City Treasurer Andrew Meredith yesterday said expenditure has exceeded revenues collected by $12 million and he bleakly forecast that cuts in either the wages or garbage collection have to be made.
Addressing a Mayor and City Council (M&CC) debate on the city’s financial order, Meredith noted that City Hall’s budget is over $1 billion dollars while collection for the year is at $880 million. He said now is the time for tough decisions to be made, since “we will be unable again to meet salaries” for the month. Some $77 million is paid each month in salaries.
“We have to utilise our staff more. Either we use the staff or let go of the staff. We can’t carry the staff plus hire off the works… A decision has to be made.”
For the remainder of the year, he said the council is expecting to bring in $100M per month.
During the debate, moved by Deputy Mayor Robert Williams, Town Clerk Yonette Pluck-Cort faced the brunt of the criticism for her management of City Hall. “You and the treasurer carry the people down in the depths. As an administrator you have to do your work,” GGG Councillor Patricia Chase-Green told Pluck-Cort. “Every single year we have had this problem,” she added, stating that a decision has to be made at the administrative level. “If we have to close shops in departments then do it. Why we still carrying a full complement of staff and we can’t buy equipment for them to use?” Chase-Green questioned before demanding from Pluck-Cort a breakdown of monies spent on equipment and materials.
However, PNCR Councillor Junior Garnett pointed out that if workers are to be sent home, then severance payments would have to be made to them—which the council is unable to meet. Garnett proposed that a municipal loan and bond be offered to citizens. The bonds will be offered at 5% while the loans will be offered at 15%. For the bonds, assets in the city will be put up as security, he proposed. “We have to take a step to improve finances. We must have some financial arrangement where we can raise funds,” Garnett said.
However, Mayor Hamilton Green pointed out that such a proposal would “require the green-light” from central government. Green noted too that a similar proposal was met with negative reply previously. Further, for Garnett’s proposal to work, Green told him, “You have to establish a current regime to justify the loans and satisfy bankers we can repay and sustain loans.
Meanwhile Pluck-Cort, in response to Garnett’s arguments, said the unions have promised to assist the council on ways to improve its financial standing. While nothing has been seen as yet, the Town Clerk said she was willing to organise a one-day retreat.
Again, she came under fire as PNCR Councillor Oscar Clarke questioned how the council could afford a retreat with its current financial state. He said what was needed were “cold hard administrative decisions,” noting that senior officers “need to take responsibility for their department to be efficient.
“There is so much skulduggery among staff that we are perceived impotent. I want the Town Clerk to know that the buck stops at her,” an impassioned Clarke told the council to knocks of agreement. He added that the Town Clerk and senior officials have to come up with proposals that show how staff could be reduced and revenue increased.
Councillors Hector Stoute of the GGG and Ranwell Jordan of the PNCR called for an immediate resolution of the council’s financial situation. Stoute said, “If something is not done now, nothing can be done at all.” Jordan, expressing similar sentiments, said, “if there is no solution, we might as well we close shop.”
At the end of the debate, Williams called for the retreat to be set before the end of September and then moved on to other matters on the day’s agenda.
