…says voting records on issues must be made public

WITH the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into City Hall’s operations unveiling several transparency and mismanagement issues, the Alliance For Change (AFC) has vowed that in its leadership within local organs it will not support any act done in secret.

AFC General Secretary Marlon Williams and Executive Secretary Michael Leonard, in representing the party on Tuesday, both spoke on the issue and included the much contested parking meter contract.

Leonard said that one of the challenges witnessed at City Hall over the past three years is the issue related to transparency and accountability. “There are many, many cases where we have issues coming out of the Commission of Inquiry where there were verbal contracts; there were allegations of abusing the emergency clause to ensure that you can single source and then obviously the single sourcing went various places it should not have gone.”

“So, one of the things I’m personally looking forward to seeing and I believe the party is looking forward to seeing as well; is transparency and accountability,” he said.
Leonard added that he believes that there is no reason which deters municipalities and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) from providing public voting records.

“I see no reason why we can’t live stream in this 2018 the proceedings of council. The persons who elected the councillors and elected the mayor should be able to see and understand from the comfort of their homes what is going on at council. I also believe that they should be some public record of voting at the council. We need to begin with small steps to hold our councillors accountable,” he added.

Meanwhile, speaking on the topic of the parking meter project which the AFC remains against, Williams said that should the Georgetown Municipality consent to its implementation, such a decision must be transparent and unanimous amongst the council.
“If the new council as a collective agrees, to that position and methodology and that route of earning revenue, it is absolutely imperative and we’ll hold to the position that it must be a consensus on the council and there must be public inquiries and public presentations on what is best.

“Foremost in our mind is as Mr. Leonard correctly said, we must assure that there is accountability at all levels from who agrees to it; why they’ve agreed to it; what is the methodology in coming up with such a decision,” Williams said.

He then added: “Unless there is a threat to national security, there is nothing the Alliance For Change will ever support that must be done in secret… it must be all the facts [that] must be presented to the people of this city and generally. This is not just for the M&CC but for every municipality and every local government [organ]. This is what the Alliance For Change is premised on; they’ve advocated for this from commensurate and we will continue to advocate for transparency and accountability at all levels.”