Lack of notice halts motion to beef up city’s finance committee

City Hall has fallen back again on payments this month and at yesterday’s statutory meeting, Deputy Mayor Patricia Chase-Green tabled a motion to have three councillors added to the Finance Committee for better management. However, she failed to give the requisite notice, so the motion could not be moved.

Mayor Hamilton Green noted that the issue of delayed salaries is not new to the council.

Town Clerk Yonette Pluck-Cort told Mayor Green and councilors that the motion will have to be tabled through the correct channels and will be put on the agenda for the next statutory meeting to avoid any confusion.

Chase-Green tabled the motion because some members of the original Finance Committee failed to execute their duties because of various illnesses, or death in the case of the late deputy mayor Robert Williams; some have been absent from Finance Committee meetings over a nine-month period.

In tabling the motion Chase-Green sought to have councillors Anthony Boyce, Kamla Devi Ross and Gwen Mc Gowan act in the capacity of the absent committee members. And she said when those members return they must attend all meetings for a period of three months before they can take up their positions again.

Initially when the motion was tabled it was favoured by ten councillors but then Pluck-Cort intervened outlining the correct procedure for a motion to be tabled, noting that no prior notice was given.

Chase-Green indicated that she will prepare a notice of motion before the next meeting and intended to retable the motion. During the course of the meeting Councillor Junior Garret along with two others stormed out.