Over the past months, statutory meetings of the Municipality of the Linden Mayor and Town Council (LM&TC) have hardly been uneventful, often times with high drama between the Mayor and Councillors. On Wednesday, Councillor Lennox
Councillor Lennox Gasper
Gasper lashed out at the Council for hosting what he described as an “unlawful” meeting. The meeting was chaired by Deputy Mayor Waneka Arindell, in the absence of Mayor Carwyn Holland, who arrived sometime after due to another engagement. This newspaper understands that the meeting, which is normally hosted at the stipulated time of 14:00h, was rescheduled to 10:00h by the Council, in an effort to facilitate the hosting of Mashramani and Flag Raising activities. However, Gasper, who arrived late to the meeting which only got underway sometime after 11:00h said he received a call at 10:33h stating that the meeting was called off. He contended that according to law, the meeting was called off half an hour after the time set out by the agenda, adding that there was no prior meeting to facilitate the 10:00h change. According to Gasper, he was then called again at 10:59h where he was told that there had again been a shift in the time.
“We’re shifting the time. Are we shifting the law?” he asked the Council. He further stated that the meeting has always been at 14:00h on the last Wednesday of every month. Gasper said while the Council agreed to change the time, it failed to put it to a vote, which is the right thing to do according to law.
He went on to describe the way in which the meeting was set up as “lawlessness”, “haphazard” and “late”.
In defending the Council, Councillor Fern McKoy stood up and stated that while Gasper was correct with what he was saying, she noted that at the same time it was her hope that he could understand that because of the nature and importance of the meeting, the Council had decided to proceed.
“And we have our Mashramani celebrations… our Flag Raising ceremony which we want to accommodate and we have revellers who I think have to practice and all of that. So, my goodly colleague, I hope you understand… that we’re only facilitating this statutory because of the events…” she said.
This explanation clearly did not sit well with Gasper, who then walked out of the meeting after thanking the Deputy Mayor. Later, he told this publication that statutory meetings have rules and procedures, all of which had been broken by the Council on Wednesday.
