Councillor accuses Linden Mayor of dictatorship

…as controversy brews within LTC

Councillor within the Linden Mayor and Town Council (LM&TC) Lennox Gasper said the Council is in serious trouble and needs intervention from high authorities to bring some sort of order and decency, noting that it continuously refuses to honour the law. He alleges that instead, the Council continues to operate under the orders of its Mayor Carwyn Holland.

Speaking with the media Thursday, Gasper sought to highlight issues arising from the Council’s statutory meeting which was held on Wednesday, and criticised some decisions made by Holland.
According to the Councillor, the issue of the recently reopened toll booth arose during the meeting, whereby Holland indicated that he had received letters from out-of-town businesses seeking the 25 per cent reduction in toll fees. However, Gasper maintains that those businesses, which he refused to name, do not have branches in Linden, but rather vendors who sell their products. As such, in his opinion, the community of Linden will not benefit.
Gasper added that despite the advice of councillors, Holland did not consider that the new rates are far higher than the previous and the fact that it’s competing with the Mackenzie-Wismar bridge tolls. The decision, Gasper maintains, was not in keeping with the democratic process.
He said when he attempted to state these opinions during the statutory meeting, he was told by the mayor to withdraw his statement and apologise to him since it was deemed slanderous, threatening and malicious.
He said the mayor went on to state that if he did not withdraw the statement, he would be suspended from speaking in the Council as well as removed from the meeting.
“I refused to apologise…because according to the law…in no way was I disrespectful to the mayor. I stated my opinion…and it doesn’t necessarily have to agree with the mayor’s”, Gasper stated.
He further alleged that the mayor then attempted to have him physically thrown out of the meeting by the council’s inspectors when he refused to apologise.
“How could this mayor be acting in the interest of the Linden people when he would have reopened the tollbooth without considering the objections of the people? When this tollbooth was given the claims and objections period, persons objected…but to my surprise it was signed onto and it was re- enacted. When it was reinforced, nobody took the time to analyse what this would mean to the Linden people with the new system which was put in place. One councillor was calling for the old system to be employed when others were calling for Lindeners not to pay but none of that was looked at. The mayor forced ahead.”

Town Clerk saga
“He went on to attack the Town Clerk with an unlawful, forceful ejection…to go on immediate administrative leave, without duly considering the consequences…the council is now faced with likely court summons which by way of letter the council has already, through the letter of the Town Clerk’s lawyer, will have to answer to that at the level of the court”, Gasper outlined in relation to the recent decision by Holland to send Town Clerk Jenella Bowen on administrative leave pending investigations.
Gasper further alleged that since the Town Clerk was sent on leave, Holland has been interfering in administrative business of the council and called on Minister of Local Government to intervene.
Gasper said the Council to date, has not produced anything productive, maintaining that the garbage situation has still not been remedied.
He also stated that the mayor’s trips to China and other places were not productive and accused a certain “elite” group of being power drunk and trying to manage the town.
“Elements within the Party (A Partnership for National Unity) and within the town are seemingly mustering councillors in their manipulative web to tell councillors they’re not ready to let Mr Holland go…Linden needs a plucking out. Linden is not run by the RDC and the M&TC, it is being run by an elite of 5”, Gasper noted.
Meanwhile, efforts by this newspaper for a response from Holland on the allegations proved futile.