Territorial Council: Imbroglio surrounding the employment table

On Thursday October 3, elected representatives held a lengthy debate on the modification of the employment table and then the organization chart for territorial services. The result was a vote of questionable coherence.

Since April 2022 and the start of the current term of office, elected members of the Territorial Council have frequently discussed changes to the employment table and the departmental organization chart. It is not unusual for some of the changes proposed by the President of the Collectivité and his administration to be the subject of discussion within the assembly. But at the council meeting held on Thursday October 3, the debate that began when the two items on the agenda were examined was one of the most heated.

A contested environment department
For Chairman Xavier Lédée, there was nothing complicated about the exercise. It's simply a matter of "reviewing the organization chart, attaching positions and creating new ones". In theory, nothing could be simpler. Nevertheless, for some elected representatives, the coherence of several decisions does not appear to be crystal-clear. If only in terms of the order in which they were addressed. "It would have been more coherent to vote on the organization chart first, before voting on the positions", points out Romaric Magras for the Saint-Barth d'Abord group. He regrets a lack of consultation prior to the territorial council: "On the one hand we're told we need to sit down around a table to put things straight, and on the other we find ourselves in a meeting with a thousand questions to ask because we're being presented with a project for which we weren't consulted. "The elected representative is referring in particular to the creation of a post for the head of an environment department, which is to group together three sectors: water and wastewater, environment and... territorial pound.

"It's going to be a mess
"What's the pound got to do with the environment department? "asks Romaric Magras. This remark was approved and supported by the first vice-president, Marie-Hélène Bernier. She called for a split vote. This would enable elected representatives to vote separately on each of the job creations. Others are also causing misunderstandings, even if the debate continues on the environment department.
Indeed, Marie-Hélène Bernier and Romaric Magras question the value of combining three sectors into a single department. When the territorial council wants an opinion on the environment, it asks the ATE (Agence territoriale de l'environnement), not the environment department," they say. By creating duplication, there's a risk of conflict. "And he insists on the supposed incoherence of such a modification. Marie-Hélène Bernier opens her microphone to ask: "If a resident has a runoff problem at home, who do they call? The ATE or the environment department? It's going to be a mess." A bit like the vote that will follow the discussions.

A contradictory vote
Asked to vote on the creation of a position for the head of the environment department, seven elected members voted in favor (the six from the pregroup - Xavier Lédée, Marie-Angèle Aubin, Mélissa Lake, Olivier Gréaux, Caroline Maurel, Fabrice Querrard - and Rudi Laplace from Saint-Barth d'Abord).Abord), seven against (Marie-Hélène Bernier, Bettina Cointre, Maxime Desouches, Pascal Minarro Baudoin, David Blanchard, Dimitri Lédée and Jonas Brin fromAction-Équilibre) and five elected members of Saint-Barth d'Abord abstained (Romaric Magras, Alexandra Questel, Micheline Jacques, Francius Matignon and Sandra Baptiste). By seven votes to seven, the creation was adopted. Mainly thanks to the vote of Rudi Laplace, who did not follow his group.
A few moments later, the elected representatives voted on the merger of the "water and sanitation", "territorial pound" and "environment" sectors into the environment department. But with seven votes "for" (the same as for the previous vote), eight "against" and four abstentions, the item was rejected. This time, it was Senator Micheline Jacques who left SBDA's abstentionist ranks to join Action-Équilibre's opponents. Conclusion: the creation of the position of department manager was approved, but the creation of a department grouping together three sectors was rejected. A somewhat questionable logic...
All other job creations were adopted by majority or unanimous vote: a receptionist, a manager and an administrative manager for the community life department, a multi-skilled technical officer in the technical services department and an assistant archivist in the territorial archives department.
As for the changes to the organization chart, only the creation of an economics department was rejected. By a majority, since the seven elected members of Action-Équilibre and the six from Saint-Barth d'Abord voted "against".