TWO members of the public were chosen by the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) on Monday to sit on the new team that will commence re-negotiation with Smart City Solutions (SCS), the company that was granted concession to install parking meters in the city.

At a meeting at City Hall, councillors decided on placing Mr Owen Godfrey Edwards, a civil engineer, and accountant and Mr Robin Hunte, an accountant and lawyer, on the committee.     The majority of the councillors voted for Edwards and Hunte over the two other names that were presented to them, these being MBA doctoral student, Mr Joseph Eastman and retired schoolteacher, Ms Pamela Arthur.

Early in September, 13 of 25 city councillors voted in favour of setting up a new committee, consisting of members of the public this time around, to start a fresh process of negotiation with SCS.     Just last week, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Councillor Akeem Peter was selected to be chairman of the new committee, with other APNU Councillor Noelle Chow-Chee being named Vice-Chairman.

Apart from Peter and Chow-Chee, the other members of the new committee are Councillors Oscar Clarke, Jameel Rasul, James Samuels, Heston Bostwick, and Ivor Henry. Town Clerk, Mr Royston King and City Treasurer Mr Ron McCalman will complete the nine-man team, but they will sit in an advisory capacity.

People’s Progressive Party (PPP)’s Bishram Kuppen, who is opposed to King sitting on the committee for fear he would influence the direction that it takes, was chosen to sit on the new team by Councillor Bostwick, but he declined the nomination.    Asked his thoughts on the matter, Peter told the Guyana Chronicle that the new committee will be working to achieve “the most possible and suitable deal” for the citizens of Georgetown.

“One of the first things I would be doing is asking for much more external helpers as it relates to the accounting systems. “Numbers would play a great role,” he said, adding that the working income of most of the workers in Georgetown and the affordability of parking meters on the ‘normal’ person will have to be taken into account.

“We will bring the human face back to the issue, because we understood that it wasn’t really about parking meters, but it was about the contract. We want to help people understand the process,” Peter explained.

He said, too, that along with a reduction in the cost to park, the team will also be looking at the spaces that were offered to SCS, such as those in front schools.    “Even though we began on a wrong foot, I view this as an opportunity now for us to realign ourselves along the right path, and get a human face to parking meters. The submission of documents is not an option; it’s a necessity, a must-do. Once those are submitted, I see us moving forward,” he said.

Meanwhile, the contract that the M&CC entered into with SCS came under heavy criticism from some City Councillors, who called for a complete revocation of it, while some others suggested waiting on the outcome of a court case that has a bearing on the matter.    Deputy Mayor Lionel Jaikarran had said that the project lacked transparency from the beginning, was not open to public scrutiny, and should be shelved immediately.

Said he: “In May 2016, the Council was informed that the contract was signed for the implementation of parking meters. To my knowledge, at no time do I recall ever discussing, much less voting, on a proposal to implement this. I didn’t even see a contract until much later on.”    Alliance for Change (AFC) Councillor Sherod Duncan, along with PPP Councillors Bishram Kuppen and Khame Sharma, also called for the complete revocation of the contract with SCS.

Duncan had repeatedly called SCS “a sham of a company”, and referred to how it disrespected the committee that the M&CC tasked with renegotiating the contract, by not providing requested documents.

“SCS is a bad deal for the City. How can we continue to work with them? We cannot do business with them,” Duncan had said.