Close to 200 concerned citizens, vendors and officials of City Hall took to the streets yesterday marching from City Hall to the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development offices in Kingston where they protested against the inability of the ministry to address the issues affecting the council as well as the Town Clerk (ag) Carol Sooba.
Yesterday, protesters chanted “Sooba must go; Sooba must go home” and sang hymns as they stood in front of the ministry with their placards that read “Sooba the bully must go”; “Vendors have bills to pay” and “Seven years at university and still not qualify.” The protesters also wore tags that read ‘peaceful picket’. The protest action is expected to continue today and the following days if nothing is done.
As the protest subsided, Mayor Hamilton Green and Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green went in to meet Junior Local Government Minister Norman Whittaker, who was said to be meeting with Lindeners at the time. But they never got to meet the minister even after waiting for about two hours.
Green said he sent a message with the minister’s secretary to tell him that he would like to speak with him because it is important and asked if he could leave just for a few minutes to accommodate him, but the minister said that he would call him back. When Stabroek News last spoke with Green, the minster was still to contact him he said.
At the protest yesterday, Green told reporters that the “eye-pass” that is happening in the council must stop. He said he has been in the public eye for the past 60 years and had never had anyone say to him the things Sooba had written in her letter after he asked her to call a meeting. But she “has the spunk [and] the gall to write…,” he added.
In the letter to the mayor, Sooba had said 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 had subsequently called for her immediate removal from the office. At a meeting with Whittaker, she was advised to withdraw the letter and issue an apology. None of the above has been done to date.
Green also said that Sooba “wants to run this place like she is a god and ignore everybody else. She is too obnoxious. If I had the power she would have gone a long time.”
The protest was staged after the council held a public forum on Tuesday to seek recommendations from the public on the way forward in dealing with the situation that currently faces the council. It also came close to a week after the financial situation of the council was revealed.
According to the reports of the Finance Committee of City Hall, the council has $83 million in savings, but liabilities in excess of $1 billion. Despite the amount in the council’s account, no road or drainage works were done for the year. Councillors had said that the money is being saved at the expense of the city that continues to deteriorate on a daily basis.
Addressing the crowd, Chase-Green spoke about the series of events that led to the protest. She said Sooba has been refusing to carry out the decisions of the council which she is required to do; a sentiment that has been echoed multiple times by various officials of City Hall.
Chase-Green reiterated that Sooba is not qualified for the position she occupies while adding that “all she is doing is attending the university for… a number of years and she has not brought a progress report as yet from the university.”
Vendor Linden (only name given), who has been vending for 45 years, said that he came out to show his support because he wants the Town Clerk to be removed since she wants to remove him and others from vending. He said that vending is all he knows to do to earn an income.
Another vendor said that she is protesting because she is poor like many other vendors and Sooba wants to stop her from vending. But being poor does not make her powerless she added. The vendor stated that “we can’t work with her she has to go. She is too disrespectful. ”
