I COULD not believe my eyes when I opened the newspapers recently, only to see the headline boldly stating ‘Sitting Councillor pitted against contractor, carpenter in Constituency Three’.I was indeed appalled at the audacity of this sitting City Councillor, who has been doing just that: sitting and not performing, for the last fourteen years around the horseshoe table; and now that councillor is seeking to return to waste another three years under Georgetown Constituency Three at the March 18 local government elections.

The information that all politicians must provide to their constituencies is what is contained in their track record. What have they done to better their communities? How have they bettered the lives of the citizenry?
I do not think that Mr Garrett can point to one project in the Bel Air Gardens, Bel Air Springs, Prashad Nagar, North East and North West Campbellville wards that he has advocated for or implemented in the last thirty years that he has lived in the Campbellville Housing Scheme.
I cannot believe that Garrett really thinks that his experience as a Councillor in a Council that has done absolutely nothing for the citizens of Georgetown would help him to be elected once again. At least his political party seems to have had the respectability not to put him on its list for the proportional representation (PR) component of the LGE, apparently leaving him to fight for himself.

I just hope that that party has instead placed a young, bright, progressive person there instead. This Councillor’s track record as acting Finance Chairman appears to have been a dismal one, with the Council facing all sorts of financial difficulties; not paying workers on time; owing many institutions, such as the Guyana Power & Light, etc.

More than that, Garrett was apparently removed from the Chairman’s position by his own party members through a no-confidence vote in the latter part of 2014. Why would the citizens elect him again?

He speaks as though, if re-elected, he would automatically be back in the Finance Committee, suggesting that he would improve the City’s finances, something he apparently could not do for the last fourteen years. He gives the impression that he would be a one-man show, looking into staff welfare. His ridiculous campaign pitch continues with him assuring the electorate that, within a week of being elected, he would start looking after the drains, parapets and alleyways.
My question is this: He has four more weeks on the present Council, why does he not do it now? Why wait? I think this is all just thrash talk and pie-in-the-sky promises being made by an old Councillor who needs to make way for a younger person.

Regards,
JAMES MC ONNELL