The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has officially informed Smart City Solutions (SCS) of the decision to suspend the metered parking project.
This comes on the heels of Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan’s announcement on Tuesday evening that he had signed a new order to effect the suspension of the parking meter project for a period of three months, effective March 22, 2017, while government said that the police force would help to ensure that vehicles are not clamped.
When approached for a comment on the M&CC’s response to the new order, Town Clerk Royston King told reporters that he was not speaking to the media yesterday.
Nonetheless, Stabroek News was able to confirm with Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan that a copy of the gazetted order to suspend the parking meter project was sent to SCS yesterday. But he urged drivers to adhere to the prescribed traffic laws and regulations.
“Even though the parking meter by-laws have been suspended all our traffic laws and regulations are still in effect; so in this period we are asking all road users to be conscious and not to park in any ad hoc manner and to observe the rules and regulations,” Duncan said.
Meanwhile, when contacted for a comment, SCS said that an official statement was in the process of being drafted.
In the meantime, motorists were observed yesterday making full use of the suspension order; previously vacant parking spaces were once again being utilized. Robb, Camp and Water streets were lined with vehicles and there was an absence of SCS parking wardens who previously patrolled the streets, to clamp defaulters of the metered parking system.
Bulkan, in a statement issued on Tuesday evening, said, “This is a done deal and on the basis of this new order, the council would be clearly advised to inform the company that paid parking would be suspended. The company would be invited to enter into negotiations and at that stage it would be up to the company to determine what its response to this new action of the government would be.”
He said the new order, which was not released to the press, was unambiguous and left no room for discretion on the part of the M&CC with regard to conformity.
Bulkan’s new order was issued a day after a majority of city councillors voted to delay ratifying the order he had made last Friday, directing them to suspend the by-laws for 90 days. The delay, according to Councillor Heston Bostwick, who moved the motion, was to allow both the council and minister to “peruse a legal opinion” on the order.
The opinion, solicited by Town Clerk Royston King from attorney Roger Yearwood on behalf of the council, argues that Section 306(1) of the Municipal and District Councils Act, which Bulkan cited in his original order, did not permit the minister to direct the council to suspend any contract or by-law. Consequently, it concluded that Bulkan’s order was “ultra vires, null and void.”
It also noted that the order itself did not suspend the by-laws but rather directed the council to do so.
“As such, if the council accedes to this mandate, it is the act of the council that will be effective …and not the order of the minister… leaving the council susceptible to a claim for breach of contract by Smart City Solutions Inc,” it added.
Bulkan, in an apparent response on Tuesday, was reported by the Ministry of the Presidency as saying that the council failed to act on a Cabinet decision. “It appears that there was some ambiguity and the legal opinion that was proffered was that if the council proceeded on the basis of that order then it would be a decision of the council…
“The council did not seek to proceed on the basis of executing what it understood clearly as a Cabinet decision to withdraw this paid parking project. Instead it sought a way to frustrate the decision of the Cabinet and this is why I have expressed public dissatisfaction with the action of the council,” he was quoted as saying.
Bulkan’s first order, issued on March 17, had stated that in keeping with Section 306 of the Act, “It is declared that the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown are in default of their functions with respect to the Georgetown Metered Parking By-Laws and I hereby direct the Mayor and Councillors to suspend the Georgetown Metered Parking By-Laws for three months commencing on the 17th March, 2017.”
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the Ministry of the Presidency said Cabinet was “disappointed” by the city’s failure to act on the minister’s initial order that it suspend the by-laws. It said it was upon this basis that Bulkan was directed to formally suspend the operations of the by-laws for the project with immediate effect.
The statement added that Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan was also “instructed to advise the Commissioner of Police to ensure that as of Wednesday, March 22, 2017 citizens and their vehicles would receive the protection of the Guyana Police Force to prevent them and/or their vehicles from being unduly hindered or restrained in any way, whatsoever, by the [M&CC] and/or its agents.”
