Dear Editor,
Parking meters, amendments to the contract and the bylaws are all fruits of a poisonous tree: the parking meter contract, and therefore everything that emanates from it is tainted.
On September 21, 2016 the Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan wrote to Mayor Patricia Chase-Green on a municipal matter; two of the things he said are of the utmost importance:
(1) “I write to inform you that your interpretation of the roles of officers does not coincide with the letter and spirit of the laws which govern such matters. As you are aware, central government has a policy of non-interference with the workings of local democratic organs, however, central government reserves the right to intervene whenever and wherever there is clear violation of the law”.
(2) “Section 8A of the Municipal and District Council’s (Amendment) Act of 2013, clearly sets out and states the general duties of city councillors. The section repeatedly makes clear that the elected council is supreme; the Town Clerk is but an administrator, like any other administrative officer, hired to carry out the directives of the council.
“For example, Section 8A (g) states that one of the duties of the council is to, ‘ensure that the municipality is managed in a professional and competent manner by a qualified Town Clerk.’ Obviously, therefore, it is expected that the council shall hire, manage and oversee the actions of a competent Town Clerk, as it would any other hired officer.
“The Municipal and District Councils Act Cap 28:01 also defines the roles of officers of the municipality. Section 77 (1) states that the Town Clerk is an administrative officer not an executive official and part 1 of the 6th Schedule of the Act lists his duties.
“Clearly, therefore, the authority of the Town Clerk is derived from the decisions of the council. As such, he may perform duties only assigned to him by law and be directed by the decisions of the council. Evidently, the law does not contemplate any scenario in which the Town Clerk makes an order with regard to the management of the municipality in the absence of an order from the council.
“Further, it is unthinkable that the Town Clerk may make such an order without the knowledge of the council and after doing so inform the council of his own decision. To do so would be to exceed his authority and usurp the mandate of the council.”
The advent of the parking meter contract before the Mayor and Councillors of Georgetown occurred on Monday, May 6, 2016. According to Agenda Item #2 of the Statutory Minutes (Opening Remarks by Her Worship the Mayor of Georgetown) the section reads: “Her Worship made mention that on Friday 13th, May 2016 council will conclude the signing of the contract for the parking meter system.” Before this time the Council was unaware that a contract was already negotiated. The new council took the oath of office April 1, 2016.
The next occasion the council heard about the parking meter contract was on Monday, May 23, 2016. The Statutory Minutes record the Mayor under ‘Opening Remarks By Her Worship The Mayor’, who said, “The Smart City Solution Inc. is proceeding with the work. In addition, the Mayor and representatives of the Mayor and City Council have been invited to observe the methods used by the agency in the area of it operation overseas. The invitation was accepted by the Mayor.”
The public would notice that this contract was never brought to the full Council post April 1, 2016 as a proposal for debate and approval. The argument has been that the contract was entered into before the life of this new council and as such was binding on the council.
As a matter of fact, while on a jaunt to Mexico to look at the parking meter company’s roll out of meters there, the Town Clerk issued a press statement, carried in Kaieteur News (June 17, 2016), “King stated that in 2015, the Council signed on to the contract and gave the green light to Cush and his representatives to work with the Council in this area of its responsibility… The incumbent Council allowed for intense debate and deliberation on the matter; the process of selecting the proposals was both transparent and fair.”
However, the year given for the signing of the contract does not reconcile with the finding of the Review of the parking meter contract by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Legal Affairs, which state that the contract was signed on May 13, 2016, and hence within the life of the new council, but outside its purview and authority.
What follows is even stranger than fiction. When the team returned from the Mexico trip, a press conference was held. In the course of that press conference, as captured by a post on the Mayor and City Council Facebook Page, Monday, June 20, 2016, the Mayor stated, “We took a deliberate decision not to share the contract because we wanted to secure investment.
This is because of bad experiences with sharing contracts, proposals and initiatives, only to have them taken away from the Council”.
The Mayor unilaterally took the step to deliberately not share the contract which is the business of the people of Georgetown through their elected councillors.
I reflect again on Minister Bulkan’s words, in particular, “the elected council is supreme; the Town Clerk is but an administrator, like any other administrative officer, hired to carry out the directives of the council”, and “central government reserves the right to intervene whenever and wherever there is clear violation of the law”.
Where is the directive from the council to the Town Clerk to enter into this contract? (Note, under Chapter 28:01, Section 66, “A council shall cause to be kept a record of the proceedings of all its meetings…shall be received in evidence in legal proceedings without further proof.”)
And under whose order was the Town Clerk allowed to single source this contract? (Note as well the Ministry of Finance Review stated if under the arrangements the Tender and Procurement procedures were breached it was enough for government to withdraw the contract.)
Why hasn’t the government stepped in as yet?
This entire fiasco demonstrates why a Local Government Commission is more relevant now than ever before!
Yours faithfully,
Sherod Avery Duncan
Deputy Mayor
Municipality of Georgetown
