City Hall spokesman Royston King has been appointed to act as Town Clerk, after the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) selected replacements to act in the stead of six officers sent on leave to facilitate the police investigation into the city’s operations.
At the M&CC’s statutory meeting on Monday, temporary replacements were identified for substantive Town Clerk Yonette Pluck-Cort, City Treasurer Andrew Meredith and the City Engineer Gregory Erskine, Deputy Town Clerk, Sharon Harry-Munroe; the Director of Solid Waste Management, Hubert Urlin; and the Personnel Officer Paulette Braithwaite, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Ron McCalmon is temporarily replacing Meredith; Lloyd Allen, Erskine’s deputy, is acting in the post of City Engineer; Michelle Smith is the acting Personnel Officer; Surujpaul is Director of Solid Waste Management; and Valerie Clarke-Chichester, the assistant Deputy Town Clerk, will remain acting in that capacity but will work along with King. Also, it was announced that Debra Lewis will perform the duties of City Hall spokesperson.
Chairman of the Personnel Committee, Oscar Clarke, had proposed appointing King as Town Clerk and 17 councillors voted in favour of the move. Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green explained that it was initially suggested that Parmadin Kissoon Dyall take on the Solid Waste Manage-ment responsibilities, but he refused, stating that he did not believe he could lead the team very long since he was retiring in January.
She also pointed out that the six officers were only sent on leave based on an in depth investigation to be conducted and they have not been dismissed. “These persons were sent on leave! If nothing is found then they will return,” she noted.
Commenting on the Ministry of Local Govern-ment’s move to send home six officers, Clarke said that the council should have been given the opportunity to deal with the matter of the report on the city’s operations submitted by consultant Ramon Gaskin.
“It seems rather strange that a recommendation should be made by the chairman of that inquiry that officers should be sent on leave and when the decision of the council was taken to do so and was communicated to the Ministry, we got no response… we were all rather surprised,” Clarke said, adding that instead, they were informed that police was being called in.
“Maybe the investigation reached a point where the Minister or the Ministry has been advised that these people (the six officers) be sent off. The ministry has now decided that it is time for these officers and even more than we have asked for to be sent off,” Clarke further stated.
It was he that advised the other council members that certain administrative actions must be taken to formally appoint persons for the positions. “Our duty is to put in place emergency mechanisms to enable the work of the council to proceed without undue interruption. I am sure that there are already problems… whenever the head is not there, the body does not sit well,” he advised.
Clarke also sounded his astonishment at Urlin being sent on leave. “I was surprised that the Solid Waste Director was sent off by the Ministry. I don’t know what was the crime. He too was fingered!” he stated.
He also told councillors that the appointed officers must understand that they will come under very close scrutiny given the circumstances of the matter.
IMC
Meanwhile, with regards to the suggested moves to install an Interim Management Committee (IMC) to manage the city, Clarke said that will not happen. “And to replace us with an IMC, President [Donald] Ramotar will have to think 100 times before he removes us from around this table and put an IMC,” he declared.
He added that he is concerned that the council was not given the opportunity to go to the public and replenish itself, noting that “Putting IMCs in place don’t help, the situations don’t change! Many of them are worse that what was there before and recently, we see a proliferation of them. People in areas should elect their representative.”
Adding to this was Chairman of the Markets and Public Health committees Ranwell Jordan, who said that the council denounces the proposal which is “threatened by central government.”
“The council is not having the necessary funding to execute its programmes… we need in place dedicated, committed and honest officers who are prepared to work with the council to take this city forward and we have named officers who will be filling the void and we will work with them to ensure that the necessary upgrades are done… indeed, the implementation of an IMC will not solve the problems of this city,” Jordan concluded.
