In response to a Virgin Islands Consortium Facebook post on the Oct. 19 Senate hearing, including a passage on President Hodge's public commitment to public participation, I  commented on VICC's ongoing failure to fulfill my Oct. 6 public records request:

“Acting President Hodge maintained that public participation must remain central to the convention's work. This convention belongs to the people of the Virgin Islands,' he told lawmakers. 'A constitution cannot simply be a document produced by 15 delegates. The people must be able to see the work, understand the issues, question the proposals, offer their views, and ultimately make an informed decision.’”

On October 6, 2026, I submitted a formal public records request pursuant to 3 V.I.C. § 881 to VICC President Stedmann Hodge Jr. and Public Education and Information Committee Chair Patricia Welcome for a copy of VICC’s draft proposed constitution and several other documents, including the contract for VICC’s Public Education and Information Campaign. This public records request was a last resort, after more informal requests failed to produce results. Unfortunately, VICC’s public records law is mostly a government PR vehicle rather than a serious law, with no deadline for fulfilling a request and effectively no penalty for failing to do so. So I expect to keep receiving statements about VICC’s commitment to public participation and transparency—which is good politics—but not timely access to the public documents I requested.