Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
~ Leaves Collectivité after 10 years' service ~
MARIGOT--The Collectivité's Director General of Services (DGS) Pascal Averne is to leave St. Martin on December 23 after ten years at the helm of the administration, to take up a new posting in his native Guadeloupe.
As of January 1, 2015, he will serve as Chef de Cabinet for UMP politician Marie-Luce Penchard who is the Maire of Basse-Terre and daughter of former Regional Council of Guadeloupe President Lucette Michaux-Chevry.
The Collectivité bid a fond farewell to Averne at a function held in his honour in the Sandy Ground Cultural Centre cinema on Tuesday evening attended by colleagues with whom he worked, the four presidents who held office during his tenure and former Mayor Albert Fleming during the Commune era.
Such was the scope of his function – he needed to be fully conversant with not only the running of the Collectivité, but also the issues of the day concerning State, Department, Region and the new untested organic law that ushered in the new status – that he was the most-sought-after official for clarification or consultation on any topic and acted as adviser to the former Mayor, the first President Louis-Constant Fleming, subsequent Presidents Frantz Gumbs and Alain Richardson, and Aline Hanson today.
He was in regular contact with sectors such as health, education, justice, Gendarmerie, Chamber of Commerce, district councils, economic council, etc. Many of these representatives were in the audience.
There were no less than 10 short speeches during the evening from Albert Fleming, Louis-Constant Fleming, Frantz Gumbs, Alain Richardson, Aline Hanson, the Collectivité's Director of Human Resources Vernon Roper, Préfecture Secretary-General Matthieu Doligez, Senator Guillaume Arnell, Préfet Philippe Chopin (who arrived late from St. Barths) and Averne himself.
All of the speakers gave recollections, often humorous, of working with Pascal Averne and all had no doubts in testifying to his loyalty and efficiency in the job.
Perhaps closest to Averne from the beginning was Vernon Roper, who helped him to find his feet when he was recruited by Albert Fleming in 2004. Fleming said Averne had become available when Lucette Michaux-Chevry lost the Regional Council election that year, adding that Averne had been recommended to him by Jean-Paul Fischer.
Averne came to St. Martin on a three-year contract to sort out the 21-million-euro deficit of the potable water situation, which he did by transferring it into a new entity that he created, the Etablissement des Eaux et Assainissement de St. Martin (EEASM). In 2007 then President Louis-Constant Fleming asked him to stay on as Director of General Services, a job that oversees all the services of the Collectivité, the staff and the finances.
Senator Guillaume Arnell found words to describe Averne from the letters of his first and last names; "professional, averti (informed), serious, competent, alert, loyal, attentive, volontaire (willing), energetic, rayonnant (radiant), economic" but left out the "n" for his new employers in Basse-Terre to discover.
Matthieu Doligez presented Averne with the Préfecture medal after noting he was "familiar with all dossiers in all domains."
All of Pascal's colleagues and chefs des services banded together to present him with a luxury Blancpain watch that was hidden in a crate.
