Following City Hall’s delay in acting on a direction that it suspend the controversial metered parking by-laws, Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan last evening announced that he had signed a new order to effect the suspension of the parking meter project for a period of three months, with effect from today, while government said that the police force would help to ensure that vehicles are not clamped.
“This is a done deal and on the basis of this new Order, the Council would be clearly advised to inform the company [contractor Smart City Solutions (SCS)] 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,” Bulkan was quoted as saying last evening in one of two statements on the issue released by the Ministry of the Presidency.
He said the new order, which was not released to the press, is unambiguous and leaves no room for discretion on the part of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) with regard to conformity.
Bulkan’s new order was issued a day after a majority of city councillors voted to delay ratifying an order the minister had made last Friday, directing them to suspend the by-laws for 90 days. This delay, according to Councillor Heston Bostwick, who moved the motion, would 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 was also noted that the order itself did not suspend the by-law 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 yesterday, 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.”
Police protection
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 (GPF) 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.”
With the instruction, central government, for all intents and purposes, is directing police officers to protect citizens from a local government authority.
In a brief statement issued last night, Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan said that the Town Clerk must now convey government’s position to Smart City Solutions and instruct the City Constabulary to stand down in its engagement with the entity’s wardens.
He added that it was sad that central government was compelled to intervene in a local government issue, given that it had always advocated the independence of council, while reserving the right to act in the national interest.
“As a result the intervention is instructive for reassessment and repositioning of the energies and focus of the Council towards the renegotiation of a more equitable enterprise in a Metered Parking System for Georgetown,” he said.
Meanwhile, confused citizens continued to face the consequences of indecision on the project yesterday as SCS staff, empowered by City Hall’s refusal to accede to the minster’s initial directive, booted cars.
Taxi driver Robert Griffith told Stabroek News that after hearing Minister of State Joseph Harmon explain that government had decided to suspend the metered parking project, he chose to park on Robb Street at about 9.30 yesterday morning.
He explained that despite the fact that several other vehicles were parked on the street, SCS workers decided to clamp his vehicle while he was having breakfast and then directed him to pay the booting fee.
“I have a card… if they had asked me to pay for the parking then I would’ve done so but I heard the senior minister Harmon on the television saying that they had suspended the thing, so I didn’t pay and now I’m stuck here all day,” Griffith told Stabroek News at about 6 pm. He said that before he parked, he had made $1,000 and was looking forward to making as much as $15,000 before being grounded for the day.
Another motorist, Michael Rodrigues, who is the owner of Juice Express, said he was clamped at 11 am and decided at exactly 6pm to remove the clamp on his vehicle with a sledgehammer.
Rodrigues told Stabroek News that he was frustrated with city hall, central government and SCS. He blamed metered parking for a slowdown in his business, which he said earned only $6,000 yesterday, and demanded that the government he voted for act in the best interest of its citizens.
Attempts to reach Town Clerk Royston King and head of the city’s finance committee Oscar Clarke for comment on the government’s decisions proved futile, with King not answering his phone and Clarke directing that he should be contacted today.
