…Narine to pursue this if re-elected today

By Telesha Ramnarine

GEORGETOWN Mayor Ubraj Narine, if re-elected to that chair today, wants to pursue the reformation of the by-laws governing the City Council, and begin a process that could see him and all city councillors receiving salaries, as compared to just stipends.

Elections for mayor, deputy mayor, and members of the Finance Committee, will be held today in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall, and Narine told Guyana Chronicle, on Monday, that he was ready to accept anything that was decided by the councillors, even if they saw it fit to place someone else as mayor.

“I do not envy the chair of mayor. Whatever the outcome, I am ready to accept. If the council sees anyone else fit, so be it. I am a humble man and I will remain humble,” the mayor expressed during an interview after the statutory meeting at City Hall.

Since taking office in January 2019, Narine said his focus was to “work on the administration” of the Council. After Town Clerk (ag), Sharon Harry-Munroe, was sent on leave by the Local Government Commission, Town Clerk (ag), Sherry Jerrick, has been doing a fine job, the mayor pointed out.

He said: “The town clerk has been working along with Council and I expect that in the future; whether who is mayor, that the town clerk gives her support because the town clerk is a servant of this horse-shoe table.”

If re-elected, the mayor said his focus will be on developing various projects that could see the Council receiving increased revenues.

Furthermore, he said the Municipal Council and District Act needs to be reviewed and reformed. “This is something I will be happily pursuing in 2020. For instance, the building codes are outdated; we need proper solid waste management.”
At the moment, the mayor and councillors do not receive salaries, but stipends. “The mayor’s job is not one that you can have a side job with. It’s a 24/7 job. We should go down the road of paying mayors a salary, a taxable one. Councillors here who create policies and by-laws; it takes a lot out of you and to receive a stipend is not fair,” he expressed.

Narine said he believed that if a mayor serves his full term in office, there should be some benefits for him to receive. “I am not saying I am demanding a salary, but it is something I am looking at; to put things in place for the future.”

Meanwhile, the mayor also wants the rapidly deteriorating City Hall building to be repaired as soon as possible, and the Council to ‘rake in’ the billions of dollars owing in rates and taxes.

His plan also includes changing the Stabroek Market Square. “I would like to see it transformed to the way Times Square is in Manhattan, New York City, where citizens can go and relax and feel free from fear,” he told this publication in a previous interview.

Narine also wants all of the large trees growing in the Koker out-fall at the side of the John Fernandes Wharf, removed to allow a much greater volume of water to drain from the land and end all the flooding in that commercial downtown area of the city.