…PNCR executive concerned about mayor’s conduct

CALLS are growing for the sacking of Town Clerk Royston King and the matter was discussed at last weekend’s General Council of the People’s National Congress Reform.

Only on Wednesday, former Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan said he intends to move a no-confidence motion against King. Similarly, PNCR firebrand in the Sophia area, Andrea Marks, who is also a city councillor, warned King at Monday’s statutory meeting about a no-confidence vote. In a correspondence seen by this newspaper, Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan told Chase-Green that at a Central Executive Committee meeting on February 7, 2018, concerns were expressed about her public conduct. “Madam Mayor, on 2018.02.07 at a meeting of the members of the Central Executive Committee of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), be informed that concerns were expressed about your public conduct generally, with specific reference to your public utterances which may be construed only as confrontational to the office and / or the person holding the office of the Minister of Communities, and the effects and implications of such conduct,” Bulkan wrote the mayor.

Further, on 2018.02.10 at a meeting of the General Council of the PNCR, a delegate and councillor called for the removal of the town clerk (TC) of the City of Georgetown. That call was premised on the opinion of the delegate that the TC’s conduct, deportment, and actions constitute an embarrassment to the administration,” Bulkan told Chase-Green in the letter.

Regarding King’s conduct, Minister Bulkan made reference to a missive penned by Deputy Mayor Lionel Jaikaran, which informed him that he was unaware that an appeal of the court order by the town clerk had been undertaken regarding the Bel Air Park fiasco. “Mr. Jaikaran stated too, that he was similarly taken aback by the decision which predicated the court order, namely, the use of the Bel Air Park playfield for housing, as neither of those matters were decided nor even discussed by council. He made clear his disapproval of such practices,” the Communities Minister said.

Minister Bulkan also called on the mayor to provide information pertaining to business transactions made by the council. “Be informed that I require the following: a complete list of all contracts, leases, sales, and any other transactions involving assets (real estate, equipment, etc) under the control of council, between the date of assuming office in April 2016 to the present,” the letter stated.

Chase-Green has recently accused Minister Bulkan of interfering with the work of the council, a charge he has dismissed. The mayor and town clerk have been receiving criticisms for several months from various stakeholders regarding their conduct, including their role in the Smart City Solutions parking meter project. That matter is engaging the attention of the courts. Meanwhile, Duncan has signalled his disapproval of King’s conduct and wrote in his letter to the editor of this newspaper that: “The Council is no longer in charge at City Hall, the Town Clerk is in full command.”

Duncan says the longer he listens to King, the longer he contemplates his actions, “the more I am convinced that we can no longer countenance his brand of administration over the capital city, Georgetown.” The former deputy mayor said when the APNU+AFC Government was elected in 2015, “we had high hopes that the government we were electing would give us a clean break from the past. It was the mandate and expectation carried in the expressions, “It Is Time!” and “Vote for Change”. The hope of change buoyed us. It was the deep desire shared by the majority of Guyanese and precipitated regime change. It was a new dispensation which unleashed local government elections in 2016. Yet, events since the election of the “new” City Councillors have caused the reasonable man to conclude that at the local government level, we were not to have a change but an exchange.”

According to Duncan, local government elections were an opportunity for the promise of democratic renewal to be made real, yet it was not to be in full measure or any meaningful way. “Our city is managed from crisis to crisis; we lurch from scandal to scandal, the latest being the Bel Air Park and Farnum Play Grounds.”

Duncan said the things which should occupy the council’s attention such as: the President’s brilliant vision for capital towns as engines of growth for their regions; the Sustainable Urban Transport Project for Georgetown; the National Integrated Solid Waste Management Strategy and allied projects never find their way into council discussions. “From the revulsive document called a parking meter contract to the active plans to build houses for senior members at City Hall, including the mayor and town clerk, and all the major issues in between which never meet the level of council for approval as they should, Her Worship continues to squander the tremendous opportunity given to her to transform our city, while the town clerk continues with his rogue actions, unchecked. Editor, if the cries emanating from the people continue to go unanswered, we will have to apologise to the PPP for our indictment of this management of the capital among other issues and be not worthy of that sacred act of the people in their ballots cast and their vote. With this letter, I therefore signal my intention to move a vote of no-confidence against the town clerk,” Duncan said.