– “There’s no position as acting mayor”

By Telesha Ramnarine

DEPUTY Mayor Sherod Duncan has complained that Town Clerk Royston King provided him no transportation or any other facility during the recent absence of Mayor Patricia Chase-Green.

The mayor had informed Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan that she was proceeding overseas for a few days on some personal matters. On her return, she was greeted with the deputy’s complaints.

But the Mayor and the Town Clerk have both rebuffed the Deputy Mayor’s claims. At last Monday’s statutory meeting, she said Duncan also complained that the Town Clerk had not informed him that he was moving to suspend vending around the Bourda Market area. King had gone ahead with these actions while the mayor was abroad.

In Duncan’s absence at the statutory meeting, Chase-Green recalled that during her tenure as deputy mayor, she served without transportation and did not complain to anyone. “I did it at my own cost. I walked, took a taxi, used my children’s car, I never made it public; so all of the facilities that are now being asked for by the deputy mayor…I am at a more disadvantage, and I don’t complain.

“But it is unfortunate that we just try to get attention every time that we can. And we are not handling the works of the council,” Chase-Green said.

She cited as reckless Duncan’s statement that “the Town Clerk must go”.

“Making irresponsible statements to the public will not help you; you have to solve your problems around this horseshoe table.”

NO AUTOMATIC ASSUMPTION
And in response to the Deputy Mayor’s complaints, the Town Clerk observed that there seems to be a misunderstanding that whenever the mayor is out of the jurisdiction, the deputy mayor automatically assumes the office of the mayor. “That is not so,” King declared. “Whenever the mayor is out of the jurisdiction, it does not follow that the deputy mayor assumes the office of the mayor. There is no position in the law as acting mayor; rather, it’s deputy mayor performing the duties of the mayor.”

King further argued that, according to the law governing the municipality, if the mayor is unable to perform any functions while she is out of the jurisdiction, the office of the Town Clerk must be advised. “This was not the case when you left,” he pointed out to Chase-Green.

In another argument, the Town Clerk said there were no functions in Chase-Green’s diary to be performed while she was away. “As a result, administration did not provide transportation for the deputy mayor (as well as) the other facilities, because there were no mayoral functions to perform.”

Citing a technicality in the law, King said the facilities in question should be given to the deputy mayor only after seven consecutive days of the mayor’s absence.