Colvern Venture, the engineer attached to the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (MCC), has turned to the High Court in an effort to block the suspension and or termination of his service.
According to an official document seen by Village Voice News, the City Council passed a motion, on February 9, 2021, to terminate Venture’s contract.
However, Venture has since initiated legal proceedings in the Court. In the case – Colvern Venture vs the Town Clerk, Mayor and Councilors of Georgetown, the applicant is seeking to secure an Order of Prohibition to prevent the Council from imposing disciplinary actions on against him and or the termination of his contract. Venture is also seeking an order of Certiorari to quash the Council’s decision to suspend him for a period of one month.
In laying the grounds for the application, Attorney-at-Law Ronald Burch-Smith pointed out that the applicant has been in the employ of the City Council since June 3, 2013. Further, the Attorney pointed to the Local Government Commission, which was created by the Local Government Commission Act for the supervision over the employment, transfer, discipline and dismissal of the staff of local government organs, including City Hall.
Burch-Smith, in building his case, said by Section 120 of the Municipal and District Council Act, the power to exercise discipline over local government officers, is vested in the Local Government Commission.
In light of this, the attorney argued that the Mayor and Councilors of the City of Georgetown, does not have the authority to exercise disciplinary functions over the City Engineer or to dismiss him.
“At a statutory meeting of the City Council of Georgetown on the 25th January 2021, the Council passed a resolution to suspend the Applicant for a period of 1 month without pay for the offence of writing a letter dated 18 January 2021 to the Local Government Commission whilst he, the Applicant was on sick leave,” the Attorney explained.
In January, 2021, Venture was suspended without pay for the offence of writing a letter dated 18 January 2021 to the Local Government Commission whilst he, the Applicant was on sick leave.
“Such action taken by the Council and/or the Town Clerk (ag) or Human Resource Manager (ag) without any hearing or opportunity to be heard was in breach of the rules of natural justice and in any event, unlawful, unjust and irrational as by no means was it in breach of any rule or policy or convention of the City Council or general management or human resources principles,” the Attorney explained.
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