Local gov’t commission moves to quash ruling on Royston King’s dismissal

The Local Government Commission (LGC) has formally filed an appeal in an attempt to have the decisions made by Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall, which nullified the dismissal of Georgetown Town Clerk Royston King, quashed.

The official Notice of Appeal document, which was filed on October 25th and seen by this newspaper, states that the LGC is dissatisfied with the whole decision, which was made by Justice MorrisRamlall on September 13th.

On September 13th, the judge ruled that Commission of Inquiry (CoI) that recommended disciplinary action against King, which resulted in his termination, was unlawfully established. Justice Morris-Ramlall further ruled that all of the decisions made by the commission were null, void and of no effect.

In the appeal document, the grounds for appeal include that the trial judge erred when she found that the LGC did not have the authority to delegate its powers to a CoI.

The notice of appeal went on to note that Justice Morris-Ramlall further erred in law and in fact as she ignored the evidence that the LGC had given King an opportunity to be heard before making a determination in the matter against him.

Another one of the grounds for appeal stated that the judge failed to give adequate consideration to the fact that at the stage of application for judicial review, the former Town Clerk could not explain the allegations of misconduct made against him by the LGC and the CoI. According to the application, the judge further erred in law and fact in finding errors of procedure in the hearing by the LGC in exercising her discretion in granting the reliefs sought by King.

King had been dismissed via a letter, dated January 23rd, 2019, that cited gross misconduct as the reason for dismissal, which was based on the findings of the CoI. However, in February King filed a lawsuit at the High Court for several orders, including the quashing of the decision of the LGC to dismiss him from the post of Town Clerk for gross misconduct. King in the lawsuit further asked that he be reinstated and/or paid all benefits inclusive of pension, gratuity and annual leave allowances until he reaches retirement age in January 2020.