City Council needs to take revolutionary action

Dec 04, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
I am writing on a topic that has been a cause for great concern of late. That is, our City Council. I believe that when we broke up the smaller district councils of urban Georgetown, we did not fully appreciate the impact these councils exerted on their respective districts. I refer specifically to the councils of Lodge, Kitty/Subryanville, Newtown Kitty, Campbelville, Bel Air Park, Alexanderville and Agricola.
These councils provided complete services for the residents and ensured that the areas were fully preserved. The enlarged Georgetown council did not really absorb the resources of labour, equipment, nor institutional knowledge that the smaller councils owned, neither did the City put specific plans in train for dealing with the newly incorporated areas. As a consequence what resulted was the chaos that we daily witness. Mayor and Councillors seemed to be only concerned with the glory of the job and the attendant attention and power that ensued therefrom. It might have been better to have developed an overarching type of management system and allow the smaller councils to operate taking their local decisions from time to time as the situation necessitated with the larger council guiding and presenting resources that the smaller ones did not have. Road repairs and road building was one such resource that the larger council possessed. As a matter of fact, the original City Council was far better at road building than the Central Government of the day.
To resolve the many issues facing the City we now need to take revolutionary action to put matters right. The Council needs to seek private sources of funding for its many activities. Funding can be obtained from arms of the IDB which have been set up for such purposes. It needs to float municipal bonds and similar securities to pay for its current and long term needs. However, the City will need to develop its finance section to the level of full accountability and prudence so that private individuals can have the assurance that funds sourced will be well spent and that the Council will place itself in the situation where it will turn a profit on many of its activities.
The current container tax, city parking, increased rates and taxes, efficient collection of arrears and debts can mean that the City ought to witness a positive turn around within the next five years. This will mean increased confidence coming from the business and other communities. Perks and other such privileges will have to come under the pruning hook. Certain allowances for officials will have to be foregone. If these things are not done, people will not put any confidence in the Council. I trust that the Council reads the tea leaves well and makes serious attempts for a possible turn- around.
Cyril Walker

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News