High Court quashes appointments of Clerk, Deputy Clerk of HOA

The High Court has quashed the 2023 appointment of Deborah Charles as Clerk of the House of Assembly and Simone Williams-Huggins as Deputy Clerk, in yet another legal blow to the Unity Labour Party administration, which was voted out of office last week.

Earlier on Thursday, High Court judge Justice Cybelle Cenac-Dantes ruled in favour of Celena McDonald, who challenged the Public Service Commission’s (PSC) appointments.  

The court held that the appointments of Charles and Williams-Huggins were inter alia, unlawful, unreasonable, and procedurally improper.

Justice Cenac-Dantes held that the PSC acted unfairly and unlawfully by appointing Charles as Clerk of the House of Assembly rather than McDonald.

The court also declared that the PSC acted unfairly and unlawfully by appointing Williams-Huggins as Deputy Clerk instead of McDonald.

The judge also ruled that the decision to appoint Charles as clerk of the House of Assembly and Williams-Huggins as deputy clerk violates the principles of selection for appointment and promotion, in particular Regulation 19 of the PSC Regulations.

The court also held that the PSC failed and or refused to advertise the posts of Clerk and Deputy Clerk of the House of Assembly, thereby violating Regulation 18 of the PSC Regulations and the principle of transparency.

The Public Service Union sponsored the lawsuit in which Shirlan “Zita” Barnwell represented McDonald and Douglas Mendez SC and Tonya Dasilva appeared for the PSC.

On July 13, 2023, then-leader of the opposition Godwin Friday, who is now the prime minister, had cited the Constitution in making a case against the appointment of Charles, a former ULP senator, as Clerk of the House of Assembly.  

Charles was a candidate for the then-ruling ULP in the 2015 and 2020 general elections and a senator and parliamentary secretary for five years ending in November 2020.

She was appointed Clerk of the House of the Assembly after Nicole Herbert retired from the Public Service.  

Williams-Huggins, a public servant who has worked at the House of Assembly for years, was appointed as deputy clerk, replacing Sharon Nash, who died in June 2023.

When Parliament met on July 13, 2023, for the first time with Charles in her new role, Friday announced that he had written to the chair of the PSC about the appointment.

He noted that, unlike the Speaker of the House of Assembly, who can come from among the partisan members, the Constitution clearly states that the clerk must be a public servant.

Section 35 of the Constitution says:

“(1) There shall be a Clerk of the House.  (2) The office of the Clerk of the House and the offices of the members of his staff shall be public offices.”

He said he wished he truly could have joined then-prime minister Ralph Gonsalves in congratulating Charles.

“… I wish to record on record here, that we on this side of the house have very serious reservations and concerns about the appointment of the present holder of the office of clerk to that position,” Friday said, adding that the clerk is a very important, impartial position within the House of Assembly.

He said Charles, no matter how she may try to appear to be impartial, had recently been a candidate in the elections, competing against an opposition member and recently held the “very partisan position” of a senator in this house, “combating” members of the opposition.

“And we’re asked to believe today that the mere changing of a robe for the usual garb of a member of the house will transform that person into an impartial performer in the office of Clerk of the House.”

Friday said it was “regrettable” that Charles was appointed to the position and he announced “for transparency” that he had written to the PSC about the appointment.

“… because it affects the way in which this honourable house functions, and certainly will affect the way in which members on this side of the house will regard the Office of the Clerk of the House.”

Friday, who has been an MP since 2001, said he had approached the Office of the Clerk of the House over the years “without any fear, or any doubt about the propriety of the responses or the assistance that might be given”.

He said he had canvassed then-opposition lawmakers “and they basically are fearful that they will not be able to use the office in the way they have done because of the appearance of partiality and the lack of trust that would be there”.

The opposition’s objection to Charles’ appointment had first been made public by West Kingstown MP, Daniel Cummings, who defeated Charles in the 2015 and 2020 general elections. Central Kingstown MP, St. Clair Leacock has also spoken publicly against the appointment.

Friday said that all of the members that he canvassed in his caucus oppose the appointment.

“And I thought that it is necessary for me as the Leader of the Opposition and someone who seeks to uphold the integrity of this chamber and the efficiency of the work that is done here to raise that matter and put it on the record in this honourable house.”

He said he was expecting a response from the chair of the PSC.

“Again, I conclude by saying that the appointment of the present Clerk of the House will diminish the performance of this august body because it will affect the way in which the members of the opposition regard and approach the Office of the Clerk of the House,” Friday said.

“It’s an appointment that should never have been made, because it clouds the office with a taint of political partisanship, which we’ve never had to worry about in this honourable chamber,” Friday said, adding that he would also address the matter elsewhere.

However, in his response, Gonsalves accused Friday of verbally abusing Charles.

He said that besides elected members and senators, the speaker and the clerk are two important constitutional offices “touching and concerning [the] management” of the House of Assembly.

He noted that the clerk has one important role in the house outside of the speaker’s authority, in that if, after 21 days of the filing of a motion of no confidence, the speaker does not summon the house, the clerk is obliged under the law to summon the house to debate the motion.

“… it doesn’t talk about any partisanship; she has to do it,” the then prime minister said.

He noted that the speaker is higher than the clerk, and pointed to instances in the past, where people who contested general elections were appointed speaker, including Nolwyn McDowall, who he defeated in North Central Windward in 1998.

Gonsalves further noted that Sir David Jack, who was an MP became governor general, which is also a constitutional position.

He said that the New Democratic Party was the party that appointed both McDowall and Sir David.

Gonsalves said the opposition leader was opposing Charles’ appointment on the grounds that she was once a senator and parliamentary secretary and, on that account, would be partisan.

Gonsalves said the opposition leader also said that because Charles was once a candidate for the ULP, opposition members “have a fear.

“It is something in their mind, not about Deborah Charles,” Gonsalves said, adding that the statement goes “towards the core, the essence of the integrity of this woman, as a mother, as someone who was a teacher, moulded children, a principal of a school and on no occasion that anyone can say that there was any evidence in her of malice, spite or bad mindedness”.

He said the PSC must have been “satisfied in her integrity, and in her capacity to do this job, that is why they appointed her.

“…  to question her impartiality, to question that she would do something underhand or adverse to the interests of parliamentary democracy, or to the opposition, that you would not be even-handed is to question her integrity and her character and accordingly, subjected her as was, as happened here, to verbal abuse”.

During the ULP’s 25 years in office, the High Court has ruled in favour of the PSU on several occasions.