EVEN as the David Granger administration awaits the Attorney General’s advice on the controversial contract for parking meters throughout Georgetown, City Hall is pushing ahead with the project which Mayor Patricia Chase Green says will commence on September 1.But State Minister Joseph Harmon is clapping back in face of City Hall’s adamancy to move ahead with the project. “Cabinet’s commitment was to review the contract and Cabinet will review the contract,” Harmon reminded the press corps yesterday adding that whatever action City Hall is taking at this moment “whenever the Attorney General advises Cabinet, Cabinet will take the necessary action.”

Last week, Harmon announced Cabinet’s interest to look into the contract which the city administration has kept under lock and key for fear of the idea being copied. That contention has been debunked as ludicrous by the city administration’s critics. According to Harmon, if there is any illegality arising from the review of the contract, then the city’s administration would become subject to the actions of the state’s authorities.
Minister Harmon’s announcement preceded President David Granger’s visit to City Hall on Monday where he addressed an extraordinary statutory meeting of the city’s councilors who came into office last March after local government elections were held for the first time in 23 years. The President’s visit marked the first of its kind by His Excellency, where Mr Granger engaged with city councilors on the parking meters matter that has infuriated Georgetown’s denizens.
President Granger in his address called for councilors to reflect on their commitments to the city’s citizens, and not to their own interests or to the interests of political parties they would have contested under. President Granger’s party, the APNU+AFC, currently holds 25 out of 30 seats on Georgetown’s city council and similarly holds the majority in the council’s finance committee.
Immediately following the President’s visit, the city administration rolled out a model of the proposed parking meter for display in city hall’s compound. The city’s town clerk, Royston King, who was recently chastised for his involvement in a shady trip to Mexico along with Mayor Chase Greene, was captured interacting with the parking meter.
King accompanied the mayor and two other councilors, Junior Garrett and Oscar Clarke, to Mexico City, Mexico and then to Panama where the Georgetown delegation met with officials from those countries unbeknown to the rest of the Georgetown’s elected representatives. The team, which also included councilors Junior Garrett and Oscar Clarke then made their way to Panama for a similar meeting with Panamanian officials on the parking meters. Revelations of the logistics were only made to the Council while in route to Panama. Harmon is now saying that even with confidence at the city administration’s level that the project will be implemented by the first day in September, the advice given by Attorney General Basil Williams to Cabinet will be acted on.