–to respond appropriately

THE “offensive and ill-advised antics” of Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green over the Easter Weekend were noted and will be followed up, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, said yesterday.

Luncheon, also Cabinet Secretary, was speaking at his usual post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President in Georgetown. He said that at its last meeting on Tuesday, Cabinet examined a number of current issues involving the City Council, but high on that list was the action of Mayor Green and his subordinates at the Easter activity on the seawall.

“Cabinet reviewed accounts by documented sources,” he said.

Mayor Green and Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green reportedly turned up at the seawalls and admonished vendors not to pay revenues which Town Clerk Carol Sooba said were obligatory.

Sooba told this newspaper that one Julian Orgista was responsible for collecting the revenue, but Mayor Green instead admonished vendors not to pay any money to Orgista.
Sooba added that she was made aware that the Mayor used his armed bodyguard, who is appointed to him by the City Council, as a “man-weapon” to cause confusion between vendors and councillors who were executing their duties.
She noted that all the actions of the mayor, his deputy and his bodyguard were monitored by Assistant Superintendent of Police Gordon Langevine and other officers of the City Constabulary, who then took action and called for back-up. However, when the City Constabulary sprang into action, the mayor took “a comfortable seat on the seawalls” after having committed his acts of “bullyism”.

Langevine, who is the officer in charge of security detail at the City Constabulary, denounced the actions of the mayor and deputy mayor, and noted that their actions “constitute a criminal offence”.

According to Sooba, the act of collecting revenue for vending is one that has been in existence for over twenty years. She said that power was previously vested in Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green, who manipulated staff collecting revenues, and as such, monies always “appeared short”.

(By Telesha Ramnarine)