Mayor of Georgetown, Hamilton Green, has written to the Minister of Local Government asking for the immediate removal of Acting Town Clerk Carol Sooba because of her “strange” behaviour.
In the letter that was sent to the minister on Wednesday and dated April 15, Green said he is asking “for immediate action to be taken if the situation is not to deteriorate into anarchy.”
The letter further went on to state that “… Ms Sooba should be relieved of her duties immediately. Over time she has been acting strangely. The most recent is on Wednesday April 10, 2013. I forwarded a memo to the Town Clerk asking her to arrange a meeting with all the staff. This has been done before whenever the municipality is faced with challenges. In this case, it was to sensitise all workers as to the role they need to play to support the restoration process.”
Two overseas-based consultants are expected to arrive in Guyana on April 23. The consultants—an architect and an engineer from the United States and the Caribbean—are expected in Guyana for a two-day trip to assess the current architecture of City Hall. The meeting that Green wanted to call was to facilitate this.
The letter asked Sooba to arrange the meeting for April 15. But the acting Town Clerk refused and responded to the mayor, by way of a letter, which was also seen by Stabroek News, that she “cannot permit the staff of the municipality at such short notice to attend a meeting for the restoration of the city which you have significantly contributed to its deterioration…”
Green’s letter was copied to Leader of the Opposition David Granger and Shadow Local Government Minister Ronald Bulkan.
When contacted, Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green said the Town Clerk is acting above her role. She said, when asked why it is only now they are seeking the removal of Sooba if her behaviour was intolerable from the beginning, “we have tried desperately to work with her but it is not working.”
Green’s action is the first drastic attempt to remove the Town Clerk from her post after numerous complaints were made by councillors about her behaviour and her failure to carry out the decisions of the council.
A source told this newspaper that the mayor’s request for Sooba’s removal is within his authority because he is the mayor of the city. The source also said that if the need arises he can also physically restrain her from entering the building as was previously done by a former mayor who restrained a city engineer by changing the locks on the building.
Further, the source added, councillors can also refuse to work along with Sooba since her role is to only carry out the work of the council as the need arises and nothing else.
