Dear Editor,
In view of Councillor Andrea Marks’s protestation at the statutory meeting of September 13, that the Town Clerk should be removed, be advised that the responsibility for formulating policies is the job of councillors where they are not engaged in administrative work. According to the Municipal District Councils Act, Chapter 28:01, there is a clear line between the work of the elected council and the duties of the city administration. Councillors are expected to support the administration in its efforts to enforce compliance with the city’s by-laws, rules and regulations.
Councillors need to become more au fait with the laws of Chapter 28:01 and should be guided by such, as opposed to making sensational statements willy nilly that can cause discord and compromise the reputation of the municipality. Knowing and understanding 28:01 is paramount, as it is the standard by which all municipal activities should be measured. No individual councillor has the right to impose his or her personal opinion on the decisions of full council, ie, it is not about individualism but more about the collective council. What has been happening is that a few councillors, some with noticeable political ambitions and others with a not so subtly hidden agenda have been supporting activities that are in glaring contravention of the Municipal and District Councils Act and the Public Health Ordinances Chapter 145, which they swore to uphold.
The Town Clerk’s duties and responsibilities are stipulated in the Municipal Act. It should be noted that even if he is willing to give in to the demands of some councillors he is constrained by the law to which he is held accountable to ensure the integrity of the nation’s capital and the well-being of local communities and the citizenry.
While in the past the laws have been flouted and hands were tied by the previous powers that be, in this current dispensation, persons need to realize that the city is managed effectively and sustainably based on rules and laws not on ‘friendism’, innunendo, opinion and personal ambition. The law is the law and it is being used effectively for the betterment for the majority.
Further, the recent move by Town Clerk Royston King on Robb Street to temporarily suspend vending activities was not one made in isolation.
The vendors were warned on several occasions in addition to having an agreement about keeping the surroundings tidy, which was ignored. They were also exhorted about bringing out goods in manageable amounts, desisting from blocking entrances and exits of legitimate business houses and staying on a certain portion of the road. Most of them flouted this advice. They have been warned time and again by councillors and the city police not to encroach on the roadways which leads to traffic congestion and in some cases makes for the roadway becoming impassable, yet they have persisted.
Following complaints from legitimate business owners, on the day in question with other officers a decision was made to suspend vending in that area so that it could be cleaned, cleared and properly sanitized in the interest of the health of the nation. This area, because of vending, given the economic realities had become unhealthy and many even forgot that there were pavements as those spaces were also taken over by vendors on Robb Street between Alexander and Bourda Streets. We met with the vendors and had the area cleared, cleaned and sanitized and they have since been advised to desist from such practices. Contrary to publications that the President has decried the reckless attitude of the Town Clerk, let it be known that the President is a law-abiding manager of Guyana and his actual advice hinted that vendors should be afforded a safe, clean, sanitary place with a roof so that they would be able to pay for the accommodation and the city’s streets would be void of pavement and street vending generally. It is foolhardiness on the part of some who saw it fit to twist the well-intentioned statement of the President to suit their best political narrative.
If we advised the vendors every time we planned to move against them in the interest of the city we would be faced with injunctions galore and a very unhealthy city, for which the administrators would be blamed. Please be advised that vending according to the law requires each vendor to have a huckster’s licence and a certificate from City Hall. This puts all or most vendors in a spot as they do not have either of the two requirements. People should not be fooled about matters concerning the council/Georgetown municipality.
Yours faithfully,
Debra Lewis
Public Relations Officer (ag)
Mayor and City Council
