Former Mayor of Georgetown Ranwell Jordan and a number of other Councillors at the Mayor and City Council yesterday continued their call for Mayor Hamilton Green to vacate his office and make way for new elections after numerous failings and lack of accountability related to trips overseas and a poor all-round tenure as Mayor. A Motion of No-Confidence in the Mayor was narrowly defeated on June 28. It had also sought to have the Minister of Local Government instruct the Town Clerk to hold elections for the office of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the City of Georgetown.
“The purpose of this conference is to reiterate our stand that the Mayor occupies his office illegally, it is also to denounce the failing of the Mayor to give an account of how funds were met in respect to a trip “which was proposed to be one on Council business and to provide the Council with a proper report on the trip.”
According to the statement that was released at the press conference, Mayor Green has been in office for 14 years in contravention of the law. It said that this was confirmed by the Attorney-General’s Office.
The statement said that at the Statutory Meeting held on June 14, 2010, when asked about the funding of the trip to China, the Mayor said that such a request had been out of order, and improperly put before the House, and that it appeared to be a personal vendetta.
At the end of the debate on June 14, the Motion of No-Confidence was moved and seconded expressing no confidence in the Mayor for his failure to give a forthright account of his trip to China and what funds, if any, had been received for it. Many members spoke on the Motion expressing their dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Mayor.
Jordan, speaking at the press conference yesterday, said that the event was meant to bring the public up to date and to reinforce the need for change. He said that even though the Motion was defeated, the fact that so many Councilors expressed their lack of confidence in the Mayor is reason enough to ensure that there are elections for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
He said that whether the contributions were made in the form of electronic airline tickets or in kind contributions, the Mayor is duty-bound to so reveal to the Council. He said that the Mayor must be accountable to the Council of the City of Georgetown. Further, Jordan said that it is not the function of the Mayor to identify officers for travel overseas. “The Mayor, as a Councillor, has every right to identify Councillors for overseas trips. But he identified Officers and arranged for them to go overseas without the knowledge of the Council,” Jordan said.
Jordan said that Green, as Mayor for the last 14 years, has not done anything of significance to bring about change for the City, “yet he clings like a leech rather than relinquish to [someone else].”
Jordan said that for the year so far, the Mayor has visited Korea in February and March, then Colombia and Panama in April, and then went to China from May 14 to 25, and then to the USA . “For the first six months of the year the Mayor made six trips…while garbage is piling up and workers are not being paid. We need to ensure that something is done about it,” Jordan said.
He said that the only trip that the Mayor gave an account for was the one to China and these, Jordan said, were just promises made. “We cannot go on promises, we must have tangible evidence,” he said.
On the ongoing controversy, Councillor Llewellyn John said that any system in which there is no strict accountability will undermine confidence.