Acting Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire SC has ruled that the Mayor and City Council’s (M&CC) planned termination of City Engineer Colvern Venture’s employment would be unlawful as the Council has no legal authority to make such a decision.
In a ruling on Thursday, the Chief Justice declared that the Respondents—the Town Clerk and M&CC—“cannot be allowed to act unlawfully, no matter how factually justified they may consider themselves to be.”
Justice George-Wiltshire further held that it is the Local Government Commission (LGC) that is vested with the powers of disciplinary control and that the Local Government Commission Act is meant to protect employees—to safeguard the disciplinary issues in relation to employment of staff members of a certain level and to provide the very safeguards to ensure due process.