But Mayor and board were ‘not prepared to discuss their tactics’

By Gareth Finighan

Home Affairs Minister Michael Fahy is hopeful he will not be forced to shut down the Corporation of Hamilton following a crisis meeting with the municipality this week.

But City Hall sources accused the Minister of being either naive or diplomatic if he believes there will no further clashes between the national and city administrations.

Sen Fahy met with Hamilton Mayor Graeme Outerbridge and other officials on Wednesday — just days after The Royal Gazette revealed that he had threatened to disband the Team Hamilton administration if it continued to challenge Government in the courts.

The relationship between City Hall and Government has been fractured after the One Bermuda Alliance Government passed laws returning voting rights to city-based businesses last year — an amendment Mayor Outerbridge described as “draconian”.

Tensions increased last December when Ombudsman Arlene Brock uncovered evidence of widespread maladministration at the Corporation — a finding that prompted Government to take control of the municipality’s finances for three months until a set of Government-drafted Financial Instructions could be implemented at City Hall.

And earlier this year Government ruled that a multimillion dollar contract between the Corporation and a developer to rebuild the capital’s waterfront should be scratched out.

The decisions have resulted in a merry-go-round of legal challenges mounted by the Corporation in the past year.

Following Wednesday’s meeting, a Home Affairs Ministry spokesman said Sen Fahy was hopeful that further lawsuits will be avoided.

“The Minister of Home Affairs advised that he had a fruitful and constructive meeting with the members of the Corporation of Hamilton,” the spokesman said.

“The discussion covered areas of mutual agreement and areas where the Government and the Corporation can find ways to work collaboratively together.

“In moving forward, the Minister said he remains hopeful that matters of contention can be addressed in a conciliatory manner and, in the Minister’s view, the best outcome would be the avoidance of litigation, which is ultimately in the best interest of Bermuda and the taxpayers.”

Despite those assurances, a municipality insider, who asked not to be named, said further legal challenges to Government’s authority were in the pipeline.

“Yes, the meeting was fruitful because the Minister was clear and unequivocal,” the source said.

“By contrast, the mayor and his quorum were silent, because they were not prepared to discuss their tactics at the meeting — they will only do that at the Board level, between themselves.

“In fact it has already been discussed at board level and the legal advisers have already told them to move against the Minister on the Financial Instructions.”

At one legal hearing earlier this month — held after the Corporation had called for a judicial review of Government’s decision to take over the financial running of City Hall — Corporation lawyer Eugene Johnson revealed that his client was considering mounting a legal challenge to the Financial Instructions.

Last night the source said: “The Financial Instructions are an example of good, basic, obvious, and common-sense guidelines that no one would reasonably object to — other than the quorum.

“All public servants, including the Corporation of Hamilton, must comply with basic rules governing the handling of public money.

“Why would the Corporation object? Because it take away their micro management abilities.

“The Ombudsman called them out on just this point in her report, but the council’s lawyers have since informed her that they won’t be following her recommendations.

“Following the instructions makes them ‘tiny little gods’ as opposed to the ‘Big Gods’ that they believe they are.”

Yesterday The Royal Gazette e-mailed Mayor Outerbridge and Corporation Secretary Edward Benevides, asking if they could confirm that the municipality objected to the Financial Instructions and if a legal challenge was now being prepared. They declined to comment.