Who says the Deputy Mayor can’t speak?

TIMES INT'L

Dear Editor,

There seems to be fear and insecurity existing in the Georgetown mayor’s office. From recent reports, the new Mayor is trying to muzzle her deputy. One may accept her position when she said that the comments of deputy mayor on the issue of parking meters in the city were reflective of his own views and not those of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC). But luckily he did express those views as they are out of genuine concern for continued impropriety within the council.

Someone has to tell the citizens of Georgetown of the council’s indiscretions, including its current movement to award a gigantic contract to a little known company, for the installation and operation of a parking meter system without adhering to proper and transparent financial systems and procedures.

But it goes from the sublime to the ridiculous when she suggests that the only persons with authority to speak on the council’s behalf were the town clerk, or the public relations officer (PRO). So why then was she addressing the press about the matter and not King or Lewis?

What obtained before the council had a PRO? And why was it that when she was deputy mayor, she was allowed to seize every opportunity she could to interface with the press in an effort to get the limelight?

Quite simply, knowing her limitations in public speaking, and constraints in leadership capacity, one should not be surprised at her reluctance to let the public see the virtuosity of her deputy, lest when her year is up, she is replaced by him. Is this the same Patricia Chase-Green, then Deputy Mayor who constantly tried to prevent all the previous town clerks from having press conferences? And where in the Municipal and District Council’s Act that only the town clerk and PRO are allowed to speak on behalf of the Council? This would have to be the first and only city across the globe that the mayor and deputy mayor are prevented from speaking on behalf of the respective councils.

Or is this an edict issued by Royston King the new Czar of the City?

 

Sincerely,

Debra Gibson

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