…as his juniors continue to underperform

LESS than four months after officers in the City Engineers Department were suspended for their bad work attitude and poor performance on the job, Georgetown Mayor Patricia Chase-Green, along with several councillors, has complained that nothing has changed regarding these officers.

Chase-Green, at Monday’s statutory meeting at City Hall, told councillors that daily she receives no less than four complaints about officers in the Engineer’s Department.  Councillor Junior Garrett offered that the existing situation  should be dealt with from the top, and that if City Engineer Colvern Venture cannot properly guide the council because he is not being guided by his officers, then he should go home.

Garrett said he could not understand how these officers were suspended not too long ago, and complaints are already pouring in again.  He, along with Councillor Oscar Clarke, said Venture ought to be more firm with his officers.  Deputy Mayor Lionel Jaikarran, said he was tired of dealing with that issue and all that has happened is that the City Council has become a talk shop.

Councillor Noelle Chow-Chee, said the officers continued to show gross insubordination and arrogance.  Councillor James Samuels complained that he was still awaiting an estimate from the Engineer’s Department regarding a bridge at Water Street, Agricol, that joins the Flour Mill Access Road. A site visit was made last month.

“Since then, I cannot get the estimate. He (Assistant City Engineer, Rasheed Kellman) said he will give me the estimate on the phone. But I questioned the professionalism of that. I want a letter-head from the M&CC and it must be signed.”  Four engineers of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) were suspended for their poor performance on the job and non-cooperation with Venture as their head.

Deputy City Engineer Ron Eastman and Engineer Technician, Kabila Hollingsworth, were suspended for two weeks without pay, while Engineers Marlon Harris and Vaughn Canterbury were each suspended for one week. Assistant City Engineer Kellman was handed a warning letter.

A number city councillors, including the mayor, had raised concerns about the conduct of Hollingsworth in particular, when the Legal Affairs Committee met with them.      Councillors Malcolm Ferreira and Chow-Chee both said that had they been the chairperson of that committee, they would have recommended immediate dismissal for Hollingsworth, owing to the total disrespect and insubordination he showed  the officers.

Meanwhile, Venture had complained to the council that he was not receiving cooperation from the said engineers, and that follow-up memos did not bear much fruit from them.      Chase-Green had sternly cautioned Venture to rein in the people in his department, lest the council take action. “The attitude of those in the Engineer’s Department stinks; their attitude towards citizens is unacceptable,” she had expressed.

She said it was high time that some officers from that department go home, because they were at work doing absolutely nothing. “You have officers in the yard liming whole day,” she charged.

Chase-Green pointed out that when those officers are picked up and taken into the fields, they produce the reports months after and worse yet, give the excuse that they have to revisit the location before submitting the reports.

“These officers are not doing what they’re expected to do,” she said. “I’m tired of hearing the same names over and over again. You have senior officers sitting down doing nothing.”

The mayor also lamented the fact that despite their behaviour, the municipality had to find money to pay their hefty salaries every month. “It is time the nonsense stops,” she said.“If the engineer cannot take control of the department, we will have to take control of him; he needs to stop ‘sorrying’ for people.”

Addressing the engineer in person, Mayor Chase-Green said, “You need to take control of your department, and the council will stand by you.”

With respect to allegations in the past of rampant corruption in the City Engineer’s Department, Chase-Green had once famously said: “The only time you hear about the City Engineer’s Department, is when they are taking bribes all over the place.”