No progress made during engagement with Mayor’s Office – Minister Whittaker

MINISTER of Local Government and Regional Development Norman Whittaker said, yesterday, that the frequency with which he has had engagements with the Georgetown Mayor and City Council, has been reduced because he has found these actions to be “fruitless”.“For the most part, we are not making progress in terms of what we achieve,” he said. The Minister was responding to charges by the Mayor and Deputy Mayor that he has been by-passing the Mayor’s Office with regard to matters affecting the Town Council.
Minister Whittaker explained that when he first came into the local government ministry, as minister responsible for municipalities, he began to engage the municipality, the elected and appointed people, and the administrative staff to discuss council related issues including how to correct defaults.
The minister said that more often than not these engagements were with the late Deputy Mayor Robert Williams and the administrative staff. “Over time, Mr. Williams died, and over time those who have replaced him have sought to use our engagement to advance a political agenda and to talk about irrelevant happenings. That I was not concerned about and I think, the majority of residents in Georgetown were not concerned about, and so in the interest of exigency in dealing with the affairs of the city, and the residents who cry out for services, for which many of them pay, I have determined that it is better if I dealt with the Chief Executive Officer of the Council,” he said.
“We spend one hour and the mayor tells me about some plan that was developed when I still was in Region1…. I want to deal with the present and so because we have this difference; he is a historian and I am not, I find that I have to find other ways and means of getting the business of council and the expectations of the people met,” Whittaker said.
In spite of the decision taken to engage the CEO of the council, Minister Whittaker said he still, by way of written and oral communication, also speaks with the Mayor and City Council. (GINA)