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City Manager Announces Retirement Date, Service To Tallahassee Spans 25 Years

SISTER CITY TALLAHASSEE, united States of America - Tallahassee City Manager Anita Favors Thompson announced that she will retire effective November 20, 2015.

“When I became City Manager in 1997, I made the commitment to always put people first and to focus on providing the best services possible to meet the needs of our community,” Favors Thompson said.

“Through my 25 years working for the city and through challenges and accomplishments, I’ve never wavered in my belief that a city’s greatest asset is its people Read more

Emil Lee, New Minister Of Labor, Health And Social Affairs, Wastes No Time

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - In a bid to attract the best and brightest candidates in St. Maarten to the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs, the newly appointed minister Emil Lee has taken the unconventional step of opening a public recruitment process and advertising for the different positions at his cabinet in the ministry.  Breaking the unwritten but time-honored rule of incoming ministers picking a cabinet mostly from their pool of political supporters, Lee has reasserted his commitment to making the country of St Read more

St. Maarten Day Speeches Focus On Cooperation

From left: Collectivité President Aline Hanson, Préfète Délégué Anne Laubies, Governor Eugène Holiday, Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs, Chief Inspector Denise Jacobs, Franklin Richards, MP Sarah Wescot-Williams, MP Cornelius de Weever, Justice Minister Dennis Richardson and Education Minister Rita Bourne-Gumbs at the border monument in Cole Bay Read more

President Of Parliament Wescot-Williams Wishes Indian Community Happy Diwali

PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten – Activities to mark Diwali – the Festival of Lights – started this weekend with the annual “Diwali Nite” show on Saturday, at the Belair Community Center.

Diwali, is considered to be one of the most sacred of Hindu festivals and is fervently celebrated by people in all parts of India and across the world over a five-day period.

The Festival of Lights is celebrated every year between mid-October and mid-November, depending on the lunar cycle.  It coincides with Hindu New Year and light.

The festival is observed by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains.  Houses are decorated with candles and colourful lights; people share gifts and say prayers.

This year the actual day of Diwali will take place on Wednesday, November 11.

President of Parliament Hon Read more

Dp Pushes Again Membership Of Open Government Partnership

DP policy advisor Emil Lee at the summit in Mexico City. Photo contributed

St. Maarten – The Democratic Party is once more pushing the country’s membership of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), an issue it made a core element of its election campaign last year Read more

Emil Lee Attends Open Government Partnership Summit On Behalf Of Dp

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - The DP was represented at the recent OGP Summit by Emil Lee.   Unfortunately, due to the current political crisis, DP Party Leader and Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot Williams had to cancel her planned attendance. According to MP Sarah Wescot Williams, “The DP supports having St Maarten apply for membership to the OGP.  In order for St Maarten to become a member, there are a number of requirement with which St Maarten would need to comply.  Although St Maarten doesn’t currently qualify for membership, this provides the country with an excellent road map to follow in our path towards becoming more open.  There is an undeniable connection between the degree of openness and the level of prosperity of any country.  The more open and transparent the government, the more the people participate in and benefit from the economy.  We felt that this conference was such a valuable learning experience that Emil and I funded the trip at our personal expense.”According to Emil Lee, “the amazing thing for St Maarten is that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.  Many countries have similar problems to St Maarten.  Many have issues with how to make the budgeting process more transparent and inclusive.  How to make procurement and government contracts less susceptible to corruption?  By participating in OGP, St Maarten can benefit from all of the experiences and work of other countries.”Use of Confidentiality Clauses: A great exampleAccording to Lee, “In St Maarten, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the use of confidentiality clauses in contracts with government and government owned companies.  There are countries where the contracts are not even legally binding until they have been placed on line for anyone to review.  Additionally, there are clear guidelines for what items are able to be covered by confidentiality clauses.  Pricing and financial information typically does not quality as items that would be able to be shrouded by confidentiality clauses.  This clause is usually reserved for proprietary processes and trade secrets.”OGP SummitThe OGP or Open Government Partnership hosts the OGP Global Summit every two years in the Country of the current Chair, this year in Mexico City.  Representatives from government, academic institutions, civil society and multilateral organizations come together to exchange experiences and share best practices and major developments in open government.OGP Mission:“OGP’s vision is that more governments become sustainably more transparent, more accountable, and more responsive to their own citizens, with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of governance, as well as the quality of services that citizens receive Read more

President Of Parliament Visits The "Lady Grace Morning Show" Friday

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Leader of the Democratic Party and Chairperson of the Parliament of St. Maarten, the Honorable Sarah Wescot-Williams stated on Friday that the matter of election has been used by the outgoing Prime Minister, Marcel Gumbs as a trump card Read more

“Saying That Elections Will Stop Ship Jumping Is Lying To Voters”

St. Maarten – Parliamentarians bitched and moaned about rules and regulations yesterday all the way until the final vote on the two motions the new majority presented yesterday morning. It was a losing battle for the opposition UP and its faithful independents and in the end, it did not change anything at all.

Independent MP Cornelius de Weever started with an attack on the new president of parliament, Sarah Wescot-Williams Read more

Dp Criticizes Mp De Weever: “Counterpart Policy Is A Sure Recipe For Massive Lay-Offs”

St. Maarten – “As much as he tries, MP and former Minister OF Public health, Social Development and Labor Cornelius de Weever will never be able to convince anyone that the reason for his defection from the Red-White-Blue coalition in 2014 had something to do with opposition he encountered back then to “his” counterpart law,” Democratic Party MP Sarah Wescot-Williams states in a press release Read more

President Of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams: “Mps Waste Hundreds Of Guilders”

St. Maarten – “Every half hour wasted by Members of Parliament costs taxpayers nine hundred guilders. (15 x 60 is 900 guilders). This amount is close to what some persons in our community earn monthly after deductions. It equals the school fee for others. For yet others, it equals the monthly cost for day-care,” Democratic Party MP and President of parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams stated after a meeting of parliament did not take place on Monday morning due to a lack of quorum Read more

Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs: “I Will Not Back Down”

Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs (left) makes his position perfectly clear while Ministers Hassink, Sams and Connor look on. Photo Today / Andrew Dick

St. Maarten – “I will not back down,” Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs told this newspaper yesterday afternoon while he was walking back to the government building, where earlier yesterday he shed his light once more on the constitutional crisis that holds the country in a deadly embrace.

Professor Arjen van Rijn repeated yesterday in the Antilliaans Dagblad his firm position on the constitutional crisis: when the parliament hits, the cabinet is allowed to hit back Read more

Na Leader Questions Interpretation Of The Constitution By Council Of Ministers

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - National Alliance Leader MP the Honorable William Marlin took a critical look Sunday on the latest release form the Cabinet of the Governor as well as similar situations of the past.

The press conference of the “majority of 8” and which was held Sunday afternoon at the Parliament building was called for by the DP leader MP the honorable Sarah Wescot-Williams Read more

Governor’S Explosive 2013 Letter Supports Dissolution Parliament

Possible elections pushed back to February 2016

St. Maarten / By Hilbert Haar – Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs has sent an amended national decree to dissolve the parliament to Governor Drs. Eugène Holiday on Wednesday that would push elections back to February of next year. The amendment to the decree was necessary because the Electoral Council needs more time to give possible new parties the opportunity to register.

An explosive letter Governor Holiday wrote in May 2013 and to then Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams shows that, at that time, the governor supported the dissolution of parliament Read more

>Simpson Bay:--- An early Sunday morning shooting has left one person dead. The shooting took place shortly after 9am Sunday morning by Robbie’s Lottery located at La Palapa building in Simpson Bay. Persons on the scene said the victim that was shot dead seems to be an employee working for Robbie’s Lottery and he apparently got shot while trying to open the business place. However, that could not be confirmed by anyone. SMN News further learnt that the victim is of Latino decent.
SMN News contacted Police Spokesman Ricardo Henson for confirmation on the shooting, Henson who was on the scene of the shooting said “I am not giving you any information Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- The eight Members of Parliament that now has the majority in Parliament told members of the media that the Governor of St. Maarten already made a clear decision on the current political situation. Leader of the National Alliance MP William Marlin said that the Governor Eugene Holiday clearly informed the Council of Ministers situation in 2013 is the same as the current situation because there is a majority in Parliament that are ready to form a government.
Marlin said the Governor told the Council of Ministers that the constitution of St Read more

Sarah elected new Parliament Chair in spite of De Weever’s cancellation

PHILIPSBURG--Democratic Party (DP) leader Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams is again at the helm of Parliament. She was elected Parliament Chairwoman by the new National Alliance (NA)-led coalition in an extraordinary meeting of Parliament on Thursday evening Read more

Government has ‘autonomous right’ to dissolve Parliament

~ Governor wrote in 2013 letter ~

PHILIPSBURG--“The right to dissolve Parliament by national decree is a constitutional and autonomous right of the Government,” wrote Governor Eugene Holiday in a letter dated May 16, 2013, to then-Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams when she tried to stopped the then-National Alliance (NA)-led Council of Ministers from invoking Article 59 of the Constitution.

The letter came to light this week as political tension intensified between the newest NA-led coalition with a majority in Parliament and the UP/De Weever/Marlin-Romeo-supported Council of Ministers, after the crumbling of the United People’s (UP) party-led coalition.

The current Marcel Gumbs Cabinet has held tight to the view that it is its right to dissolve Parliament in the face of the shifted majority in Parliament Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- The meeting called by the majority on Thursday afternoon to elect the Chairman and vice chair persons of parliament went ahead even though the former vice chairman Cornelius de Weever cancelled on Thursday morning. The opening of meeting was chaired by Member of Parliament George Pantophlet to elect the Chairman Read more

style="text-align: center;">Says Governor must sign decree dissolving Parliament ~

PHILIPSBURG:---- United People (UP) party fraction leader MP Franklin Meyers on Thursday night stressed that at some point “somebody has to make a stand somewhere” to stem the tide of constant government instability and address a flawed constitution Read more

Chair Aborts Meeting Within Sixty Seconds: New Majority Calls Action Mp De Weever Illegal

St. Maarten – Acting as the second vice president of Parliament, independent MP Cornelius de Weever wrong-footed parliament yesterday morning by opening and closing a meeting designed to appoint a new chair within sixty seconds after which he “ran out of the hall,” according to Democratic Party MP Sarah Wescot-Williams.

De Weever called on article 37 of the rules of order, after remarking that the cabinet had submitted a national decree to dissolve parliament Read more

Do we serve democracy by not holding new elections?

Dear Editor,

Much has been said about the matter of a motion of no confidence in the members of the Gumbs I cabinet by the Parliament of St. Maarten. There has also been much said about that same cabinet's choice not to resign and call for new elections. The prevailing question is "Even if there is an election, what fundamental difference will it make, especially in the light of the fact that the laws relating to the exact process after such a motion of no confidence is passed have yet to be created, and the fact that there will still be no rules to prevent the ship jumping that has led to this point and preceded other changes in government?" This letter seeks to advance two arguments in favor of these new elections Read more

Editorial - Something has to give

The latest news last night in the ongoing constitutional saga was that the “new majority” has organised a Parliament meeting of its own to elect a new president, vice-president and second vice-president in place of those of the former UP-led coalition. This obviously will not be a “regular” meeting called by the secretariat on the instruction of the current chairperson and the legality of any decisions taken consequently will no doubt be questioned by those who favour dissolving the legislature and going back to the polls.

When the same thing happened in Curaçao in 2012, the new majority’s gatherings created a situation where at one point there were two different persons claiming to be President of Parliament Read more

Emergency Meeting Of The Parliament Called For 6Pm Thursday

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Eight members of Parliament signed a letter Thursday which calls for an Emergency meeting of Parliament to handle a few appointment matters.

The main agenda point for the meeting is the appointment of a Chairperson, a First Deputy Chairperson and a Second Deputy.

The letter which was addressed to all members of Parliament also states that in view of recent developments during meetings of Parliament including the Central Committee which was held on Wednes Read more

New coalition says De Weever acted illegally, calls for urgent meeting

PHILIPSBURG--Second Vice-Chairman of Parliament Cornelius de Weever performed an “illegal act” when he chaired Tuesday’s plenary session of Parliament and closed it swiftly without giving Members of Parliament (MPs) the possibility to react, say representatives of the new coalition in Parliament.

After De Weever closed the session they submitted a request for an urgent meeting of Parliament to talk about his “illegal act” as well as “the consequences for the functioning of Parliament and for the representation of the people of St Read more