If the story of the government’s relations with the city council were to be made into a movie, no one would watch it because the plot would be so convoluted, so repetitious and so wearisome that it would be impossible to sustain the viewer’s interest beyond the first five minutes. At the present time, the plot has thickened to such an extent that the vast majority of the reading public simply cannot be bothered to try and make sense of it all. In any case, it hardly seems to matter how it will all end, because in the meantime people are still dumping litter; the drains and alleyways are still choked; the city still floods when it rains; and garbage collection is still impeded by the slow turnaround at Haags Bosch. What we are experiencing in effect, is an updated version of Nero fiddling while Rome burns – ie, the government and city council are bickering while Georgetown sinks deeper into the floodwater and refuse.
The current episode in this long-running soap began with the city council inviting applications to fill the post of Town Clerk. Ms Yonette Pluck-Cort, the Deputy Town Clerk has been acting in that post since 2008, and as we reported on Friday, while she applied for the position she did not come to the interview, as a consequence of which she was disqualified. As things transpired, it was Public Relations Officer Royston King who was recommended by the Personnel and Training Committee to fill the vacancy, and thereafter some councillors moved a motion to have King function as Town Clerk pending his confirmation by the Minister of Local Government, and for Ms Pluck-Cort to return to her substantive duties as Deputy.
As our report indicated, Minister Lall had no inhibitions about revealing his opinion of the council’s actions, promptly declaring the motion “null and void” because it was not in consonance with the Municipal and District Councils Act. It is he and not the council, in fact, who has the power to make the appointment of Town Clerk – one of the very few things it seems, that is not in dispute between the M&CC and the Minister. Armed with the authority of the law, therefore, Mr Lall then took it upon himself to override the city council and appoint Ms Pluck-Cort as Town Clerk, which even he conceded might not “bring the politicking to an end…”
Too true, because then some councillors resorted to the courts seeking an Order of Prohibition against Ms Pluck-Cort taking up the duties of Town Clerk. An Order was issued, but true to form, neither the Minister nor some of the councillors can agree on its interpretation. That, presumably, is an issue yet to be resolved.
In the meantime, the puzzled and exasperated citizen must be wondering why the council tried to have Mr Royston King perform the duties of Town Clerk if they knew that the Minister was the only one with the ultimate power to do this, and when he had not yet confirmed their choice at the time they passed their motion. Their answer to that question came in the course of a press conference held by a group of councillors on Friday, that we reported yesterday. Deputy Mayor Robert Williams was quoted as saying, “It is our opinion that while the Minister has the right to appoint, he equally has a duty to evaluate the recommendations of the municipality in the context of the process and procedure which has been undertaken by the council.”
For her part, Councillor Gwen McGowan said, “This is the first time in the history of the municipality that a ministerial order was used to impose a [member of] staff on the organizational structure of the Mayor and City Council. If he [Minister Lall] did not like Mr Royston King for whatever reason, he should have written to the council and said I do not approve…”
There is some context to the councillors’ objections to the appointment of Ms Pluck-Cort. In the first place she was named in the Burrowes Inquiry report as being one of the persons who was not suitable for appointment as Town Clerk; and in the second, Councillor Chase-Green revealed to the media on Friday that the office of Town Clerk was currently under investigation by the Auditor General.
In view of these objections, one might have thought that Minister Lall would have hesitated before imposing her on the council, if only to avoid both himself and the government possible embarrassment at a later stage. In any case, he has had since 2008 to appoint her, but it is only now that he has decided to do so. His rationale for this sudden flash of enlightenment was that her appointment would “deal with this matter that has been outstanding for some time…” This is hardly, one would have thought, a particularly compelling argument for his current decision, and one is left to conclude that what actually galvanized him into action was the city council’s motion to have Mr Royston King act as Town Clerk pending his appointment. Having said that, of course, for its part the council really had no business trying to force the Minister’s hand by trying to see that Mr King took up the Town Clerk’s duties before Mr Lall had given his approval.
Clearly, the Minister didn’t want Mr King as Town Clerk (the Auditor General has just concluded an investigation into Mr King’s department), and instead of taking the route Councillor McGowan suggested, he decided to short-circuit the proceedings by appointing Ms Pluck-Cort, and in the process stir up a whole new hornet’s nest. As we reported yesterday, Councillor Llewellyn John hinted that the councillors may explore legal avenues to challenge the appointment.
Of course, part of the problem lies in the fact that there is clearly no serious communication between the Ministry of Local Government (and the Minister in particular) and the Mayor and City Council. Had there been some discussion at critical points on the issue of appointing a Town Clerk, perhaps – and one has to emphasize ‘perhaps’ – some of the rancour and problems might conceivably have been avoided. As it is, both sides behaved rashly, creating the kind of impasse which is difficult to negotiate.
At the bottom of all the problems between the government and the M&CC (and other local bodies), however, lies the intransigence of the PPP which could not agree with the PNC on local government reform. As a consequence of this there have been no local government elections since 1994. In a general sense the dispute is about autonomy for local authorities; the ruling party simply does not want to relinquish its stranglehold on local bodies, especially those in opposition hands. In the case of Georgetown, the price we have paid – and are still paying – for that obsession to control is incalculable.
In the meantime, back at City Hall the next episode in this sleep-inducing drama is about to roll out, when tomorrow Councillor Chase-Green will move a motion of no-confidence against Mayor Hamilton Green for allowing Ms Pluck-Cort to carry out the duties of Town Clerk contrary to the wishes of the council. Needless to say, the only people interested in the outcome are the Mayor, the Councillors and the Minister; as far as the citizenry is concerned, all it warrants is a big yawn.
