MARIGOT, Saint-Martin:--- President Louis Mussington refused to put new appointments to a vote Saturday morning as Saint-Martin’s Territorial Council resumed after Friday’s suspension. Councilors pressing for changes to committees and outside bodies, including the Tourism Office, argued that Friday’s Executive Council reshuffle gave the assembly grounds to act immediately. Mussington said the appointments were outside the published agenda and offered to meet Monday morning to discuss when they could be taken up. The council paused again after members of the new majority asked for time to decide their next move.
Saturday’s roll call recorded 16 councilors present and seven excused, with several absentees represented by proxy. Mussington acknowledged arriving an hour late and repeated his apology after councilors raised the delay during the debate.
The two sides differed over what Friday’s vote allowed the council to do next. Councilors seeking the appointments cited Article LO 6321-25 of France’s General Code of Territorial Collectivities. It says the Territorial Council may form its committees and designate representatives to outside bodies after the Executive Council is elected. They argued that Friday’s changes gave the Territorial Council the authority to vote on those appointments on the spot.
Mussington said the changes arose from a replacement within the current term and argued that the council could only take up items on its agenda. He also said he preferred to wait for the administrative legality review of Friday’s resolution before formally treating the Executive Council’s composition as changed. He offered to form a joint committee to seek agreement on how to proceed and gave no date for a vote.
Councilors challenge the delay
Councilor Philippe Philidor rejected the offer of further talks, saying the council was asking Mussington to apply the organic law. Senator and Territorial Councilor Daniel Gibbs said the group pressing for a vote had 12 councilors present or represented by proxy. He also questioned whether Friday’s sitting had originally been adjourned and subsequently treated as a suspension, a distinction he said would affect the notice required to convene another meeting.
Councilor Raphaël Sanchez challenged the argument that the appointments were outside the agenda. He said the draft resolutions and supporting papers were sent on October 23 and presented at the October 29 Executive Council meeting, where he said Mussington and members of the executive declined to examine them.
Mussington acknowledged that six councilors could submit matters for consideration. He maintained that the president decides when they come before the assembly and said the proposals would be added to the agenda later. Councilors pressing for action argued that the Territorial Council should decide by majority vote whether to proceed.
Nicolas-Rembotte says councilors acted to gain access to records
Mélissa Nicolas-Rembotte apologized to residents watching the exchanges and to Collectivité staff called in on a Saturday. She said Friday’s reshuffle stemmed from years of requests for information. Councilors had sought Executive Council agendas and asked for a review of delegations they considered unlawful, she said, adding that they had never received the agendas. She said the new majority gave them a chance to exercise their right to information.
Nicolas-Rembotte said the appointments themselves could take place later if the assembly decided to defer them. She argued that Mussington should first ask councilors to vote on whether to proceed with reconstituting the boards. She also objected to his description of Friday’s proceedings as a “charade,” pointing to five suspensions on Friday and the hour councilors waited Saturday.
Philidor recounts how four proposals reached the floor
Philidor said councilors first requested that four draft resolutions be placed on the agenda under the organic law. When that failed, he said, they invoked Article 14 of the council’s internal rules and submitted a motion containing the four proposals. He said Mussington declined to put the motion to a vote.
According to Philidor, the agenda item to fill one Executive Council vacancy gave the assembly a route to elect all six members who serve alongside Mussington. The new majority used that vote to choose three new vice presidents, he said. He then asked Mussington directly whether he would put a resolution on committee and board appointments to a vote.
Mussington defended his handling of the agenda and said councilors were presenting substantive resolutions through a motion. He cited a Saint-Barthélemy case that he said upheld the territorial president’s decision to leave a vacancy off the agenda. He said he had chosen to list the Saint-Martin vacancy and argued that any resolution debated and adopted outside the agenda could be struck down if challenged in administrative court. Councilors countered that the appointments flowed from the Executive Council vote already taken and again asked him to let the assembly decide.
Mussington proposes Monday talks before council pauses again
Mussington said he was willing to meet councilors Monday morning, November 16, to agree on when the proposals could go before the Executive Council and then the Territorial Council. He said the law set no deadline for naming committee members or representatives to outside bodies. Councilors pressing for a decision said the word “may” in the statute gave the assembly the choice, and that a vote could settle whether it wanted to proceed.
Councilor Michel Petit backed Mussington’s position on the agenda. He recalled that the appointments at the start of the current term went ahead under an agenda signed by then-President Daniel Gibbs that expressly listed them. Petit argued that a resolution adopted outside the agenda could be annulled if challenged.
Members of the new majority then requested a suspension to discuss how to proceed with the sitting and what to do next about the Collectivité’s governance. Mussington granted the recess and told them to take the time they needed. He set no time for the sitting to resume.
Tourism Office representation at stake
The standoff follows a split that left Mussington’s camp with 11 seats in the 23-member Territorial Council. On Friday, the 12 councilors on the other side opposed his proposed agenda changes. The Saturday dispute tested whether that majority could move from defeating the president’s proposals to voting on its own appointments.
One proposal seeks to renew the Collectivité’s representation at the Saint-Martin Tourism Office, putting its presidency under Valérie Damaseau in the spotlight while the Festival de la Gastronomie is underway in Marigot.
Saint-Martin’s Territorial Council will resume its sitting on Monday, Nov. 16, after failing to reach a quorum when members returned from Saturday’s recess. The lack of a quorum prevented the council from continuing, leaving the proposed appointments to committees and outside bodies, including the Tourism Office, unresolved.