City Council not listening to concerned citizens

Dear Editor,
The PNC controlled City Council of Georgetown for decades now, continues to mismanage the resources of the City and ignoring the voice of the people. They have demonstrated their inability to manage the city roads and regulate orderly motor vehicle parking. They have also demonstrated an inability to consider smarter alternatives to collect more revenue than what is considered by many, including the Movement Against Parking Metres, as an ill-conceived, burdensome and expensive venture for a small return, even if all the meters are fully used.
The negotiating brains in the City Council failed to explore other possible options for revenue generation. The Council failed to be transparent and accountable, failed to carry out a careful study of the proposal, or canvassed views of the consuming public, residents and businesses in the city.
An option was published the press in February 2017 suggesting that the City Council negotiate with Central Government for a subvention to cover the estimated net income from the parking meters. It was suggested that the “Government can institute a small increase in the price for each gallon of fuel, collected up front from the few distributors for this venture. This small increase in the price for fuel can be extended to the entire country as vehicles use and park in other cities and along public roadways. This can contribute to the subventions for other Municipalities and Regional Councils. This is a more equitable solution. The parking meters should therefore be abandoned along with Smart City Solutions. The same negotiators of the Council should negotiate the scrapping of this venture”.
There should also be cost cutting measures such as more prudent execution contracts based on need and value for money. There should also be a comprehensive personnel and organizational audit at what is widely believed to be over staffing and padding in employment at the City Council. A serious audit should be undertaken to justify every single position on the Council’s pay roll.
The Auditor General and staff of the Audit Office must be fully supported in the execution of their lawful duties including of a forensic audit, including management audit, and value for money audit with the support from experts in the relevant fields. The Auditor General should not be subject to not subtle threats from politicians.

Yours faithfully,
Joshua Singh