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Karl Schembri
Sannat Mayor Carmel Camilleri resigned last Sunday citing “health reasons” for his decision after years battling on his own against the council’s secretary backed by the Labour party administration and just in the wake of a fallout with his party about the Gozo electoral district.
In fact, this was Camilleri’s second resignation letter since last December, but the MLP secretary general had turned down his request back then.
Already in July 2005, Camilleri was signalling his intention to resign after he received what he called “threats and conspiracies” from his own party to approve executive secretary Arthur Bajada’s performance bonus when he felt he didn’t deserve it, triggering a law suit for defamation from the same Bajada.
Sources close to Camilleri say the former Labour mayor was also facing mounting pressure following his move last May when he pushed forward a motion to leave Gozo as one district, defying party lines.
Contacted yesterday night, Camilleri said he faced “a lot of tension” at the council that was detrimental to his health, requiring even surgery.
“The high tension is there and will remain, and I have to think of my health,” he said, although he would not elaborate on his problems with Labour and with the secretary.
Camilleri served as mayor for the last three years and was re-elected last March although he had already informed Sannat residents he would not have contested again after years of trouble with the executive secretary, who had his contract renewed by the government despite the mayor’s objections.
The secretary had refused to send the minutes and agenda for a council meeting, forcing the council to abort the meeting in what was deemed by the local government department to be an illegal defiance of the mayor’s orders, yet Bajada was kept by the government and backed by Labour.
Despite the small size of the locality, the MLP spent a lot of energy in sending its officials to Gozo over the last year in a bid to control council meetings and to dissuade Camilleri from sacking the secretary.
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