Sliema mayor's 'emergency meeting' is illegal, director of local government says

Director of local government Martin Bugelli said no 'emergency meeting' could be held at 4pm, because it was illegal to hold a council meeting before 5:30pm, without any record of unanimous approval of the meeting.

Bugelli said that since the executive secretary could not establish whether the emergency meeting, called by mayor Nikki Dimech on Wednesday, had registered the unanimity of the councillors, the meeting could not be held.

Bugelli also shrugged off Dimech's claim that the executive secretary had decided to keep the doors of the local council locked. "The mayor has access to the local council offices, so talking about him being locked out is not correct."

An emergency meeting scheduled for 4pm at the Sliema Local Council, was stopped just hours before it would be held by the director of local government, Martin Bugelli. Asked why he stopped the meeting when no councillor had protested, Bugelli said that there was no need for a councillor to declare opposition to the meeting. "The law is clear. Since the meeting was not going to be held at 5:30pm and no record of unanimity could be established by the executive secretary, this meeting was illegal."

He also said the law only allows urgent meetings to discuss one item on the agenda, while the Sliema mayor had proposed two, amongst them "the position of the executive secretary" with whom, it emerged from comments by the Sliema mayor and the councillors, was not enjoying a serene relationship with part of the council members.

"I am not convinced of the urgency, but I won't go into the merits or otherwise of the urgency in this case," Bugelli said.

The Sliema council is still under investigation by the Internal Audit Investigations Department over financial irregularities. Nikki Dimech said he had not been at the council for the past six weeks pending the investigations.

"That was his choice not to go there," Bugelli said. "Nobody stopped him from going to attend council meetings."

Mayor Nikki Dimech arrived on the scene saying he was unaware that Bugelli had ordered the meeting not to be held. Eight out of 11, both Labour and Nationalist, councillors today congregated outside the council on Depiro Street, all claiming that work by the council had ground to a halt.

Dimech said he had filed notice of the emergency meeting after having been some eight weeks away from the council, pending a departmental investigation into irregular financial procedures at the council. He said he had not been informed of any protestations by other councillors against the emergency meeting.

Dimech said the meeting was called was to "clear the air" with executive secretary Svetlana Curmi, with whom relations do not appear to be serene. Sources say the secretary, a career civil servant who was appointed to Sliema council only two months ago, was instrumental in flagging the financial irregularities that were later sent to the IAID for investigation.

Labour councillors Martin Debono and Marianne Aquilina said they had met Curmi on Thursday to discuss how to proceed on administrative duties which had slowed down, and Curmi was reported to have said she "could not work with Dimech."

The mayor said he was surprised to find the council doors closed, and decided not to hold any meeting. He said he would ask for an explanation for the cancellation of the meeting from Martin Bugelli.

Asked whether the fact that three PN councillors were not present for the meeting he called - namely, Joanna Gonzi, Cyrus Engerer, and Julian Galea - Dimech said it was "significant enough that eight out of 11 councillors" were present for the meeting.

On his part Labour councillor Martin Debono said works at the Sliema council had ground to a halt and that it was necessary for administrative duties to resume.