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James Debono
The change of mayor in Sliema has left its first casualty: the council’s secretary, Lino Bartolo.
Newly elected mayor Marina Arrigo has insisted that a new call for applications should be issued, since Bartolo is 61-years-old, despite an earlier proposal from former mayor Albert Bonello Du Puis that Bartolo’s contract should be renewed.
It was Nationalist councillor Margaret Azzopardi who hinted at the real motive for getting rid of the secretary. “In the last council elections Sliema people voted for change and since the executive secretary plays a key role he should be replaced.”
The only change in the last local council elections was the election of the wife of Nationalist MP Robert Arrigo as the new Sliema mayor, instead of Bonello Du Puis. In these elections the PN retained all of its six seats on the council.
During a charged local council meeting on the eve of Independence Day, characterised by the absence of the former mayor and Nationalist councillor Luke Vella, Sliema’s executive secretary Lino Bartolo presented his resignation saying that he preferred to leave out of his free will and save councillors the embarrassment of kicking him out.
“This is a plot hatched against me by the Nationalists,” declared Bartolo during the meeting.
Bartolo also showed councillors a written threat he had received in the previous days, stating: “your days are counted, you silly busted – thank God PN.”
In the previous council meeting Bonello Du Puis, seconded by Green Party councillor Michael Briguglio, presented a motion to renew Bartolo’s contract. But the former mayor was not present in last Wednesday meeting.
Contacted by MaltaToday after last Wednesday’s meeting, the former mayor said that he saw no need to attend the meeting as he already knew the outcome. “I have worked hand in hand with Lino Bartolo for the past years and I can vouch for his integrity,” the former mayor told MaltaToday.
However, despite Bartolo’s reputation as a hardworking secretary – he was even awarded a performance bonus in March – the new mayor Marina Arrigo made it very clear that she was against renewing his contract.
The mayor insisted she had nothing against Bartolo and that the only reason for not renewing Bartolo’s contract was that he was 61.
Bartolo protested that this was blatant discrimination against the elderly and a breach of his human rights. Michael Briguglio, who was the only councillor present to defend Bartolo, asked Arrigo whether she agreed that 72-year-old President Eddie Fenech Adami should be President.
Arrigo replied: “Who said that I agreed?”
Unlike Briguglio, who described the meeting as “the worst day of the council” since he was elected, the two Labour councillors washed their hands of Lino Bartolo’s fate. In the previous meeting MLP councillor Maryanne Aquilina had expressed herself in favour of renewing Bartolo’s contract.
But during last Wednesday’s meeting MLP councillor Martin Debono declared that the two councillors were going to abstain.
“It is evident from the absence of the two Nationalist local councillors that there is a rift in Nationalist ranks. This is simply an internal fight within the Nationalist Party. So we are staying out of it,” said Debono.
Lino Bartolo told MaltaToday that he had no problems working with the new mayor and that problems only cropped up when she learned that his contract was going to expire.
“As long as there is no political interference in the local council, I have no problems working with anyone.”
jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt
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