TOWN Clerk Yonnette Pluck yesterday took offence at being referred to as a “yard fowl” by Councillor Gwendoline McGowan and her request to leave the Georgetown Mayor and City Council statutory meeting was granted. Addressing Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green and fellow councillors, McGowan commented that she admired former Town Clerk Beulah Williams but observed immediately after that, “we have some yard fowls in this council.”
McGowan said she called no names in her ‘yard fowl comment’ but the Town Clerk said it was a specific implication.
For some time now, Pluck has been at odds with several of the councillors, many of whom voted in favour of a no-confidence motion to have her replaced. However, they met with no success to have her out as Local Government Minister Kellawan Lall, serving at the time, had ordered her to remain in her position.
It was at this point that the councillors moved to the High Court, subsequent to which an order was served on Pluck for her to show cause why her decision to act as Town Clerk should not be prohibited.
The councillors had preferred Public Relations Officer Royston King to serve in that capacity, but the minister eventually installed Pluck officially as Town Clerk.
Ever since that time, it has been observed that Pluck and certain members of the Council are often at loggerheads.
Deputy Town Clerk Sharon Harry-Munroe asked Mayor Green to have the ‘yard fowl comments’ struck off of the records.
The Mayor said he would look into the statement and reminded councillors that they were present at a statutory meeting and not at a marketplace.