenant Governor has remained an important partner in the work of the executive branch. “Together We Can” was the promise we made to you. It is evident that we have worked hard to fulfill that Promise for the Virgin Islands.
We also pledged to lay a solid foundation of prosperity and opportunity for future generations. Through our numerous accomplishments, we have laid the groundwork. There is much more work to do but we always knew that more can be done with teamwork. That is why, with God’s help and your continuing support, we will finish the job we have set out to do.
During the last four years, as Lieutenant Governor, my staff and I have worked earnestly to improve the lives of families and the state of business throughout the territory. You spoke. We did listen. No, we have not always agreed on how to make those improvements or what would be in the best interest of our residents. That is the beauty of living together as a community. We exchange ideas and bring people together. We take those ideas and opinions and collaborate with the experts to formulate a plan. Then, the plan is executed by those with the right skill sets to push us forward to our mutual goals.
With our similarities and despite our differences, our top priority is to improve your quality of life. I am certain that there is one thing that we can agree on. The strength and stability of a community depends on the character of its people even more so than the administrative processes of its government.
So today, I appeal to you--- the young, middle aged, elderly, rich, and poor---- work with your families, your neighbors, your schools, your church congregations, your community organizations, and your elected officials. Join hands to reunite our community. Show love. Share laughter. Teach each other. Learn from one another. Let’s renew our faith in each other. Be sensitive... forgiving…and positive. Let us put our creative energies together for the good of all of our people.
Let’s leave no one behind. We are obligated to ourselves and to the next generation to enrich our lives in all ways possible. To serve each other in whatever way we can. The
smallest deed of kindness can often have the most lasting results.
During the next four years, the employees of the Lieutenant Governor’s Office will continue to follow the mandate of excellent customer service in our six major divisions. Our efforts have led us to utilize technology to streamline processes and achieve efficiency. Through strategic planning and organizational restructuring, we have become more responsive to you, the clients we serve. Through training, we have become more sensitive to your needs.
We take our responsibilities seriously. We understand that through our six major divisions—Corporations and Trademarks, Office of the Tax Assessor, Division of Banking and Insurance, Recorder of Deeds, Passport, and Medicare—we influence the quality of life of practically every Virgin Islander. That is why our work is so critical. As we embark on our second term, we cannot and we will not rest. In 2015, we will be able to look back with pride on the imprint of our accomplishments.
We know that in the Virgin Islands business, particularly small business is at the core of our economy. Although, the economy of recent years has not always been kind to our small business owners, we promised to do our part to encourage business ownership in the Virgin Islands. Our goal was to make our division of Corporations and Trademarks more efficient. We wanted to streamline the application process and provide more customer friendly responses to those embarking on a new business venture. And we did just that. Early in the
de Jongh-Francis administration, potential business owners were able to acquire information and application forms on our website. We trained our employees to execute our new procedures, and in the very first year, we witnessed a 10% increase in revenues through the Corporations and Trademarks division.
During the coming years, we will continue to work with other agencies of the government to enhance the process of corporate filings through greater automation and even shorter response times.
In the Division of Banking and Insurance, we were successful in our mission of serving and protecting the public interest. We aggressively enforced laws of the Virgin Islands. At the same time, we assisted the insurance and banking sectors to better serve us.
We formalized a system for licensing and regulating mortgage lenders and brokers in the territory; identified all illegal non-bank automated teller machines; reduced the license renewal process for banks and insurance companies to under 30 days; implemented the Uniform Debt Management Services Act, the S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act of 2009, and drafted regulations for bail bondsman and bail bonds companies. We met with the V.I. Insurance Advisory Committee and held regular meetings of the V.I. Banking Board; and we hosted the Southeastern meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
Because of these and other achievements, we received the Spirit Award from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners recognizing the diligence of the Division of Banking and Insurance in “pursuit of effective solvency regulation and dedication to the highest level of protection for consumers during the unprecedented financial crises of 2008-2009." The Division remains committed to protecting the financial consumers of the Virgin Islands.
In the division of the Recorder of Deeds, we reduced the processing time to one day. No longer do our residents have to wait an inordinate amount of time to transact business for which they need a deed.
The Virgin Islands State Health Insurance Assistance Program (VI SHIP) is our local Medicare source and works actively in the interest of the territory’s recipients. Most recently, VISHIP presented forums to discuss benefits and encourage a healthy lifestyle among Medicare recipients.
As Virgin Islanders increasingly travel worldwide, the services of the Passport division are even more important. With this in mind, we launched a campaign about the importance of owning a passport and/or a passport card to facilitate travel to and from our shores.
The Office of the Lieutenant Governor was proud to announce in October that geospatial images of the U.S. Virgin Islands can now be viewed on our website. The viewer was developed as part of the Geospatial Information System (GIS), which will provide aerial views of the territory and makes it possible to see configurations of properties and roads. This information is critical to both the public and private sectors as a tool for community development and public safety. Such information can greatly improve the arrival time of emergency responders.
Perhaps our biggest challenge has been in the Tax Assessor Division. The legal challenges to how property values are determined in the V.I. began ten years ago. The revaluation of property was mandated by the courts in 2003 and it is an issue that all three branches of V.I. government have worked to resolve. With revaluation and tax credits, property taxes have decreased for the majority of home and landowners. For those who continue to be concerned about higher taxes, we assure you that the DeJongh-Francis administration is committed to a fair and equitable resolution while implementing a new tax assessment system that benefits all property owners.
I am proud of our efforts during the first term. The election by my peers to the executive committee of the National Lieutenant Governors Association was an honor. It has given me the opportunity to work with other Lieutenant Governors to advance programs, which have benefited our constituents in the territories and the states. As a member of the executive committee of NLGA, I was able to play a key role in bringing their initiatives to the Virgin Islands. These initiatives were the foundation of our local programs to raise awareness of cervical cancer and asthma.
I want to thank you, John and Cecile, for your support and for your sincere friendship. Thank you to the 180 employees of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor for your magnificent efforts during our first term. I am inspired by your demonstrated commitment to teamwork.
Cheryl, you have been my life partner of 35 years and your love and encouragement have supported me in the work that God and the people of the Virgin Islands have charged me to do. Thank you. To my children, Kareem, Deanna, Genelle, and Gereen, I am very proud of the adults that you have become and your passion for working to better the communities in which you live.
From my vantage point, the future of the Virgin Islands looks brighter. We each have our part to do. Former President Jimmy Carter once said, “Let us learn together and laugh together and work together and pray together, confident that in the end we will triumph together in the right.”
My fellow Virgin Islanders, be assured--we are still listening. You can count on us and we know that we can count on you. We are all “Together for Tomorrow.” God Bless you and God Bless these Virgin Islands.
Thank you.
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