City Councillors have qualms over Mayor’s trip to China

May 29, 2010 News

Although it warranted extensive deliberation when the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown (M&CC) held its statutory meeting on Monday, the final analysis left much uncertainty as it relates to a trip to China taken by Mayor Hamilton Green and a small municipal contingent.
The subject was initially brought up for clarification by Councillor Ranwell Jordan, who sought to find out how the trip was funded during the municipal meeting.
At that forum, Jordan queried whether Acting Town Clerk, Yonette Pluck-Cort, was aware of the source of funding for the trip even as he speculated whether it came from the municipal purse or through a donation from the Chinese Embassy.
Reports are that the Mayor had requested assistance from the Chinese embassy to help fund the overseas engagement which was described in a Memorandum from the Mayor ‘as an official trip to China’. Among those that have travelled with the Mayor are Clerk of Markets Mr Schulder Griffith; City Engineer, Gregory Erskine; System Analyst, Waynewright Orderson and the Mayor’s Secretary who happens to be the System Analyst’s wife.
“We need to know whether funding was made available to Hamilton Green (the individual) or to the Mayor of Georgetown…there is a difference. We need to know if it was given to the Mayor in the capacity of Mayor; if so then this council should have been privy to that funding,” Jordan noted.
Additional, he said that if persons attending that session are attending as a result of that funding without the knowledge of the council and were selected by the Mayor then something has to be wrong.
“For me those are serious considerations. Whether those officers who have left have valid leave and applied in time for those leave and got the approval to go overseas that is another question so those are concerns that I have and I hope the Town Clerk can provide some of the answers and state whether she was fully aware of the trip and the sponsors of the trip and whether they are representing the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown…” Jordan speculated.
In adding his piece to the heated deliberation, Councillor Junior Garrett vocalised his suspicions that the trip may have been a private one on the part of the Mayor.
However, he noted that “the mere fact that the Mayor did not seek leave from this council I will assume that it was an emergency or it is gross disrespect by the Mayor for not informing us (councillors) that he would be leaving the jurisdiction for eight days.”
Based on the leave applications of the travelling officers, which were brought to the attention of full council on Monday, it was revealed that aside from the Mayor, the Clerk of Markets was the only other officer who had indicated that his leave would take him overseas.
According to Garrett, a memorandum from the Mayor is not enough, especially at a time when the municipality is faced with a major financial crisis. According to the Councillor, there is an urgent need for the trip to be clarified as it relates to the officers who accompanied the Mayor.
“If it was not a private trip it is expected that we the councillors should have made the decision as to who would represent the council.”

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City Councillors have qualms over Mayor’s trip to China

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