Pilar not sure about applying for top post

Pilar Bush	Hon McKeeva Bush

by Alan Markoff

Thursday, August 5, 2004

The Minister of Tourism, the Hon McKeeva Bush, said this week he supported Acting Director of Tourism Pilar Bush as a candidate to fill the position permanently, however Ms Bush maintained she was unsure if she would apply for the post.

“I haven’t decided yet whether to apply for the Director of Tourism position,” she said on Tuesday.

Ms Bush has served as Acting Director of Tourism since the resignation of the previous permanent post-holder, Lania Rittenhouse, in March of this year.

In May, Ms Bush issued a statement saying she had submitted her resignation. The Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Tourism at the time, Charles Clifford, issued a statement saying that Ms Bush wanted to pursue a private business enterprise.

However, HE the Governor Bruce Dinwiddy did not accept Ms Bush’s resignation, keeping her at the position.

Minister Bush said in May that he had appealed to the Governor, in his capacity as the head of Civil Service to intervene when it had been recommended to him to replace Ms Bush with a cruise industry professional from outside the Cayman Islands.

Prior to being given the Acting Director of Tourism post, Ms Bush held the Deputy Director position since November 2002, some duties of which she is still performing. Had Ms Bush been allowed to resign, the Department of Tourism would have had neither a Director nor a Deputy Director.

Mr Bush expressed his gratitude to Mr Dinwiddy for deferring Ms Bush’s resignation, and said at the time that he hoped she would reconsider. “I think Pilar is good for tourism,” he said then, “I would like to see her as Director of Tourism.”

In a telephone interview on Monday, Mr Bush reiterated his support of Ms Bush, who is no immediate relation to the Minister, for the post. “I don’t support bringing in a foreign Director of Tourism,” he said. “Pilar has helped turn tourism around here, and I support her. I hope she applies for the position.”

The original deadline for applying for the Director of Tourism job was 20 July, however it has been learned that the position will be advertised again within the next two weeks. In the interim, the Public Service Commission has advised Ms Bush that she is expected to stay in the Acting Director position until the Director post is filled.

By saying that she had not yet decided whether to apply for the Director position, Ms Bush seemed to indicate that she might indeed be willing to stay on with the Department of Tourism. “I’d have to do some rearranging of my life,” she said, “I have developed a path of working outside Civil Service, so I’m torn.”

Besides her work with the Department of Tourism, Ms Bush also worked more than three years as Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Aviation and Planning under former Leader of Government Business Truman Bodden, and with Cayman Airways for five years, the final three of which were in the capacity of Vice President of Marketing.

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