Sliema council secretary to sue three councillors

The executive secretary of the Sliema local council said he was suing three councillors who accused him of failing to record their objections to a motion on the Qui-Si-Sana car park project.

The incident seems to have started at the council's meeting of November 4 when Labour councillors Martin Debono and Marianne Aquilina and Alternattiva Demokratika's Michael Briguglio say their reservation that accompanied their "yes" vote to a controversial motion remained unrecorded.

Executive secretary Lino Bartolo told The Times he was suing the councillors for defamatory remarks in his regard and insisted that by law the secretary was not obliged to include reservations expressed.

Mr Bartolo said all councillors are given a chance to propose changes to the draft minutes days before successive meetings when the minutes are approved. He strongly denied any wrongdoings on his part.

"I record minutes during meetings faithfully and I always include amendments which the councillors send me before meetings, even though I am, strictly speaking, obliged to note the main points. In this case, however, it was not fair that I was blamed for something I didn't do," he said.

Mr Bartolo said the three councillors had all the right to come up with a counter motion if they disagreed with the motion but what mattered for legal purposes was the way they voted and not what reservations they expressed.

The controversy goes back to November 2, when Nationalist councillor Michael Pace Ross tabled a motion stating the council favoured holding consultation meetings with Qui-Si-Sana residents, including in the same text a paragraph on "the council's stand in favour of the Qui-Si-Sana car park".

The Labour and AD's councillors, who favoured consultation, objected to the latter part of the motion saying the council was not really in favour of the car park.

They claimed the Sliema council had changed its original stand in favour of the car park through a special resolution for renewed public consultation on the entire project in January 2005.

"The game the Nationalists tried to play was to portray us as being against public consultation if we voted against the motion. If we voted in favour, instead, they would say we are in favour of the car park. This is why noting the reservation was so important," Mr Debono said.

At the November 2 meeting Mr Debono, Ms Aquilina and Mr Briguglio voted in favour of Mr Pace Ross's motion with reservations.

On November 16, they asked that their reservation be registered but their request was voted down by the PN councillors, who argued that the executive secretary had sent the minutes days in advance giving councillors "ample time to submit any changes".

The MLP and AD councillors' request to start tape-recording council meetings was also turned down by the other councillors.

The three councillors then tabled a motion saying the secretary had "manipulated" facts and refused to jot down what was on record in newspaper reports and on videotape. The November 2 meeting had been reported by The Times and Maltatoday and also filmed by Super One.

"To be fair with the secretary, he usually puts in all changes I propose to the draft minutes. On this particular occasion, however, the minutes did not reflect the differences which came out during the November 2 meeting so I had no choice but to second the motion," Mr Briguglio said when contacted.

When contacted, Sliema mayor Albert Bonello Du Puis said neither the AD nor the Labour councillors had objected to the minutes in their feedback to the secretary before the November 16 meeting.

The mayor said the council had agreed to try and avoid making changes to minutes during meetings because this wasted precious time.

"It's ultimately a 'yes' or a 'no', irrespective of any reservations expressed," Mr Pace Ross said.

Referring to the controversy itself, Mr Pace Ross said the MLP in principle acknowledged the need of another two underground car parks in Sliema but "the councillors have not come up with any alternatives".

Qui-Si-Sana residents opposing the proposed car park fear the development would increase air and noise pollution in their neighbourhood due to increased traffic. They also fear the car park will be a pretext for the development of pubs and night clubs in their area.