Sannat major Philip Vella was not guilty of conflict of interest simply because his mother worked for a private company involved in Angelina Jolie’s By the Sea, which happened to be filmed in the locality, the Local Governance Board concluded.

The board had been called in to probe allegations made by deputy mayor Frances Galea and councillors Maria Cassar Sultana and Margaret Said.

The three PL members had tabled a motion of no confidence in the same party mayor claiming conflict of interest because his mother worked for a Maltese company which provided services (such as extras and costumes) to the producers of the film directed by Jolie and starring herself and her husband Brad Pitt in Sannat, Gozo.

The three councillors also claimed that, because of his mother’s involvement, Mr Vella did not insist on compensation payment due to the council.

The board, chaired by Joe Mifsud, noted it would not go into the merits of the motion – which has since been shelved – but would look into whether the mayor acted in breach of local council laws. It concluded that he had not.

It noted how Mr Vella’s mother worked with a company that had absolutely no links to the Sannat local council.

“We cannot reach a state where people who are related to elected members are not even considered to offer a service,” the board said, adding that such an attitude would discourage people from contesting elections.

The board went on to add that it did not expect people to take advantage of their positions. This had not happened in the case of Mr Vella.

Some of the councillors seemed to expect that people from Sannat would have been employed to work on the film, the board said, adding that it disagreed with this “provincial” attitude.

“God forbid we reach the state in which it is the representatives of those elected who decide who is employed to work on a project that happens to be taking place within the confines of a council.”

As for the demand for compensation, it concluded, the local council did not have the power to negotiate compensations for commercial activities carried out in the locality.

It reiterated that elected councillors should be trained to better understand the law that governed them before and after being elected.