St Paul’s Bay mayor resigns, accuses rival councillors of ‘hate’

The Nationalist mayor of St Paul’s Bay Graziella Galea has resigned her post of mayor after councillors presented a motion for a vote of no confidence against her.

Galea, daughter of former PN minister Censu Galea, will stay on as a councillor and asked that the motion of no confidence now be postponed.

Labour councillors and two former PN councillors had presented the motion of no confidence over “problems in the running of the St Paul’s Bay local council” which they said had been ongoing for a while.

The motion said that the mayor did not enjoy the support of the majority of the town’s local councillors, and said that the Board of Local Governance found the mayor guilty of having broken financial regulations and established procedures.

The councillors also said Galea had failed to ensure that funds received by the council were invested in the locality’s infrastructure.

In her letter to the Nationalist administration, Galea accused councillors of not having worked in the interest of residents and of failing to attend council meetings. “The council was not allowed to function as required, through different manoeuvres employed by the councillors, to the detriment of the residents.”

Party leader Adrian Delia thanked Galea in a tweet, in which he called on councillors to put residents' interests before their personal interest.

Galea said her resignation had been forced but said she did not want to see St Paul’s Bay residents remain hostage to “the hatred and hunger for power of those who did not accept my election as mayor.”

Galea was elected mayor automatically as the member with the highest number of votes from the party with the highest number of votes. Since the PN has lost its majority after the defection of two councillors, a new election of mayor has to take place.

Galea said she had inherited a council with a €500,000 debt under a Labour mayorship, but that under her stewardship this debt had been eliminated and a surplus registered.