By Naomi Marshall
COUNCILLORS of the Linden Town Council are accusing Mayor Mr Carwyn Holland of treating staff with disdain and flouting the laws of Guyana.
The latter accusation has to do with his instructing his secretary not to allow his deputy mayor, Ms Waneka Arrindell into his office in his absence.

It all came to a head on Thursday during a meeting at the Linden municipality, with councillors expressing deep concern and disappointment over the overbearing manner in which Holland treated his secretary and the deputy mayor just before leaving for China two weeks ago.

Among those concerns is the alleged disdainful manner in which Holland locked his secretary out of his office and told her to find somewhere else to work. According to the councillors, a complaint to that effect was lodged during an administrative meeting.
As the secretary told Holland to his face when the issue was raised at Thursday’s meeting: “You were not directly polite about it.”

She later noted that Holland subsequently apologised to her, saying that at the time he told her so, he was in Georgetown and had inadvertently taken the keys with him.
Contending that the allegations against him are largely unfounded, Holland said he is still to fathom why persons would describe him as haughty.
At this, Councillor Wainwright Bethune replied, “Mr. Holland, the way you deal with people; the way you talk to people is very disrespectful.”

Also brought up at the administrative meeting was Holland’s instructing his secretary not to allow the deputy mayor into his office in his absence.
Councillor Lennox Gaspar felt that was the last straw. “It is very disturbing and distasteful.” To which Holland shot right back:

“I feel that’s my personal space, and I have personal items, etc, in my office.”
At this, the councillors decided to read him the riot act, so to speak, by quoting excerpts of the Laws of Guyana governing his particular indiscretions.
According to the Laws of Guyana, Municipal and District Councils, Chapter 28:01, Article 17 (1), during any period when the mayor is, for any reason, unable to perform the functions of his office, those functions shall be assumed and performed by the deputy mayor.

Article 17 (5) also reads: “In the event of the deputy mayor, or a councillor, performing the functions of the office of the mayor for seven consecutive days or more, the deputy mayor or the councilor, as the case may be, shall, during such period, have at his disposal, in lieu of the mayor, the funds placed at the disposal of the said office in the manner specified for the payment of such funds.”

As one councillor pointed out, Holland ought to have taken into account the circumstances that may have caused the deputy mayor to want to use his office.
“I can’t understand how you get personal items and private items,” the councillor said, adding:

“If I get my personal computer, my cellphone or whatever, I would remove them. Any other document is the municipality’s and of the people of Linden.”