Wednesday, October 7, 2026 - Part 2

0:00The views and opinions expressed on analyze this are entirely those of the on-air participants and do not reflect those of the station's board management staff or underwriters. And we're back here, analyze this. I want to thank Senator Frankie G, Franklin Johnson for joining us. She's number 25 on the ballot. In another 10 to 15 minutes we're going to have Senator Haptiz joining us. She's number 11 on the same time I've seen John Senatorial ballot. We got a thing laying up. Because again, another classic that I had to take you know, once again, a particular mode. And I did the bonnetspear to start the Eda Klaakawa.

1:01So since then, in regular mode, let me go for the old J's redo by Third World. I haven't heard it for a long time. We haven't played it for a long time here. And this show we could get some of that to start our number two. You know how we did it related to Chokina Lil' Radym. I'm saying R-I-D-D-I-M. Radym, spell like it's pronounced. Of course, you know, it's actually R-H-Y-T-H-M rhythm. But not an issue. There are local shows of you. You get with the Radym thing. Yes, ma'am. And so bringing Yemman is a big slime for me. You know what I'm saying? I wouldn't have been first to all about this classic. Yemman, turn it up. Turn it up. Man, integrity again. You know what I'm saying? I know when you have fidel. I will point out an Amazon system in people car. Car.

2:01Like I don't pronounce it in Sintama Sonsin. You know what I'm saying? Car. Shoot like this. It's what you're used to test. We got a chick, right? Yemman, body roads. Enjoy yourself, I live with my... Come on baby, let me show you what I'm doing. That's their music. Oh, yeah. Welcome into my soul. Moving on and on. That's it. Okay. Okay. Guys, Car. You be I read the music diagram. Well, jazz and Car. You be I music fifth.

3:01And the reason why I reached for Thordwell is because they were the featured artists and two or the three jazz, fifths, dunking in West. Look, I hit a drum then man. I will restore it. I will restore it. Yes sir. Sweet love. Come here without being this voice. That's a... that's your booth. Yeah. Man, I got it right. Guys, some systems, some booth is mine. Now, the music, no? Caribbean music, Africa music. Da da da da da da da. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I was like, I was like, oh, the pochacente here in Obama. The brass love. Eddie Bruce.

4:01Mine. Da da da da da da. The band of Texas is a big tune. Come here with the last one, Snowman. Come here, Car. Let's go, Car. Last week. No, no, last week. Oh, guys. Can you see? And I like this enough. Now, that I got it right. Here in my hand. Oh, guys. Tell me what you're gonna do with it. I really like the no. Oh, guys, hit a drum then. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I will restore it to officials and then drum them. Now that we don't know what you're gonna do.

5:03We really help. Do you really see it? No. Do you really see it? It's up. I don't know that dancer at the caps. Never. Now that we don't know what I'm gonna do. We really help. Now that we don't know what you're gonna do. I'm gonna be gone too. We need... Man, I remember this. Yes, this is the good sign. Oh gosh, that's it, boo! I'm the piano. I remember Michael Cooper.

6:06Every man in the house is a song like Soul Train. I tell you the music, it's coming to clear. This man in. I remember this song. Where is the language? Yeah man, yeah man, it got sweet part. Yeah, yeah, it's seven minutes. It got sweet part in this. When he wrote his name, he came back here with singing. Because I said... I said... Oh gosh, instrumentation. Yes, have you seen the Duavozyan doing Henry?

7:14Check this out. Oh gosh, music man. Will Adjan? Can't forget 1992 and 1993 when Todd Wall mashup the jazz fest in Frederic's dead 1993. Rain can't done. But rain on Stapua can'sot. What I'm saying? Oh gosh, percussion. Yeah, Willie, come here, Willie Stewart. For those of you who don't know, Willie Stewart is by-runly brother. And you're not by-runly, why not legends? He had drum there. Okay, Ibu. Ibu caught back in. And the bass line got taken over in a little bit. Oh, God, this is really a classic. Body rugs, whenever you're ready man. I say...

8:18Here's the whole dance world. Move into this blue rugs. Du, du, du, du, du, du, du, du, du, du, du. Don't let me get my radio show, you know. Don't let me get my DJ show, you know. If... I don't want me to go home. I'll kind of music, I'll get action. Can't get it nowhere else. I'll radio to actual... to get a little salsa, some quelbe. Reggae, defunct, like this. Roots, reggae. R&B music. Don't let me reach for Dan Aras and Dana Somayano. I could touch them that disco music, funnily, everything. You could touch everything. Smokey. It doesn't mean it goes on and on. You know what I like about I get most? Every time I get in my music mode, my phone starts to blow up. I never get so much text message over a seven minute period in my life.

9:20Like I just know when I put on the word that we phone love. Eddie Melendez. Right? Doc's call. Rudy Krigger. Rufus Thombull. Do it Henry. The list goes on and on and on. Every time I reach for my classic, not classical, classic music, classic hits. The audience responds and I am grateful. They guys don't mean that you understand that I can't help myself. From time to time when I reach in from the music. But I play that because I want to vent a little bit. There is no excuse. None. For the jazz first, to not be as steeple in our calendar. In 2026. My father died in August of 1992.

10:21Mario Shabbat and that whole group, honored my father, honored John Lucien, known as Billy Harrygan for motor pacing garden. Originally, right? Anna Fred Thomas. And that very first Thursday night, Dungda at the Polly Joseph studio. We had a great jazz and Caribbean music festival, 1992, 1993, 1994. Harry came, Marilyn came, and 95. In a circle was supposed to be the featured artist that year. This is 2026. 31 years ago. So if you include 95, it would be 32. More concerts should have been in effect. This year would have been the 35th Caribbean music and jazz festival.

11:22If we had done it annually. Now I am aware of the fact that we had, you know, pandemic and storms and all that stuff. But why is it that the good things that have happened for St. Croix die all the time like that? And I was a senator. We supported FETA, the French State Economic Development Association. They did a number of different things. Concert. They would have a cruise ship would come in, the blue cruise. We do a number of different things. They also trade with habanates. What's it? A beautiful thing. And Wednesdays was, I don't know if it was out. Every Wednesday was the first Wednesday in a month, whatever. They did sunset jazz and all that stuff. But, you know, they took it on us, into this crab in a burial mentality that has held backs in Cray. At some point, you know, can't keep fighting until the latest.

12:25And I keep telling people. Right? By the way, Jimmy Wabat just texted me. The Friday night of that first year in 1992. There was an after party, upper captain's table. When Jimmy used to run captain's table, I think, in the martinis and then again, and then they know. And Diane Reeves performed up there. I mean, I mean, that's so high. You know, we went to that. You know, there was so many things. And massive is right to return to investment. You know, you worry about the initial cost. A massive legitimate. But the return to investment is how you really grade. Whether or not an initiative is valuable. You know, we got a ghetto that had a crab in a burial mentality. I say, we to include myself. I point fingers. I'm a part of it as well. You know what I'm saying? Moné random, remote. Good looking.

13:25Moné, Sean Kriger. As well. You know, so we got a, you know, we got to do what we got to do. And we got to think visionary. To complement the recovery. And we got to do our thing. You know, I'm saying so. Do we have Mr. Baptiza? I mean, Mr. Ahab Tizarn? Mr. Ahab Tizarn? Mr. Ahab Tizarn? Okay, good. So, you know, that's my soapbox for this morning. The Virgin Islands. We got to come together. And make this thing work for the territory. And we got to fix that energy crisis. Okay, I'm playing the Senators for everything. Don't do it. Let's get right to it. Sen Ahab Tizarn is number 11 on the ballot. Out of the Sentamas in John District. Seeking a seat in the 37 legislature. Good morning, Mr. Ahab Tizarn.

14:25Welcome to analyze this, the captains. I mean, the candidate speak. How are you? I'm good, Mr. James. Good morning to you as well. Thank you for having me on. I really appreciate it. Thank you to you and your listening audience. As you said, I'm. Sen Ahab Tizarn. And I am currently the chief of fisheries for the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources Division of Fish and Wildlife. Obviously, I'm lean. Leave as I'm aspirant for a seat in the same town as seen John district. For the legislature, the Virgin Islands. And I'm running with the future. It is a community rooted ethics first movement for the Virgin Islands, along with another group of five other candidates that are very qualified and want to do something for our community. Um, grew up in the Virgin Islands. Born and raised and returned home to serve. What high school are you from? I graduated from Antilles.

15:26And then I think probably the next question will be who you'll fall. No, I, I, I, the last name is the last name is a unique last name. It is. That's, that's being said, that got to be the you said right? Yeah, that's my father. That's what I told you about. My mother is Lois has. Yeah, man. Yeah, man, I'm big, big name. Big name all around. I like that. Um, you want to graduate from Antilles? What do you do? I went off to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. And I received my best, my bachelor's in environmental science with a minor in marine science. And then I came home. I worked for two years. I worked at D. P. N. R. I was the earth change officer for St. Thomas, St. John. And then I went back to the States, again, my PhD at the University of South Florida in biological and physical oceanography and marine resources assessment. So fisheries oceanography is my background. Tell me about the research triangle, which consists of your alma mater, University of North Carolina, Duke and North Carolina steep.

16:27We have a research and technology park here in the vote in islands, much, much smaller scale, more program than, than a facility or project. How, how can that experience that you had going to our research triangle university help the territory? Yeah, I think moving towards more critical funding in growth areas that will help us develop innovative sectors in the economy can really strengthen with our academic and academic community. And that was the pathway that North Carolina took. They put a lot of strong investment into their state schools, as well as building partnerships between industries that they wanted to grow. Agriculture for state health and medicine for UNC critical science and technology across the coastal areas, looking for more oceanographic and fishery sectors. And that came with a lot of both industry, as well as directed state support to grow those at a time when the federal government support was slipping away.

17:29And they built that up through critical investments in those areas through the steam, you know, pathway mathematics, agriculture, technology, education, workforce development. And I think you saw that model throughout the 90s and early 2000s in most of the states. And it's a model that we can take on here, but it requires to move away from this silo development that we're doing individual sectors only working within those with government focused on one specific thing as opposed to building combined systems that can help the Virgin Islands grow and help the Virgin Islands. People find more gain for economic employment in new sectors that are under utilized within the territory. We're talking with Sydney Haptis. He's a candidate for the 37 legislature, the Virgin Islands, all to the district at St. Thomas, in John. We'll take a break and pick up the discussion where we left off with education. And then we'll talk about this group of young candidates that are currently taking a stand in 2026.

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20:40Morning edition from NPR News eases you into your day and keeps your company through the chaos of a busy morning. Here interviews that give you context on the day's biggest stories along with reporting and updates on the latest breaking news. Stay on top of the world with Morning Edition every weekday. Morning Edition. Weekdays at 5am to 8am on WTJX FM 93.1. Morning Edition. Morning Edition. Morning Edition. Morning Edition. We're back here and laser the candidate speak and the candidate on the mic. like is, so say, very happy this number 11 on the ballot.

21:42Good morning, sir. Good morning, good morning. No, you mentioned you were back for your masters at Seoul Florida, as in Tampa? PhD, yeah, the College of Marine Science is actually in St. Petersburg across the bridge from Tampa. Okay, St. Petersburg, PhD, yeah, Palazzo. Yeah. But the degree is from the University of South Florida in Tampa. Okay, okay. The University of Versa in Islands, we are currently, you know, on Marine, department, I think we have a joint mission with one of the UPR University of Puerto Rico schools. Missions like this are beneficial for everybody. Because it shows number one that we're willing to work with other universities who may have resources that complement what resources we bring to the table.

22:42It also exposes a lot of Virgin Islanders to our lifestyle outside the territory. Talk a little bit about what you went through being exposed up in Chapel Hill and in St. Petersburg. And I know we're proud Virgin Islanders. We want people to know that University of Virgin Islands can hold its own with anybody, but exposure is a good thing. Yeah, of course, I mean, I'm a product of UVI. It took courses there after I finished my undergraduate. I was a professor at UVI in the Marine Science department from 2015 until I took the position with DPR in 2021. And I'm still courtesy faculty at UVI. And I think we have the reason I chose to come back after I got my PhD is that this place has so much promise. We are a territory surrounded by water. We are one of three HBCUs that offer an advanced degree in marine sciences. And that's not to say the promise of the people

23:46of the Virgin Islands. I've seen more talented young people here than I've seen in a lot of the places that I've been. But what that takes is transforming that into a regional collaborative that can really build out the workforce and the economic strategies that we want to see in the territory. You had mentioned the research triangle park, RTP. In my time that I watched them grow to one of the places that has the fourth largest number of PhDs in the nation, that educated workforce brings in the type of economic investment that you want to see because it's developing the type of workforce that can build out the capacities needed in business. When I was at the University of South Florida, I was actually on a no research ship coming out of Mexico when the deep water horizon oils spill happen. That was a disaster for the entirety of the Gulf of Mexico, now Gulf of America. And I watched as the University of South Florida and other regional governments throughout the Gulf of Mexico

24:49reestablished itself, USF's Marine Science transformed itself into a global leader and disaster response interdisciplinary modeling and oceanographic modeling throughout the Gulf Coast by partnering with the other Marine Science institutes through the Florida Institute of Oceanography. These regional collaborations allow us to build up the network and the infrastructure necessary to succeed into the future. But it requires long-term planning and strategizing. We are not defined by the disasters that occurred to us. We're defined by our responses to them. The University of the Virgin Islands right now, going through its accreditation, reacreditation and right now in a shill cause window, explained in a public way, it's so important that our university be accredited and degrees that are conferred to its graduates have that authenticity with a seal on it

25:50of approval from the Middle States accreditation. That's a great question. It's not only a seal of approval, but it also allows the university to compete for funding as well as federal requirements that are necessary to be considered a degree granting institution through the Middle States group that does that accreditation. So it both confers the authenticity, as you mentioned, to the degrees, but it's meant to be the auditors for the educational ability of a university, right? It tells people that you are holding up the standards that we expect of higher institutions of higher education in the United States. And so unless you have that, it makes it very difficult to buy into the system that was built in the United States for academic instruction at the higher levels of education. It also makes it difficult for students to come out of that process and be held to the same standards

26:50when they're applying for jobs later on. I think, it looks to me that this current administration is moving towards getting that completely rectified. And they're doing a lot of the right things that are necessary. But I think a lot of it came down to having the right type of financial auditing as well as record keeping and the necessary technical capacity within the University of the Virgin Islands to handle all of that. And I think we have to understand when we are trying to build systems in the territory, it does require a level of technical capacity that we need to have in those institutions. Anaskeela, one to ten. Where our recovery is concerned. One being poor, ten being excellent. What would your numerical grid be? I mean, I think we can always do better. I would say we're probably at the four to five, but moving towards higher numbers. And that really depends on the outcomes.

27:50We're still midway through the process for a lot of the outputs that we said would be done in the recovery. But I think the people that are doing the work of the recovery are doing the best they can with the tools that they were given, right? What we need to have is better long-term planning so that we have the structures in place before the disasters happen to us. But I would say within the current recovery, we're not implementing programs that are gonna put us on a better footing long-term, right? We're still working through these siloed systems of how we manage things. A good example is what we're doing with the workforce gap, right? We're gonna need housing for all of those workers that are gonna come in in the construction industry. But we're putting them into the industry side, right? We're providing them with a funding and making them have to build those things out. That gives us no long-term control over a large amount of housing that could be used towards our housing shortage long-term.

28:54They can do anything they want with it. We don't know if those are gonna come back onto the market. It's expected they will, but at what price? And is that only going to increase the cost of housing long-term within our territory? You know, so go ahead, Donald, sorry. No, I was just gonna ask you a two-part question. Why did you choose to run in 2026? And this young group of candidates that you mentioned earlier, give us some more background and how I'll come together to make this joint move for yourself to be an elected official, to be elected officials in the Virgin Islands at this particular point. Sure, let's appreciate the question. I think one for me, I always came back to the Virgin Islands to serve, right? That was a decision I made early on because of the investment the Virgin Islands put into me growing up. I felt a commitment to come back to my community

29:55to serve in any way that I could see fit. And I feel now that my knowledge, abilities, skills, and talent can best be used in creating and reshaping the legislation for the territory that can put us on a better footing for the future, right? I think part of it is that when we were talking to young people in the territory about the apathy surrounding voting, a lot of them said we didn't see leaders that were doing things for our benefit. We didn't see ourselves in the leaders that are currently in the legislature or running the territory. And so what we wanted to do was put together a field of candidates that we thought could bring that to the aspirants that are running for the legislature as well as create an accountability structure that requires us to answer to the other candidates that are running, but to the people that are part of the movement, where we are focused on ethics and the values

30:57that are beneficial to people of the Virgin Islands. The way the future came together is it was founded by Dr. Hadees Suhr, who's another one of the candidates running with the future, a money Daniel, another one of the candidates and Rudel Hodg Jr. And they're all candidates on the legislature and they put together a group of elders, young people and people within the Virgin Islands that would serve as a board that provides how we select the candidates. And then they went through a process to recruit candidates that they thought would fit best that had the skills necessary to serve in the legislature, the knowledge base that isn't currently available among the candidates that are running and to make sure that they would have the right type of ethics and values. We all when we applied had to go through a rigorous vetting process that had a questionnaire of like over 50 questions that we had to answer in detail about our views, our values, our ethics,

31:58the things that we would champion as someone in the legislature. And then we were vetted by the group of candidates that were on the vetting committee that was made up of the people that were part of the movement. And so I think we both have that accountability to the people that are backing us to run in terms of people within the movement, but also we're running as a slate of unified candidates. So we have accountability to each other, which I don't think we really see right now through the current candidates that are running through the party system, right? We hear a lot about a loyalty pledge when running, but what about an accountability pledge to run on the values that are based within those individual parties and holding the other candidates of your party accountable to those things that you wanna see moving forward? I think that's what we are bringing to the ballot. Would you describe your thinking as liberal, moderate, or conservative?

32:59I mean, I would consider myself between liberal and moderate, right? I think I'm an academic. My background is in marine sciences. I think there's a need to build the right systems for the territory to have economic development, but it cannot be at the cost of the people of the Virgin Mary. Because that's a long-term strategy that's ultimately going to fail. Not to mention the environment, what you're a vapor born and dove. Yeah, for me, that's the biggest thing. What we're seeing is we have global threats that are really reducing the quality and the sustainability of our environments that make the Virgin Islands so special. And I don't see the type of legislation necessary and movement from the government on structures necessary to revise our laws, to make us be able to hold people accountable, the systems that need to be strengthened to protect those resources. And the right type of resources given to the agencies

34:00that can help us both protect our natural resources. And I mean, I don't think that means only the coral reefs and the land that also means the people, the historic and cultural resources, and our culture, all of those things need to have protections from all structures in the government, right? And we need laws that think about those things going forward and that plan for how we can best do that going forward. Now, my audience, two of my listeners just brought up that you use the Gulf of America, right? Is that because you're in support of the name change or you're at Google Head and Google or whatever these companies know are using Gulf of America because a lot of us, we're fond of what we've known out of a label just Gulf of Mexico. Explain that, Kai. I want to give you an opportunity to explain that. Yeah, yeah, it's a great question. One, no, I'm not in support of the name change. I think it was a silly thing to do and it was non-sensical to waste federal resources on doing something like that.

35:00But as someone who spends a lot of his time bringing in federal money to the territory, it is a requirement when we are writing things that have to do with those changes that we put those names in. So I use them interchangeably. I still call it the Gulf of Mexico. Listen, I did my entire PhD in the Gulf of Mexico, right? I was studying Blufan Tuna and using satellite data to predict where they spawn. So that fishery never got shut down. And I, throughout my PhD dissertation, you could see it's Gulf of Mexico. But now when I'm writing grants, if I put in the term Gulf of America, that's another thing that, if I put in Gulf of Mexico, excuse me, that's a thing that's gonna hold us back from getting that money. So we just have to be cognizant of those changes when we're working in the federal system. So that's a fair, because of the federal mandate or federal change, you got to be respectful of what, how they look at it now, and you're really looking to put any obstacles

36:01in the way of the end game, the end result, the desired result. Yeah, which is bringing money to the territory. Okay. A lot of people don't realize this with the division of Fish and Wildlife is fully federal funded, right? So all our payroll, all the vehicles, all the vessels are rent, are utilities. That's paid by grants that myself, the director, or the chief of wildlife rents. And so a lot of our time is spent managing federal funds to make sure that we could bring resources into the territory, and being familiar with those structures, and how best to navigate those for the benefit of the territory. No, I think that's a palatable response. But if you're asking a fineman support, no, you're already said, you are pro-gulful Mexico, but the gig, the job requires you to respect how they look at the federal government at this particular time, once that particular body of water to be labeled, right? Right. Okay, we good with that. I don't want to hop,

37:01and I can't really think that's a big issue. I just don't want to be labeled as a Gulf of America. And then it's always when I trump people in my knowledge, I don't want to get into that. One final question. What, why did candidate Hodge run as a Democrat and the other three or four runners independent? Does that show that each candidate, even though we want to walk together, we're still of our own beliefs, and how we want to do things individually? No, I think it more has to do with the structure of how people were planning to run their campaign, in terms of where they wanted to utilize the existing structures within the Virgin Islands election system. But we are all unified in terms of issues that we think are important, as well as the pathway by which we would do things in the legislature, which is running as a unified sling. You know, I can't speak for Rudelle, he's his own person, but I think, obviously, we all feel

38:02that the future of the Virgin Islands is on the ballot, and the best way to go about it is running as this unified slate to create honest, accountable government to fix the problems that we face going for. We're talking, we're talking with Sennhei Haptis. He is number 11 on the ballot, seeking a seat to the 37 legislature, representing the district of St. Thomas, St. John, here on the candidates, if you're going to come back, we're going to focus a little bit on St. John, focus on energy and health care, and then he will put up both tie and his appearance here today. Be back right after this. It's a wide divergence, myth versus reality. His life became the stuff of legend.

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40:06I thought a friend will be this. So I handled the numbers. And I tried to see what is their relationship with My Money. So we meld the two together to give you the most financial empowerment. Two in the Saturdays at 8 p.m. on WTJXTB channel 12. As veterans, we're no strangers to helping others. That's what we were taught, service before self. But we do have one question for the veterans listening. When is the last time you reached out for help? If you or someone you know needs resources, whether it's for stress, finances, employment, or mental health, don't wait. Reach out. Find more information at va.gov slash reach. That's va.gov slash reach. Brought to you by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and the Ad Council. We're back here on analysis.

41:25The candidate speaker and the candidate on the mic is a sitting like this. Number 11 on the ballot. Good morning once again. Candidate haptis. Tell me about seeing John Monday, and the table talk. Our conversation was based on representation and the composition of legislature, specifically seeing John their history. They actually had their own island representative once upon a time. But Supreme Court landmark decisions for the 60s forced the, or not they didn't force the Congress increased representation in territory from 11 to 15. The same John senator became an unconditional, excuse me, became a conditional at large senator. The condition being that they must reside in seeing John. But they get votes territory wide because population wise, they don't need demand it to satisfy the one man, one vote formula.

42:27What's your take on seeing John? Of course, you know, seeing John number one beach trunk B in 2025, a lot of potential. What can we do as a scene time I seen John senator to actually protect what's in John brings to the table and actually hands it. Yeah, well, I think one of those main things is we have to look at how we want to have representative government for the people of seeing John. I don't think there's much we could do currently within the legislature. But there's an opportunity coming to support the constitution through the convention and pushing to have more representative democracy for seeing Johnians through that process. And I think that's one area that would help with that. The other is, you know, DPR spent the last four years coming up with this comprehensive land and water use plan, which has a lot of recommendations associated with how we best protect our natural resources. And one of those is moving more towards municipal boards for the not just the districts,

43:30but island-based municipal boards. They would have, you know, elected representative officials who could actually make determinations based on what is best for their municipalities. And I think having one solely for seeing John to understand how historically their, you know, land use has been determined by people not of seeing John, you know, can help better understand the needs of those. I think a third area clearly is energy transmission, right? And so one of the things that has been a problem is the transmission going across to the cables. And there's no backup to that utility that's going through there. And, you know, I think moving towards individualized solar microgrid and that's one way the legislature can help is possibly identifying temporary funding through the fund, seeing John fund, the capital fund to develop that can then be backfilled either by funding that comes in from the energy

44:31office or other federal programs that could be used to develop that in the territory. So I think those are some specific areas that I would try and champion within the legislature to help give more resources to the people of seeing John. You are aware to fact that the generators have arrived. Hopefully they'll be installing online in the event. Something goes wrong in seeing Thomas because, of course, Alpawat to seeing John know is dependent on a run of highly planned. Correct. And I think having individualized, you know, structures with on seeing John themselves, or at least planning for that for the future that can provide them, you know, basic energy needs in events of destruction at the Randolph-Hartland planet would be something that we should really do for the people of seeing John. The WAPA issue is a real issue. St. Thomas and St. John have been hard hit hardest throughout 2025 and 2026. This coming from accrucian.

45:36You I heard you just know delineating what the legislature can do and can't do from a legislative standpoint or perspective or base. What can the legislature do at this point? Because I believe that we've already identified all the problems with the Virgin Islands water and power authority. What we need now are reasonable, affordable and tangible solutions. What do you think the what role the legislature can play to that in? I completely agree. I think the legislature's main goal with those specific solutions, you know, for the short term solutions for WAPA, our accountability. And that's making sure that the structure of the board fits solely with providing answers to the people of the Virgin Islands regarding what they're doing. You know, if we're having we're purchasing short term power generation through additional generators, how long is that going to take? Is the executive branch making sure that the funding is available in

46:38timely fashion for implementation and putting those things in place, right? I think that is really the main focus. I think it would be too difficult in a two-year term to really restructure aspects of it. But I do think there is an opportunity going through again the constitutional convention and providing the necessary support to reshape those types of issues. I think creating a change to the board would create a fight with the governor under the current administration that you would would stall everything that you would be trying to do for the next two years. But you can require them to come in when they're giving reports under budget testimony to the legislature to have a specific plan and over those two years, hold them accountable to it and then make it, you know, make accountability the main focus. Long term, there is a lot more wiggle room for the legislature to do things, which is shaping how we are planning to account for the energy needs of the territory.

47:40I mean, there we can identify what we want the utility to work towards in concert with whatever structure is determined to be best to lead WAPA going forward. And personally, I don't think since it's inception, the structure of the advisory board that has, you know, entire selection by the executive branch without really clear requirements of the people that are sitting in it is not the right process because there's just too many ties. It doesn't allow for accountability and the needs to serve the people of the Virgin Islands. Health care is a big issue. The cost of energy affects health care. We're supposed to reconstructing two new hospitals, a ballpark figure, and the aggregate, $2 billion, significant amount of money for a population of 85 to 90,000 people. What's your take on that? Yeah, I mean, I think what we're doing clearly isn't working. And I think part of, you know,

48:40we've talked a bit about the research triangle park, right? And one of the areas that they've expanded well on is having the university tied in to their health care and medical system, but that requires a lot of federal support. To do that, you have to bring in the technical capacity. That means people that can write grants. That means, you know, both the people that can manage fiscally and manage programmatically the needs of the hospitals to bring in more support to do that. Our problem right now with those tends to be there isn't enough money to allow them to have the allocations in a timely fashion that the executive branch is saying that it would give. And if you're not doing that, that just compounds the cost that we're going to pay to the vendors that have outstanding payments. You know, they're constantly trying only to meet salaries. And if you can't even have payroll covered, how are you going to be able to pay your outstanding debts to other vendors? And I think identifying ways that we can bring in more funding

49:40beyond just what comes for the general fund to our hospitals is an imperative. And those are the same kind of structures that we can build by creating things that the legislature has done through like the RT part, helping to support more development of health sciences, research that can be tied in with our government systems as well as with the hospital systems would be a huge boon to the territory. Education, we touch on our T part. We see now a young people getting caught up in crime. How can we revitalize our young people to understand that literacy, education, knowledge is King, Queen, Jack, Rock, Knight, everything for God from God to chess, Bishop, get our libraries back in the fold. You're at DPR now. I'm a big advocate of the libraries. I know we live in a technological world where everybody believe the cell phone is a library. What are the little things that we could do in particular in your case legislatively

50:45to revitalize the things that work for us when we were younger. I mean, I know, you know, I know you're running things now and we appreciate you offering yourself. But I can be honest with you, we had it better than you guys had it. 15, 20, 30 years ago and it shouldn't be like that. That means that we regress. So we got to admit that we regress and how do we go about fixing that regression and getting into progression? Yeah, I mean, the first thing is accurately identifying problems, right? We for many instances in the VI government, we don't want to say when things aren't working because we see that only as a failure, right? As opposed to an opportunity to change the things that aren't working, right? I'm a scientist. I'm fine with understanding when something didn't work. When I do an experiment and I get a negative result, that is telling me the next step that I need to do to find out the answer. And that is the model that we should be using within our government. I think in terms of like education and workforce, you hit the nail on the head. It's harder now for

51:50the people that are coming in here. There's a time tax to everything that we do and we don't have that support anymore to be out in the community doing a lot of the programs that I had when I was a young person growing up here, right? In addition, the lack of, you know, government support on time in allotments to a lot of these foundations and nonprofits that are doing the work on the ground makes their work even harder. So it makes it more difficult for them to keep the services in the community going. And when we have those types of things happening, you lose a lot of the young people. If it's not continuous, if something's there and then it shuts down, if a library's open for a few months, then you know, goes quiet for eight months to nine months out of the air. And in some cases, you know, much longer, they're not going to come back and use those services. And so we have to figure out as a way to do continuity. And a lot of that comes from the system that we handle for procurement in the territory. That's a lot of, we have to create clear and

52:54specific rules, update our codes for procurement and give those individual agencies the tools that they need to do better, right? Putabotai and how you want to represent the people that see in Thomas and see in Jan, should you be elected beginning with the early voting process, October 16th, and then culminating on November 3rd with the general election. Yeah, thanks. No, well, I think what I'd like to say to the people of the version of this is you have a choice, right? And I think what I'm bringing along with the other candidates running on the future is a new way of doing things where you can have accountability and transparency with both the ideas and the ways that we want to do things. But, you know, no system ever gives up

53:56control by choice, you know? We have a rich history here in the territory where we have small groups that have taken control of systems that haven't worked for them going all the way back to the slave revolting scene junk, right? Insurrections. And I think there are ways to do that that don't have to be as violent. One of the ways we can do that and change the political system is by voting. And this is to a lot of the young people out there. I know you feel apathetic. I know you feel that they don't have leaders that can represent your interests. That's not true anymore. There are people here who are running to change the territory for the benefit. We understand that it is harder now than it has been and it doesn't have to be that way. It shouldn't be a sacrifice to come home to the community that you love. And we want to make it so it isn't that way. And so what I would say is your voice is your vote. Use it in this coming election to create a change in the systems that have been having political control for too long where we see a downward trend in the

55:02things that are for the people of the Virgin Islands. Name number. Yeah. Thanks. I'm not just and I have this. I am an independent candidate running for the St. Thomas St. John district for the 37 legislature and I'm number 11 on your ballots. Let's put purpose over politics this November and we can create better policy to create better quality of life for Virgin Islands. So may I have this. Thank you very much for joining us on your candidate speak. And good luck with the campaign and appreciate your candidate this morning here. I analyze this. Thank you. Now I appreciate you for having me on. No, thank you very much. I'm going to help this. I'm telling your father, never Jim say, hey, love and mommy, okay. They listen. They're listening right now. Okay, mommy, mommy and daddy, my name, okay. The young in stepping up. I've been there. No way is like. So, you know, we're glad to see all your people stepping up on our freedom. So thank you very much for joining us.

56:04Candidate have have this. Thank you so much. You got it. That's not a sin. I have this joining us this morning here on the candidate's speak. You know, are you hearing me on them? And don't hold it against me, right? Because I will defend in convention. I will defend the elders because that one of them know I'm 62. But you can't hold against me. When I hear our young people articulate themselves in a fashion like what Senator, what candidate haptis, how can they have this just song? And this is across the board and all. And I, you know, we spoke about this on the table talk, right? A lot of furniture and all that stuff that they use in, right? We didn't speak like this. And I consider myself to be well-spoken. But we didn't speak like this when I was my 20s and my 30s. I'm serious.

57:04And I went to St. Dunstin. We were number one, you know, college preparatory school back in the day. Smalls in Dunstin. We got some positive things going out here for for the Virgin Islands. Louis Bill and their positivity, right? Support whomever you want to support. All the candidates get equal love, right? But as we age, we have obligation to look up for our young people and our elders. And I'm saying, and ourselves, of course, because we can't help anybody if we can't help ourselves. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you, Frank Ming Johnson. And thank you, St. Dunstin. I haptis for joining us on the candidate speak tomorrow. This morning, tomorrow can get us in commercial and I can be joining us on the candidate speak. Be good. Be safe. The views and opinions expressed on analyze this are entirely those of the on-air participants and did not reflect those of the station's board management staff or underwriters. They updated with news, alerts, and other valuable information with WTJX newsfeed. Listen to the latest news stories that matter with Marcelina Ventura Douglas.

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