The existence of local government has always been defended on the basis that it is a crucial aspect of the process of democratisation and intensification of mass participation in the decision-making process. No political system is considered complete and democratic if it does not have a system of local government.
Local government, therefore, serves a two-fold purpose. The first purpose is the administrative purpose of supplying goods and services; the other purpose is to represent and involve citizens in determining specific local public needs and how these local needs can be met.
Back in 2016, former Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister and the current Political Leader of the United National Congress (UNC), Kamla Persad-Bissessar recognised the important role that local governance played in the wider scheme of things. In October 2013, her coalition Government lost the Local Government Elections (LGE). Soon after, her Government was booted from office by the people who had complained over the highly unpopular policies being pursued by their elected local officials, the continuous problems being faced in their communities with respect to crime and the sad state of affairs there in relation to drainage and irrigation, and the road network.
It was also learnt from her post-mortem after being defeated, that one cannot underestimate the power of local democracy and the ballot, especially when people feel put upon or discontent with some policies.
She now remarked that “it is through Local Government that we understand the things people feel, not only what is reported in the news. It is through Local Government that we can touch the lives of people individually, encourage them, help them, support them and stand and fight with them. This Local Government Election will be most important in taking down the face of arrogance that the Rowley PNM is hiding behind. We must show them that they will not be allowed to use political power as a weapon against people in the way they have… It will be challenging, difficult at times, and even discouraging.” Her words and experience should serve as a lesson to those Councillors and officials who are currently serving at the helm of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council, which has for the past few years, being dogged by a string of controversies relating to its mismanagement and poor administration of the affairs of Georgetown.
The situation has reached such a low that the city’s chief politician, Mayor Patricia Chase Green and her associates — Town Clerk Royston King and Treasurer Ron McCalmont – are now expending their energies to fight the citizens, who elected them to office as they seek to ramrod two controversial projects down the throats of the electorate. But at every level of the struggle, the citizens, who have united against the questionable Parking Meters Project and the plan to transfer lands at Bel Air Park in Georgetown, are winning.
The integrity of the Town Clerk and Mayor is being questioned daily as citizens voice their discontent with the mismanagement, misallocation and misuse of the Council’s scarce resources by the elites at City Hall. The fact that persons have already started to lobby the ruling People’s National Congress-led A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government to have King and Chase Green removed is also indicative of the level of widespread concern about their conduct and ability to perform. And the coalition Government has already signalled its disapproval of many decisions by the utterances of Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan.
Moreover, the recently-released Audit Report for 2016 has not helped in boosting the image of those at the helm of City Hall. It must change course. It must perform better. Those officers who continuously stand against the residents of Georgetown must step down especially if the public does not hold confidence in them.
