Gordon hopes for law reform so councils can be more effective
By Cathy Richards
The Ministry of Housing has halted the Linden Town Council’s (LTC) “illegal” practice of “fining” residents who breach building codes and in response the LTC has adopted a hands-off attitude saying the courts will deal with defaulters in future.
Chairman of the Interim Management Committee of the LTC Orin Gordon, who says he has had enough and will not contest mayoral elections slated for this year, said the issue of Lindeners breaching building codes and putting up structures without plans being approved has been a chronic one.
Speaking at a press conference which sought to address several issues facing the council, he said that in the past the council would “fine” defaulters $40,000 and allow them to proceed with their construction. The precedent for this, he said, was a similar matter that was taken to court. “It was with that pattern following the suggestion by one lawyer that we decided on that $40,000,” Gordon said.
He further stated that defaulters were given three options: break down, be taken to court or pay the fine. However this action was ordered stopped by the Minister of Housing via a letter which said that the council’s action was in violation of the law by charging the fine.
He said the LTC was advised to return monies collected. According to Gordon, acceding to that order would mean going against the court order and he would not be complying. The minister was written to, to that effect.
Gordon said that as a result of this action by the Ministry of Housing the council has taken a back seat on issues of this nature. This, he said, can result in persons constructing properties on the reserve and having to be taken to court. This, he said, would only have an adverse effect since court procedures can be very long and persons would by then completed their construction work.
He said it was hoped that with the reform of the Municipal Act, which should precede municipal elections, issues of governance would be more applicable, empowering councils to deal in a more effective way with their administrations.
Gordon said the problems being brought to bear with the administration of the town council stifle development and order within the township. He pointed to several problems ranging from revenue collection, to the sale of council properties.
Tolls
Apart from the collection of rates and taxes which is expected to reduce considerably this year, the council gets its revenues from stall rentals throughout the town, bridges leases and other tolls. Gordon expressed grave dissatisfaction with the revenue which is collected at the Kara Kara toll gate. The council had projected that an average of $100,000 would be netted on a daily basis. However this has been falling short considerably. He said revenues at that toll station are collected from grocery and lumber trucks on entering and leaving the town respectively.
Obliquely opposite the M&TC’s toll station at Kara Kara is the forestry department at which timber trucks are required to stop before leaving the town. One check had revealed that in excess of 500 trucks were documented for the month of November 2008. However the council’s toll records for revenue collected for the same period accounted only for 60 trucks. It is believed that illegal activities have been plaguing the system and are putting undue pressure on the council.
Gordon said that for sometime now the council has been seeking to have the service contracted out privately but to no avail. This, he said, is constantly hampering development in the town since most of the current earnings are spent on wages and salaries and payments to pensioners. This amounts to some $4.2 million monthly.
Controversial
Meanwhile, Linden businessman Dustanni Barrow, in a recent publication of the ‘What the people say’ column in this newspaper had opined that one of the main problems in Linden was that persons who should be managing the town and assisting business persons and those interested in starting up businesses are not doing so. Instead they are looking at every minuscule, insignificant thing that would prevent them from doing so and using that not to give permits and whatever assistance they may need.
Gordon said Barrow was referring to a controversial issue in which the businessman had encroached on council’s property by building a fence and a gate on council’s reserve. The problem was identified when the plan was taken to the council where it was decided that the plan should not have gone through until there was a discussion with the council.
“The administration went behind the council’s back and sent the document to Georgetown. Unfortunately what they didn’t know was that the people from Georgetown would have come up and done inspections,” Gordon said.
He said the plan was rejected by the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA) on the grounds that the council’s reserves were encroached on.
Gordon said a meeting was organized with the legal owner of the business and others who were found to have violated the building regulations but two of the main defaulters failed to show up.
According to Gordon, the council was prepared to grant permission for the work to continue which would have been communicated to the CHPA and the plan would have been passed.
“We have an administration that is very weak and we have a problem when the big establishments get away with it and then we going and tackling the smaller establishments. That can’t be right and this is where we have a problem,” Gordon said.
The LTC was heavily criticized at the press conference. Reference was made to the late payment of wages and salaries to workers especially over the past three months, owing to insufficient funds in the account. Note was made of the administration’s inability to expend the first tranche of its 2008 subvention, while there are several projects that should have and can be executed paving the way for the collection of the second tranche in a timely manner.
Over the past six years the council has changed over five town clerks. The current acting town clerk suggested that the problem might lie not with the town clerks but rather with the management style of the council. He said his stint in the position would also be short.
Meanwhile, Gordon emphatically stated that he would not be contesting the mayoral elections slated for this year. “I have had enough over the past six years and I think it’s time for someone else to take a try at it,” he said.