In 2017 and 2018, the Prefect had seized the administrative court of Saint-Martin with a view to canceling contracts which she considered non-compliant with the law. It is :
Creation of fifteen positions
On August 30, 2016, the executive council voted to create fifteen positions from September 1 onwards. These were three territorial police guard posts, five administrative assistant posts, five technical assistant posts, one heritage assistant post and one editor post.
In February 2017, the Prefect asked the administrative court to cancel the deliberation of the executive council. The case was examined on April 4. After deliberation, the judges canceled these job creations for a simple reason: it was not the executive council to create the positions but the territorial council.
Five contract positions
In early 2019, the Prefect applied to the administrative court to have five category A and B contract contracts signed in 2018 annulled because she considers that they contain “major defects which affect both [their] external legality and [their] internal legality "
The court, which examined the cases on April 4, released its deliberations on April 30 and canceled the five contracts. The first reason is that these contracts do not contain all the legal notices required by law.
In addition, the community should have recruited civil servants and not contractual agents as also required by law; the use of contract workers being carried out under specific conditions. For example, she could have recruited some if she had not found an official, but, as the prefecture had pointed out, no vacancy had been advertised, so no official had been able to apply. She could have had recourse to contract workers if there had been a temporary increase in activity. However, the administrative court noted the “permanent nature” of the posts in question, of an “absence of precision on the reason for recruitment”. He also recalled that this type of contract had to be signed for a period of one year, renewable once. However, the said contracts were signed for a period of three years and some were renewed with the same people.
These five contracts had been the subject of a free appeal by the prefect. But "from the silence kept for over two months by the community of Saint-Martin [was] born an implicit rejection of this administrative appeal".
In defense, the lawyer for the COM had asked the court if he came to cancel these contracts, that he fix at nine months the entry into force of his decision. "The community has a serious need for the services [of the agents who have] a great experience of the territory and occupy an important place there," she had argued. A request which was refused because the COM did not prove "an imperative necessity" in the eyes of the judges.
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