THE current attacks against Town Clerk, Carol Sooba, including threats to her life, protests at her home and Mayor Hamilton Green physically attempting to block her from entering her office should come as no surprise to those watching on. This brutish behaviour directed towards females occupying positions of influence at the Georgetown M&CC has been par for the course for many years.

Before Sooba, previous Town Clerk, Yonnette Pluck was constantly harassed and even referred to as a ‘yard fowl’ at an M&CC Statutory Meeting in October 2011. The Opposition members of the Council had even attempted to oust her via a ‘no confidence Motion’. And when this failed, they moved to the High Court.
Before Pluck, it was Town Clerk, Beulah Williams, who was referred to as ‘The Head Heifer’ among a number of other derogatory names. Efforts were also made to prevent her from accessing her office at times, basically the usual.
Strange enough, this kind of behaviour would be encouraged and tolerated in an environment where no less than the Mayor of Georgetown, Hamilton Green walks about preaching about the need for a ‘moral and spiritual revival.’ The facts would show that it is the Mayor himself who is contributing to this atmosphere of hostility, as can be observed with his almost daily barrage against Town Clerk, Carol Sooba.
But before these ladies, to be specific, in 1996, it was then PPP/C Councillor, Philomena Sahoye-Shury, otherwise known as ‘Fireball’. Ms. Shury, who was at the time the Deputy-Mayor of Georgetown, was forced to seek redress in the High Court after the Opposition-dominated Council forcefully removed amenities which were constitutionally accorded to her office.
The PNC/GGG had used their majority to pass a No-Confidence Motion against Shury, simply because she became the acting Mayor after then Mayor Ranwell Jordan was out of the country, attending a conference in Istanbul. Shury had lost her secretary, a vehicle and driver, and security guards for her office. GGG/PNC officials also boycotted all meetings she called during this period.
According to an article appearing in the media back then, under an accord between the major parties in the Council, the Government had said that back then, it was agreed that every side would support each other’s candidate for mayor for one year during the Council’s three-year mandate.
“GGG leader, Hamilton Green,” the article said, “served as Mayor during the first year, in keeping with his Party’s majority on the M&CC. The PNC’s Jordan was supported by the PPP/Civic against Green last year. It was expected that it would have been Sahoye-Shury’s turn this year (1996), but the GGG and PNC seem to have combined their numbers to prevent this from taking place.”
What this indicates, apart from the fact that the PNC, now APNU, cannot be trusted to honour a commitment, is that the opposition-dominated Council has spent more of its time focusing on personality issues, rather than focusing on the issues which affect citizens.
A most recent example is when current Minister of Local Government, Norman Whittaker requested, and was given, the green-light by Mayor Green to meet with the Council to answer directly whatever concerns they had, only for the Mayor to ignore the presence of the Minister and refused to have him address the Council.
Mayor Green and his namesake, the Deputy Mayor, along with other Opposition Councillors are always accusing the Government of bypassing them, or trying to undermine the Council. Here it is the Council and Mayor Green had the golden opportunity to question the Minister directly and expose him, thereby justifying their accusations but amazingly, they chose to ignore him.
His presence alone indicated the willingness of the PPP/C Government to work along with the Council, but it is clear, the Opposition-dominated Council is not prepared to work with the PPP/C to advance the interests of citizens in Georgetown. It is the citizens who will have to ultimately put aside blind Party loyalty and decide who really has a genuine interest in improving our Capital City when that time comes.