Mayor Hamilton Green and city councillors yesterday alleged that acting Town Clerk Carol Sooba told an early morning committee meeting that all local government bodies across the country had been dissolved—a claim that Sooba later denied while accusing the council of being “mischievous.”
Green made the allegation at a hurriedly called press conference at his office and it is the latest chapter in the continuing power struggle between the council and government-appointee Sooba, which has also engaged the attention of the court.
The disclosure also comes amidst renewed calls for local government elections, last convened in 1994, to be held.
The PPP/C government has come in for severe criticisms for not holding the elections and installing interim management committees (IMCs) around the country. It is believed that such an attempt would be made to replace the Green-led Georgetown municipality.
According to councillor Eon Andrews, a meeting was convened yesterday of the council’s Finance Committee by acting chair Oscar Clarke. However, before the start, Sooba, whom he said should not have been at the meeting, interjected and stated that she had a very important announcement to make.
“Purporting to be reading from some kind of document… she said the meeting cannot go on and no other meeting can go on or any meeting that involves councillors is not going to happen in future… because all local government authorities and democratic councils were being put on hold as of the 31st, August,” Andrews reported.
He added that Sooba eventually got up and left and told her officers that she was instructing them to leave the meeting, which was aborted.
However, Sooba denied making such an announcement and charged that the Mayor and Council were bent on creating mischief.
“I don’t know why they continue to do this…I made no such announcement and I received no such instructions,” she told this newspaper.
Pressed on what she would have said at yesterday’s meeting, Sooba stated the because Mayor Green has sent out a memo to all her heads of department, informing them that they should take no instructions from her and that she was an intruder, she was forced to make an announcement. She then went into an explanation about a bill in parliament and President Donald Ramotar not assenting to it and the fact that there has been no bill enacted to extend the life of the local government bodies, which would have ended as of August 31st.
Contacted following the press conference, Minister of Local Government Norman Whittaker told Stabroek News that there has been no such directive from his ministry.
“There has been no such instruction. I am not aware of such directive coming from my ministry,” the minister told this newspaper from Region Two.
He said that checks were also made with Attorney General Anil Nandlall, who was unaware of the issue. “There has been nothing about that coming from the government,” he later clarified.
Sooba made it clear that she never insinuated that she received any directive from the government. Rather, she said because Green’s memo said that the issue of her purportedly being sent on leave could only come to an end if local government elections were held, she has been forced to seek legal advice on the matter.
Last week Monday, at its statutory meeting, the council voted to send Sooba on leave. The following day, when she turned up for work, she found the door to her office barred up and the locks changed. She promptly had her personal security Shawn Hinds break into the office and has been at work since.
Green yesterday said that while he was unable to verify the accuracy of Sooba’s utterance, if found true it would be “an unusual procedure.”
