Meter scandal; I getting like Harmon

Jun 22, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
The rationale Mr. Oscar Clarke offered for pre signing the parking meter contract for embarking on the Mexican voyage at best makes no sense. Other characterization sexist for this kind of talk, but for now let’s stay with ‘no sense’. If you have no money; don’t take the trip. Chances are you’re giving more that you’re taking. It’s an insult to the citizens of Georgetown that an elected/appointed servant would utter these words and still be in office.
Sure, any public servant could talk like that but in their next breath they should be forced to announce their immediate resignation. Any public official, without their resigning the entire government is weakened and loses moral grounding. The moral decay that follows from this ‘I can do what I want attitude’ becomes engraved in the thinking at all levels of society and we begin to understand how all types of anti-social and worse actions becomes rampant in such a relatively small country.
That the Mayor and some other City official would embark on a fact finding trip without an engineer or other technical expert is at best laughable.
This Parking Meter issue has all the markings of a bad deal, among others:
1. No prior City Council discussion and decision.
2. No public discussion
3. No clarity on the financial terms of the deal.
4. The lack of technical details
5. Is the technology appropriate and fitting for the City?
Mention has been made that the City is not spending any money but will receive a projected 20% of collections. Actually you spent more than money you spent the integrity of the City of Georgetown. During my recent trips to Guyana I noted the level of free use of public and infrastructure resources that exists. Of course, the parking space used by motor vehicles is one free issue that the City is attempting to manage in a profitable manner. But, giving an outfit free access to the City and only getting 20% is make us look like one of the Bill’s in those childhood stories told us. (Hint: It’s not sensible Bill).
My sense is that City of Georgetown and the eventual users have not been readied for this type of parking technology. In US most of the jurisdictions where the proposed meters have been introduced have had a history of individual parking meters for some time. Use of the proposed meters would constitute a giant step and is fraught with uncertainty as to the outcome.
Perhaps a more low- tech beginning would be appropriate as the in-person method used to collect market stall rents. City Council and public discussion would bring out the pros and cons to be used in a coming up with an appropriate choice rather than the insularity that has used so far.
Phil Williams

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