Former CitCo employee wins over 90 grand in court

The already cash strapped City Hall will have to cough up close to one hundred grand to one of its former employees in a case that goes back to 2007. This morning Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh ruled that the Belize City Council has to pay former City Administrator, Sharole Saldivar almost ninety-three thousand dollars. This was after he found that the manner in which the Council had terminated her employment in September of 2007 was improper. When we interviewed the then Council’s Public Relations Officer Kenny Morgan, he told us that Saldivar was fired because she was talking to the “wrong” people. Morgan alleged that the Council had received information that “there were some negotiations going on with persons offering positions to members of the City Council staff to defect from the City Council and join the P.U.P.”. And so the Council fired Saldivar but she did not leave it at that. She sued and was victorious today. We spoke with Saldivar, who feels that she has since been unable to land a job because of the allegations the Council made against her. Her attorney, Anthony Sylvestre, feels that a clear message was sent.

Anthony Sylvestre, Attorney for Sharole Saldivar
“At the time there was no reason given for the termination and as the Chief Justice characterized, it was just a terse and very bare letter which basically told her that her services are no more needed. The City Council, whilst it has the power under the City Council Act to hire as well as to fire people, that had to be done within the confines of the law. You can’t just terminate someone for no good and proper reason. The Chief Justice rendered his decision today and in his judgment he declared that the decision of the City Council at the time to purport or to terminate the service of Ms. Saldivar as City Administrator was unlawful and illegal and effectively null and void. And as a consequence, he ordered some damages to be paid by the City Council to Ms Saldivar. Her salaries and other benefits which would have accrued from the time she was terminated in September 2007 to now, which he calculated be roughly about ninety-three thousand dollars.”

Sharole Saldivar, Won Judgment Against CitCo
“I am very happy Marion, it’s been a long time, I’ve waited for this judgment. I feel vindicated. My family and I, especially my daughters have been through a lot. The accusations were made in the public media and I did not give a statement so what is interesting though is that no statement was made in the defendant’s submission to the court; not from either the former leader of the opposition or the former Public Relations Officer. So obviously they did not have any evidence to produce.”

Marion Ali
“Had the judge ruled that you be reinstated would you want your job back?”

Sharole Saldivar
“Not necessarily, it would have been difficult. I mean feelings have been hurt. It doesn’t matter which political party, we have to be mature and we have to be responsible. There is what is called due process. You cannot just accuse people of anything and just make these rash decisions and just give the person a chance to explain what he or she is accused of.”

We tried reaching Mayor Zenaida Moya for her reaction to the ruling and to find out whether the Council will appeal the decision, and more importantly, if not, how it will find the almost ninety three thousand dollars to pay Saldivar. However, we were told she was in a meeting discussing the temporary transfer of the vendors from Queen Square market which begins Wednesday.