To: The Chairman of the Executive Council,
Lt. Governor F. Richards,
Administration Building,
Philipsburg – St. Maarten.
Philipsburg, May 15th, 2009.
On May 7th Independent Member of the Island Council, Mr. Louie Laveist, withdrew his support from the D.P. Executive Council, as confirmed in his letter addressed to the Chairman of the Island Council. Effective that date the Executive Council of St. Maarten has lost its majority support in the Island Council and we therefore have no Government. What we now have is a caretaker government.
On behalf of the National Alliance faction I hereby request of you to insure that the Executive Council acts in accordance with its status of caretaker government and does not take any decisions on new requests and or decisions that may have far reaching consequences, including far reaching financial consequences. Also, decisions with regards to bus and taxi permits, car rental licenses, issuance of land, employment of personnel, etc.
It is still fresh in our memory, how just before the last Island Council elections that the Government sold dozens of parcels of land in Belvedere during a weekend with total lack of transparency and blatant disregard for the rules of Good Governance.
We have further been made to understand, that there is some ongoing arrangement to appoint a board member of the St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation as Managing Director of the Foundation. The entire procedure followed there doesn’t seem to have been transparent either, and not in keeping with the recently approved Ordinance on Corporate Governance.
We further want to advise you to pay special attention to all decisions taken from May 7th, 2009 to date and to further insure that no decisions which may be considered as hasty political decisions, party political favours, etc. be carried out.
For and on behalf of the Faction of the National Alliance,
William V. Marlin.