Acting Mayor Sherod Duncan has called on Town Clerk Royston King to resign following his failures to carry out directives given to him.
Duncan’s call comes days after the Town Clerk failed to carry out a directive from Cabinet which had asked for the council to suspend the parking meter bylaws for three months.
In a Facebook post on his personal page, Duncan said, “It is fair to say the municipality is not being managed in a professional and competent manner, and the Town Clerk has disqualified himself from doing so, and as such he should do the honorable thing and resign.”
In the post, Duncan highlighted instances in which he observed King failing in carrying out his duties.
He noted that after the directive was given to King, following Cabinet’s decision on March 14, “The Town Clerk flew in the face of this decision and asked for “clarity” on Cabinet’s decision.” Duncan also pointed out that King went and secured “a legal opinion to the effect that the Minister’s order was null and void” and further contested government’s jurisdiction on roads in the city, after Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson indicated that certain roads occupied by parking meters were in fact central government’s roads, and the Ministry had given no permission to the municipality for the usage of these roads.
On these bases, Duncan said he believes King should resign. The Acting Mayor noted, “Again, any of these incidents isolated is historic, together they form a narrative that the Town Clerk has gone rogue.”
Further, Duncan stated since the establishment of the East Street Parking Lot, contractor Saratu Phillips who designed and operated the parking lot has not paid any monies to the council since its operations began in 2015. On this note, he said the Town Clerk failed to present a report to council and collect any money from the operation.
The project was undertaken by Astrolobe Technologies, a firm which had claimed that it had inked a deal with the previous council.
Phillips, the Chief Executive Officer of Astrolobe Technologies told Stabroek News in mid-2016 that his company and the M&CC had a deal in which he would be responsible for setting up the operations, while the council would create parking policies to ensure that the pilot project was a success.
Additionally, the Deputy Mayor pointed out to the removal of vendors from the Stabroek Market and Robb Street, which had created chaos and led to the intervention of central government, where the Ministers of Social Protection and Communities had pleaded with City Hall to be “sensitive” to the plight of the vendors. He also cited the uproar over the implementation of container fees, which he described as “a poorly conceptualized and implemented mechanism.”
Duncan also lamented poor financial management skills, highlighting that “the learned Town Clerk leaves much to be desired, as recently in a single project, the Georgetown Restoration Programme.” The post stated, there are scores of instances where the Auditor General flags “no evidence of payment vouchers being certified or approval of the City Treasurer was not seen”, or instances where “there was no evidence of the Finance Committee approving,” for tens of millions of taxpayers’ dollars is staggering under our learned Town Clerk’s tenure.
The outgoing Deputy Mayor in conclusion stressed that the Mayor and City Council continues to suffer at the unsteady hand of the Town Clerk, pointing out that the law states the Town Clerk must “ensure that the municipality is managed in a professional and competent manner by a qualified Town Clerk.”
Upon hearing of the Acting Mayor’s call for the Town Clerk’s resignation, Stabroek News made numerous attempts to contact Royston King for a comment, but the telephone calls went unanswered.
