THE Mayor and Georgetown City Councillors are doing the Capital City a grave injustice by involving its citizenry and employees in a petty political game.

The issue of whom the council wants to function as the acting Town Clerk is trivial considering the impact it will have on the services and employees of the forever cash-strapped council. The APNU+AFC-controlled Council has made it clear that they will resist anyone seen as an imposition for the post of Town Clerk. Further, they are resorting to legal proceedings before the courts.

If that is not enough, the council appointed a person to perform the functions of the Town Clerk while Candace Nelson was chosen for the task by the Local Government Commission. The council is engaged in sinister and worrying political actions that include non-recognition and persecution of Ms. Nelson.

Further, the Central Government is watching the game before it gets involved in the confusion at the council. What is disheartening is that the employees are suffering immense inconvenience from these opposition games at the council. They do not know what to listen to and who has the rightful authority over the administration. Further, the employees’ salaries for the month are in jeopardy because the bank, like the employees, is not too sure who it should be taking direction from in the extant case.

This development seems like the opposition APNU+AFC Coalition is interfering with City Hall through the political office of Mayor Ubraj Narine, who is a willing participant in causing much consternation in the process. The APNU+AFC-appointed Mayor does not seem to understand that he is a servant to the people of Georgetown and not his political bosses in the opposition. He wants to engage the administration and Central Government in a useless struggle for political gain.

Arguably, another perspective is that no one will benefit from this charade engulfing the City Council. Citizens’ and employees’ lives are not going to improve tremendously by this game. They are certainly more things for which the council’s energies could better serve the people. After all, the council should focus on getting its rates and taxes up and looking at the solid waste crisis in Georgetown. The Mayor and Georgetown Councillors would want to address the Restoration Fund of City Hall and the ongoing problem of corruption in its financial records.

City Hall must clean up its act, firstly, and allow the Town Clerk to do the job until the court rules on her appointment. Does the APNU+AFC Coalition want to obstruct another acting Town Clerk? After all, they have been through with the episodes of Carol Sooba, Yonette Pluck, Buleah Williams, and the infamous Royston King. Haven’t they learned how to co-operate while they are protesting at the court or seeking redress? Nelson’s appointment can only be quashed by the Local Government Commission and no other authority. She seems to have the support of the government, so it is hard to move her.

The public is not interested in a council that does not know when to restrain itself politically. The employees and citizenry of Georgetown want fewer politics and better co-operation between the State and the council.

The council must divorce the politics of suspicion of the government. It is a fact that the City Council has had a problem with its handling of the three M’s – money, management, and manpower. Central Government is not engineering the confusion in the council, but the problem is the struggles for power by the PNC/APNU+AFC Coalition that is affecting it.