City Council should not be begging

Oct 30, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
It has been quite a long time since I have heard something half as ridiculous as the suggestion made by the Mayor of Georgetown, who has publicly reported of her intentions to set up a Restoration Fund to begin the process of restoring City Hall, a fund she claims that will be managed by a special civic committee
This committee will include corporate leaders, investors and other stakeholders from civic society.
The folks at the City Council are just off the chain and have no shame. Could the Mayor of Georgetown who was a Councillor, Deputy Mayor and Mayor for the last twenty-three years, a historical feat and record breaker in any supposed democratic society, say to the citizens, what maintenance works, remedial initiatives, and rehabilitation was done to that edifice by the Council in the last quarter century?
The most baffling thing about the City Council is that when it comes to maintaining its own buildings including municipal markets, keeping the doors of its day care centres open, running a modern hygienic abattoir, fixing roads and maintaining bridges, replacing defective street lights, up keeping the cemetery etc, a spirit of poverty overcomes them. It becomes a mendicant with a begging bowl in its hands, looking for handouts from the government, the private sector, international funding agencies, etc.
But when it comes to paying itself super salaries of over $125 million per month, to flying to every corner of the globe first class multiple times a year, to giving out huge contracts without adherence to national tender procedures, to building presidential parks and petting zoos, to creating new and fancy positions which are filled by friends, relatives and church pals, the municipality seems to be very affluent and resourceful.
Why are property rates not being used to maintain City Hall as they are supposed to? Can anyone imagine the City Halls of Belfast, Northern Ireland, Brussels, Belgium or Hamburg, Germany awaiting a donation from civil society to be maintained?
Do the folks at City Hall have no pride, or dignity? Do they get no feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction from their own achievements?
But where exactly does the Mayor expect to find these Extreme Altruists from in a city where the citizens have been taxed to the max both by the local and central governments?
Has she forgotten that the Council has increased property taxes by 10 percent across the board, increased compliance fees substantially, is charging a container tax, increased fees for barber shops and salons, instituted a steep rise in market stall rents, etc and is trying to bring back the draconian parking metre system?
If the Council is serious about restoring City Hall, why doesn’t it cut itsr mammoth payroll by $25 million a month, and use that money to restore the most handsome building in Georgetown?
Best regards,
Deodarie Putulall

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