MANDEVILLE, Manchester — The Parish Councils Services Commission has ruled that disciplinary

actions be taken against Manchester Parish Council Secretary/Manager David Parkes in light of complaints from councillors about his leadership.

A no-confidence motion was moved late last year to remove him from the Council.

Mayor of Mandeville Brenda Ramsay in last month’s regular monthly meeting said that the intervention of the Services Commission was sought because the Council’s business was being seriously affected by what she said was Parkes’s “underperformance, negligence and sometimes… prejudicial behaviour.”

She said then that it was not a personal matter.

At the regular monthly meeting at the Manchester Parish Council recently, it was announced that Superintendent of Roads and Works Doyen Johnson is serving as acting secretary/manager.

Johnson has been in the post since January 30 and will continue until further notice.

He read a letter from the Parish Councils Services Commission outlining the decision.

“After careful review of the matter, the Parish Councils Services Commission has decided that disciplinary proceedings be instituted against Mr Parkes and that he should be interdicted from duty on half salary with effect from the 30th of January 2015… pending the termination of the proceedings against him,” it stated.

Another correspondence that the Acting Secretary/Manager shared with the Council said that Deputy Superintendent of Roads and Works Sanja Elliott would take on the role as Acting Superintendent of Roads and Works during Parkes’s interdiction.

Parkes has been in the position of Secretary/Manager at the Manchester Parish Council since January 2014.

Efforts to reach him at his mobile contact for a comment went to voice recording stating that the number was no longer in service.

Mayor Ramsay said that Johnson has already “hit the ground running.”