–Says Minister Bulkan acted in accordance with the law

CITY Mayor Patricia Chase-Green yesterday said she is in “full support” of the government’s suspension of the parking meter project for the next three months, and that Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan has acted within his right.
On the sidelines of the fortnightly statutory meeting at City Hall, Chase-Green told reporters that the minister acted in accordance with the law.
This is notwithstanding that the legal advice obtained by Town Clerk Royston King following City Hall’s receipt of the order suggested otherwise.
The legal advice, obtained from lawyer Roger Yearwood said that the Municipal and District Councils Act “does not permit the honourable minister to direct the Council to suspend any contract or by-laws enacted by it as the honourable minister purports to do by his order dated 17th day of March, 2017.”
But the mayor yesterday said that the Council has now accepted Cabinet’s recommendation, and will be meeting to discuss the details of the parking meter contract and to satisfy all the concerns that have been raised by the government.
“Right now, I am taking a break from parking meters; we have three months to deal with it. The administration is expected to take certain steps and have certain things in preparation,” Chase-Green said.
According to her, under the law, it was the town clerk’s responsibility to seek legal advice so that the Council could have been properly advised.
“I don’t think at any point in time it was the Council’s intention to not honour the decision of Cabinet,” she said.
“Cabinet is one of the highest decision-making bodies. After the order was issued, and the town clerk would have complied with the order, there have not been any meeting with Cabinet and councillors and there’s no indication as to that. But we will call a special meeting to deal with that.”
Chase-Green said she does not believe that the minister’s action has stifled the Council from acting on its own. “The minister is the minister; the minister just asked the Council to put a stay on the meters for three months to satisfy all the questions and queries made by the persons,” the mayor said, adding:
“The contract will be looked at in detail; all that they ask for will be presented, and we will move forward. This Council, under my mayorship, is not going to disagree with the government’s position. They have asked us to suspend, and we have suspended.”
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Finance Committee Oscar Clarke, who is also the General Secretary of the People’s National Congress (PNC), had said at a previous meeting that after the minister communicated Cabinet’s recommendation, that the City Council thought it necessary to seek legal advice.
This, he said, is due to the fact that the decision regarding parking meters has to be taken by the Council and not the minister.
Clarke said it was clear that everyone wanted to know of the legal implications of suspending the by-laws, including Minister Bulkan himself. He said the City Council did not want to follow the route that Cabinet recommended without legal advice.
Before the minister’s direction, the town clerk had written to Minister Bulkan asking him to consider that there is no provision in the contract between the City Council and Smart City Solutions (SCS) to suspend it in part or in its entirety.
“The suspension of the contract operates as a breach of contract and would therefore trigger the compensation clause,” he had noted.
The way forward on the parking meter depends heavily on the meeting to be convened with full council as well as to other consultations, the mayor has noted.