Lawsuits, construction process further hobble home repair program
United States Virgin Islands
ST. CROIX — Dozens of local and foreign contractors attended a mandatory pre-bid conference call in May when the V.I. Office of Disaster Recovery issued 39 bids under the EnVIsion Tomorrow program, the Virgin Islands government-led program meant to repair storm-hit homes following 2017’s hurricanes Irma and Maria. During the call, ODR Director Adrienne Williams-Octalien acknowledged the program’s lackluster payment history.
“I know this program has had many issues in the past with payments, with overall processing, and we are attempting to streamline this process and get the resources out,” she said at the outset of that call. “But we also want to make sure that we get good pricing, and that our contractors understand the program, and that they are also able to move, navigate and have a successful experience with these federal dollars” from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, commonly referred to as HUD, and administered by V.I. Housing and Finance Authority.
During the pre-bid meeting in May, Williams-Octalien also told contractors that their bids must account for the use of government-owned lumber.
“Contrary to public opinion, the material at the lumber yard is good, ‘tier one’ lumber,” Williams-Octalien said in May, repeating assertions she made to lawmakers on the Housing, Transportation and Telecommunications Committee in February. “So you know — those of you who are in the industry know — that you cannot buy ‘tier one’ lumber here in the Virgin Islands.”
Indeed, large quantities of lumber were sent to the territory through the Federal Emergency Management Agency after hurricanes Irma and Maria. The V.I. Housing Finance Authority, which later assumed control of the wood, issued a May 2020 request for proposals seeking a contractor to manage the lumber’s storage and distribution. Now, that award is at the center of an ongoing prosecution in the U.S. District Court of the Virgin Islands.
William Thelusma, of Nuvo Construction, told The Daily News hours before an indictment was unsealed back in June, that after years of the wood sitting out in the elements, “I don’t think it’s fair to go use that in somebody else’s house.”
Lumber languishes while some make millions
According to that indictment, Davidson Charlemagne, the Education Department’s facilities manager and his wife, Sasha, collected millions in federal disaster recovery dollars while storing the lumber rent-free on department property – the now condemned Alexander Henderson Elementary School. That school was also damaged when Maria, a Category 5 hurricane, wreaked havoc on the island on Sept. 20, 2017. Hurricane Irma, another Category 5 storm, had ravaged St. Thomas and St. John mere weeks before on Sept. 6.
Previously, the St. Croix lumber had been stored at Sunshine Mall in Frederiksted. At some point in 2020, the mall’s owner asked the government to remove the wood from his property, according to the indictment.
On Friday, hours after The Daily News story on EnVIsion Tomorrow program was published, ODR issued a Request for Proposals for warehouse and security services. It noted that the lumber on St. Thomas is stored at Frenchman’s Bay Quarter, specifically at No. 2-2 Bovoni.
The alleged scheme was partially obscured by the fact that Charlemagne’s company, D&S Trucking, was a subcontractor. The actual award went to Island Services Group, or ISG.
The indictment also charged former V.I. Housing Finance Authority Chief Operating Officer Darin Richardson with improperly awarding the $3 million contract in January 2021, and a bid from a rival company “was altered by unknown co-conspirators after it was submitted to VIHFA,” effectively rendering it less competitive.
The V.I. Housing and Finance Authority contract with ISG was amended at least five times, according to the amendments reviewed by The Daily News:
• June 2021 — The value of the contract was increased to more than $4 million and the term of performance was increased from 2.8-3 years. The June 13 indictment, however, claimed that the contract already had a three-year term.
• August 2021 — The value of the contract was increased again to more than $4.3 million.
• October 2021 — The value of the contract was increased again to more than $4.4 million.
• June 2023 — The signatures of both Charlemagnes appear for the first time, and the contract was amended to include language from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department.
The original professional services contract and early amendments were signed by former-VIHFA Executive Director Daryl Griffith and Island Services Group managing partner Morris Anselmi. The amendments were also signed by Kimberley McCollum, who listed herself as a “member-manager” of ISG on a federal tax form. One later amendment was signed by Dayna Clendinen during her tenure as interim executive director of the Housing Finance Authority.
No members of ISG were named in the June indictment but, separately, a federal grand jury in February charged Anselmi and McCollum, a former president of the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce, with fraudulently taking in approximately half a million dollars in Paycheck Protection Program money.
The fifth and final amendment provided to The Daily News was dated May 16, 2024 — less than a month before federal prosecutors closed in. It was signed by Anselmi, McCollum, and Housing Finance Authority Director Eugene Jones Jr., who assumed leadership of the agency in April, and established a new three-year term ending in January 2027.
At the same time, federal prosecutors concluded in their initial complaint, “the woodpiles in St. Croix and St. Thomas remain almost entirely unused and stacked on pallets outdoors and exposed to the elements for more than three years.”
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