By Vanessa Braithwaite
THE Linden Mayor and Town Council (LMTC) is presently divided over what was deemed, a unanimous decision made by the Local Government Commission (LGC), to confirm Orleena Obermuller, the substantive Deputy Town Clerk to Town Clerk, without due process or consultation. Obermuller has been acting in the capacity of Town Clerk since the dismissal of former Town, Clerk Joneller Bowen, by Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, in 2017.
The council was informed of Obermuller’s confirmation via correspondence dated September 5, 2019, by the Local Government Commission. It stated that the confirmation is with effect from March 23, 2017.

Things escalated at the council’s latest Statutory meeting, when Obermuller walked out of the meeting and ordered her officers to walk out as well, since she was not addressed as Town Clerk but as Acting Town Clerk, by the council.

Mayor of Linden, Waneka Arrindell, in an invited comment, told the Guyana Chronicle that the situation is a very serious one and warrants immediate intervention. She would have since written the Ministry of Communities on the matter. This newspaper was told that 13 of the 16 councillors are not in favour of Obermuller’s confirmation and would have attached their signatures to a round robin, addressing the issue. “The Local Government Commission made a decision without any consultation from the council….this is not in keeping with the President’s vision of local governance and local democracy, that it must be governed by the people,” Arrindell said.

Sifting out some unfinished business, Arrindell said that the LGC never furnished the council with a termination letter of Miss Bowen and therefore, the process of appointing someone, is null and void. Bowen’s dismissal was deemed unlawful by the court and recommendations were made for her to be compensated for lost wages but not to be re-appointed. To date, Bowen has not been paid any monies and therefore, the matter has not been legally closed. “For us to hire someone, we have to see a termination letter of the person (Bowen) and once that it done, we will go through a lawful position,” Arrindell said.
In 2018, the LGC, advertised the position for a Town Clerk, after Obermuller would have failed her appraisal as Deputy Town Clerk, by the previous council. Interviews were conducted, of which Obermuller was an applicant but the councillors related she would have failed that too. The commission then informed the council that the recruitment process must be re-conducted since the recommended candidate’s qualifications, were inflated.

Deputy Mayor, Wainewright Bethune, then related that in the process of re-advertising the vacancy, the commission wrote the council requesting that it holds on the process so as to facilitate dialogue with the council. “That never happened, the council was waiting to hold the dialogue and all we saw is the letter saying the Town Clerk was confirmed. We feel disrespected in the entire process because the fact that you wanted dialogue with us, means there was room for consultation. If we want real local governance as it should be and to know how effective this municipality would function, basic ethics would say, let us hear the take of the council. It has to be the council’s desire,” Bethune affirmed adding, “this is not about Obermuller, this is not about personality, it is about putting somebody to manage the affairs of the town, to have some body to work with the limitations of the council. This is not a personality thing, it is a professional thing.”

He did, however, state that Obermuller improved in her ability to advise the council.
Bethune said he believes the LGC is playing politics at this time rather than putting the interest of the municipality at heart. He further related that 75 per cent of the recommendations made by council were not executed by the administration of the council, of which the TC heads. Most of these, he said, are not solely because of the lack of resources, but basic management skills and the LCG should realise that this is not about promoting someone, but about promoting the town.

In response to the allegations, Chairman of the LGC, Mortimer Mingo, related that LGC made a decision to confirm Obermuller’s position and that decision is in keeping with the Labour Act of 2018, which states that a person must not act in a position for more than six months. In Obermuller’s case, she was acting for almost two years. The situation, he said, was brought to the attention of the Commission by the Guyana Labour Union, as there was a Collective Labour Agreement between the TC and the union, of which the council also signed on to. “On that basis, the commission looked at the CLA and since we didn’t receive anything adverse in terms of the performance of the TC, based on that, a unanimous decision was taken to appoint her. Mingo said that all issues brewing about her ill-performance and incompetence, have only risen to the fore, after she was confirmed. He said the commission never received any correspondence from the council, complaining about her performance. Her confirmation, will not be reversed, he affirmed.
In relation to the lack of consultation on behalf of the commission, Mingo said that the constitutions, Chapter 28:01, never advised that consultation has to be done with the council.

Article 119 of the 28:01 states : The power to appoint a chief executive officer or persons to hold or act in any local government offices the emoluments of which do not exceed eighteen thousand dollars per annum (including the power to confirm appointments), the power to exercise the disciplinary control over any persons holding or acting in such offices and the power to remove any such persons from office shall vest in the council to which such person is to be appointed or in which he holds office and, in the case of the appointment of a chief executive officer, be subject to the approval of the minister.”

In respect to this clause, former Chairman of the Administrative and Legal Affairs Committee at LMTC, Lennox Gasper, said that he believes that the Chairman of the LGC, Mortimer Mingo, is bullying the council and that is wrong. “This is not democracy, Mr. Mingo is out of order as Chairman of the LGC, you cannot force someone down a person’s throat that is not functioning,” he said.

During his tenure as a Councillor, Gasper said that he has first-hand knowledge of Obermuller’s ability to execute and does not believe there have been any improvements. He also claimed that the request for her to act as TC, was unfair to her, since she was basically thrown into the position, in approximately one month or so, after she was appointed Deputy Town Clerk. She did not benefit from any training and had no fore-knowledge of the post and it seems she has not benefitted from on-the-job-training over the past two years. “To me, the TC lacks the capacity to adjust or function under pressure, we had gotten situations in terms of execution. When decisions were made at the statutory, it was close to the next statutory meeting that she would wait last minute to get things together. Her ability to report would come across very vague so from there, I started to have an issue.”

Gasper then related that after three months, the council was unable to appraise Obermuller in her substantive position as Deputy Town Clerk, since she was already acting as Town Clerk. A decision was made to extend her probation period to another three months. At the end of that three months, she failed the appraisal and it was then the council informed the LGC on this and a decision was made to advertise for the post.

Even at this juncture, the former councillor admitted that both the LGC and the council were wrong to advertise the post, since the substantive TC, Bowen, was not formally dismissed and her litigation was still ongoing and as stated by Arrindell, Bowen was never served a termination letter by the LGC, since the one served by the minister, was deemed illegal and she was not paid her judgement, she is still legally, in the employ of the LMTC.
Relative to Obermuller’s recent decision to walk out of the statutory meeting, Gasper said that the TC’s duty is to follow the dictate of the council and not the commission and the fact that she is following the commission and not the council, he questioned, “Where is the democracy?”

When this publication contacted Obermuller on the matter and on the allegations of her being incompetent, she said she has no comment to give.

However, Councillor Monica Hackshaw, one of the three councillors who are in favour of the confirmation, said that Obermuller has been acting since 2017 and the labour laws are clear in that regard, that she must be confirmed, more so that it is a labour law that the council signed on to. Hackshaw articulated that most of the issues relating to Obermuller’s confirmation are fuelled by personality conflicts and she urged the councillors against her confirmation, not to dismiss the fact that the council is cash-strapped and Obermuller can only work with the resources available to her. She described the incompetencies listed by the majority, as petty issues and several factors need to be considered. “I think Miss Obermuller is very competent, she would advise the council effectively, she knows the 28:01, there are a lot of personality issues in this matter,” she affirmed. She encouraged councillors to be more proactive in their quest for development in their constituencies and not to solely depend on the council, knowing its financial state and then laying blame at the foot of Obermuller when the council cannot deliver. She urged them to come with recommendations, rather than only demands and to seek out other donors such as NGO’s for assistance.