Keeping council at Ħas-Siġar

Minutes of meeting of Ħas-Siġar Local Council on October 24, 2010

Present:
Councillor Raymond Pantalaria Borg: acting mayor.
Councillor Tracy Anne Demicelis: acting deputy mayor.
Councillor Tyrone Debattista Degiorgio: former mayor (resigned).
Councillor Sammy Camilleri Fern: former mayor (sacked).
Councillor Grace Albani Sant: former mayor (outvoted).
Councillor Dennis Capoducci Caruana: former deputy mayor (deposed).
Ms Violet Depasquale: Council secretary.
Absent:
Councillor Jeffrey Garston Cacchia: former mayor (dismissed for persistent absenteeism).

The minutes of the previous meeting were read, argued about, then finally given back to the council secretary for amendment and whitewashing.

Item No 1:
The acting mayor said he was pleased to announce the tender for resurfacing Main Street had been awarded to Pantalaria Borg Ltd. He added he hoped works on the project would begin just in time to disrupt the flow of traffic during the summer months.

A discussion ensued during which various councillors aired their views.

The general tone of the remarks being that, while all were in favour of the timing of the works, nobody – with the notable exception of the acting mayor – agreed these works should be performed by the company nominated.

The reason for this was that said company was both owned and run by the acting mayor’s brother Anton Pantalaria Borg – and the acting mayor was still an active board member of said company.

After a prolonged argument, a vote and a short fistfight, the almost unanimous decision was taken to take no decision on the awarding of the contract for the time being and to re-examine this thorny issue at a future council meeting.

Item No 2:
The acting mayor said certain stories appearing in the local media had made serious and damaging accusations against the integrity of acting deputy mayor councillor Tracy Anne Demicelis. The councillor had – in the acting mayor’s words – “made improper use of her official position to elicit bribes for favours either received or perceived to have been received.”

Ms Demicelis strongly denied the accusations, and as proof of her innocence and her resolve, she made a strong defence of her and her family’s integrity and offered to fight any woman in the council chamber.

To this challenge councillor Albani Sant declined, citing an ongoing medical problem that precluded fisticuffs after 6 p.m. The only other woman present, the council secretary, also declined councillor Demicelis’ offer on the grounds that councillor Demicelis was much bigger than her.

The council agreed, with one abstention (councillor Demicelis) to put off this item to a future date.

Item No 3:
The acting mayor brought to the council’s attention the recent expulsion from the National Socialist Party of councillor – and ex-mayor – Sammy Camilleri Fern, for actions unbecoming of an elected official.

The all-pervasive local investigation had brought before the public what it called incontrovertible proof of councillor Camilleri Fern’s ­association with a well-known drug baron.

While accepting the seriousness of the allegations against the councillor – the acting mayor felt it incumbent upon him and the rest of the council members to show solidarity. What was neither minuted nor indeed made clear was whether the council members were showing solidarity with councillor Camilleri Fern, the National Socialist Party or the drug baron.

Any other business:
The acting mayor brought to the councillors’ attention recent “scurrilous attacks” on local councils in general and the members of Ħas-Siġar local council in particular.

The acting mayor said that, if this did not stop, he – and, he was sure, the other members of the council – would feel it incumbent upon one another to send the boys round to knock, literally, some sense into the heads of the members of the media involved.

This was then tabled as a motion and a vote taken. A unanimous vote in favour of the motion resulted. So watch it, eh!