ACTING Town Clerk Sharon Harry-Munroe is among officers of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) expected to appear before the Local Government Commission (LGC) tomorrow to justify why disciplinary action should not be taken against them for acts committed in the past.

The municipality’s Human Resources Manager, Paulette Braithwaite, the City Engineer, Colvern Venture; and the Internal Auditor, Omodele Umojo-Newton are also expected to appear before the Commission. These city officials were singled out in a report coming out of the City Hall Commission of Inquiry (CoI) for a number of infractions. The CoI was conducted in 2018.

In the report, Harry-Munroe and Venture were cited for incompetence and dereliction of duty, while Braithwaite was cited for incompetence. Umojo-Newton was cited for incompetence and conspiracy.

Chairman of the Local Government Commission, Mortimer Mingo explained that the Commission took a decision to invite the city officials to a meeting after analysing the recommendations. He said that during the meeting, the officials will be given the opportunity to discuss the charges brought against them.

“The Commission deliberated on the recommendations to ensure the findings are consistent with the evidence. If they’re saying this employee must be cited for incompetence, we needed to see that it is supported by the evidence,” Mingo said, adding: “So, that is an exercise we went through. We have concluded that, and we have now satisfied that, yes, there is a case for these employees, based on the evidence, to appear before the Commission, where the findings will be placed to them, and, in keeping with natural justice to give them an opportunity to be heard.”

Among other City Hall staff cited in the report and already dealt with were former Town Clerk Royston King, who was named for “gross misconduct, abuse of office, recklessness, dishonesty, conspiracy, and misappropriation of funds,” and Chief Constable Andrew Foo, for dereliction of duty and incompetence. It was also recommended that City Treasurer, Ron Mc Calmon be sent on early retirement due to his ill health.

The LGC began meeting with Foo in January 2019, and his issue is ongoing. In the case of Mc Calmon, the LGC has already approved his early retirement, according to Mingo.
The LGC fired King in January 2019, but prior to his dismissal, he was on administrative leave for approximately four months.

The LGC had indicated that they’d fired King after he “did not respond verbally nor in writing to the charges.” However, King has since challenged the dismissal in the High Court, arguing that the Commission had violated his right to be heard. He is also contending that the Commission has no right to cite him for gross misconduct in public office, since that charge is a criminal offence.

Two other employees were also cited in the COI report, however, no reason was given why they should be sanctioned. Assistant Town Clerk, Sherry Gerrick was cited for dereliction of duty and incompetence, while Assistant City Engineer Rasheed Kellman was cited for conspiracy.

Questioned about this, Mingo said he couldn’t say why Gerrick and Kellman were included in the report with no evidence or explanation to show why it was recommended that they should be disciplined. However, they are not expected to appear before the LGC, due to the lack of evidence.

Mingo said that overall, the LGC has been continuously working on addressing the 31 recommendations contained in the COI report. He noted, however, that not all of the recommendations can be dealt with by the LGC.

“What we have done is, we have dealt with three of the substantive recommendations, but some of the recommendations have to do with what City Hall has to address. So we have written to City Hall, pointing out to them the recommendations that the city itself has to address. For example, the NIS, GRA and some claims by contractors that weren’t paid. So we asked them to comply with the findings of the COI, and to do so expeditiously,” Mingo noted.