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Information on USVI's 6th Constitutional Convention

The Legislature’s Oct. 19, 2026 Hearing on VICC

by | Oct 19, 2026

Oct. 19, 2026 Meeting of the Committee on Government Operations, Veterans Affairs and Consumer Protection—Morning Session, Legislature of the U.S. Virgin Islands

Introductory Note

The hearing ran from 1:26:08 to 3:21:38, just shy of two hours. That’s a lengthy hearing, which suggests the Legislature takes VICC very seriously.

I tend to focus on procedural rather than substantive issues, so my meeting notes reflect that.

The VICC did not publicly release the financial documents it provided to the Legislature as the basis for the Legislature’s questions. One senator asked for additional documents that VICC promised to provide.

VICC Delegate Attendance

  • Presenters in person: President Stedmann Hodge, Human Rights Committee Chair Rudel Hodge, and Legal Counsel Mark D. Hodge
  • Presenters online: Treasurer John Abramson
  • Present in the audience: Rupert Ross (Government Structure Chair) and Imani Daniel (secretary)

Other Press Coverage

Meeting Notes

1:26:45 to 1:46:37--Introductory presentation by President Stedmann Hodge

From Jan. 25, 2025 to Oct. 2, 2026, five standing committees reported 118 meetings:

  • Government Structure: 36
  • Finance and Public Services: 32
  • Human Rights: 31
  • Culture & Heritage: 12
  • Education and Public Information (nicknamed EPIC): 7

Total: 118 standing committee meetings

  • Executive Committee and ad hoc committee meetings: 16*

Grand Total: 134 meetings

*J.H. Snider Note: To my knowledge, none of these 16 meetings were publicly noticed. It is unclear whether, and to what extent, the 118 standing committee hearings were publicly noticed. Public notice would include timely email notice and newspaper notice. For example, public notice five minutes before a public meeting begins would not constitute public notice.

Key Dates:

  • Nov. 7, 2026. VICC vote on parts of the proposed constitution drafted by VICC’s Human Rights Committee
  • Nov. 7, 2026. Launch of VICC’s public PR website.
  • Dec. 19, 2026 VICC recesses for holidays.
  • January 31, 2027. VICC final consolidated draft, subject to completion of remaining reviews.
  • Feb. 28, 2027. Statutory date to submit the proposed constitution to the Governor.
  • April 1, 2027. Start of the required public notice period for the July 3, 2027 referendum.
  • July 3, 2027. Special election for the public referendum on the proposed constitution.

Congress has 60 legislative days, not calendar days, to submit feedback on a draft constitution. Since legislative days, unlike calendar days, are unpredictable, this creates uncertainty in the convention’s timeline regarding Congressional action. One practical implication: the second stage of the public education campaign doesn’t begin until after Congressional review, so the campaign's start date is unclear.

~1:38:10. Extensive discussion of VICC’s planned archival and public access public records practices, including that EPIC has no responsibility for VICC’s public records practices. Current convention records are dispersed among committee chairs. They will have to be consolidated. VICC currently has no policy on the extent of its preservation, including public notices of meetings.

~1:39:45. VICC will provide a copy of the proposed constitution to the legislature on a confidential basis. (J.H. Snider: I may have misheard this exchange; it appears that parts of the proposed constitution will be made publicly available shortly after VICC’s Nov. 7 plenary session.)

~1:45:40. President Hodge’s stated commitment to public participation and transparency on behalf of the people of the Virgin Islands.

Q&A Begins at 1:46:37

$150 per diem per delegate for every meeting a delegate attends. The Legislature wants detailed documentation of these expenses. We’re up to $179,100 in stipends, which implies ~1,200 meeting days for delegates and an average of 9 delegates per meeting. The committee meeting attendance rate has been about 95%. (J.H. Snider: The two most common sets of questions legislators raised were about 1) the per diem, and 2) public participation and the public education campaign. )

Joking about all three presenters having the last name: Hodge.

President Hodge: We  send media notices to St. Thomas Source and Virgin Island Daily News. Only the St. Thomas Source has supported the convention publicly. No other outlet has publicized our meeting dates or anything similar.

~203:20: President Hodge: “We do our due diligence… when we advertise our meetings.”

President Hodge: Committee Chair Welcome has been communicating regularly with our PR firm, NT Media Production. (J.H. Snider: Hodge doesn’t use the appellation “PR firm;” he simply refers to NT Media Production.” In general, he refers to the “education campaign,” not the “PR campaign.”)

President Hodge: No VICC committee can meet without the executive committee's prior approval. This controls delegate stipend expenses. Specifically, the convention president approves the meetings.

Senator Alma Francis Heyliger worries that a special election, rather than a general election, to ratify the proposed constitution will lead to low public participation.

~2:17:10 Peter Meyers is mentioned to illustrate VICC’s commitment to public participation.

Senator Joseph: If a delegate attends a five-hour meeting for one hour, does he receive a full stipend? Treasurer Abramson: A delegate must attend at least half the meeting to receive the full stipend; otherwise, it’s cut to $75. Senator Joseph requests the stipend policies in writing from Treasurer Abramson.

President Hodge: Of the $300K requested from the Legislature, $100K is for public education, $200K for VICC operations.

Advisor Hodge: You asked about the draft legislation; if you give me your email address, I’ll send it to you right now.

When a committee proposes a draft section, it forwards it to the executive committee, which then presents it to all delegates for review at a plenary session.

Senator: Shouldn’t the public already be part of the process, such as through town halls?

President Hodge: You cannot go to the public without language. We’ll release the document to the public after Nov. 7; we’ll have no excuse after that.

~2:47:00 President Hodge: We had to revise the 5th VICC proposed constitution because of cultural and technological changes since then, as well as responding to the 9 issues raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Senator: We want the public to have an opportunity to weigh in. (J.H. Snider: This stated desire is ironic given how the legislature passed both the original enabling act and its subsequent revisions with no meaningful opportunity for the public to weigh in.)

Delegate Rudel Hodge: Hawaii and Alaska, as well as some European countries, inspired our draft constitution. (J.H. Snider: both Alaska’s and Hawaii’s constitutions include a provision for periodic constitutional convention referendums; VICC chose to exclude that type of provision.)

~3:20:40 to 3:21:38. Concluding statement by President Hodge. He thanked the legislators and his fellow delegates.