Dear Editor,
Last Thursday afternoon, on my way to pick up my children from their school which is located in Subryanville, Georgetown I encountered quite a hullabaloo on Sheriff Street with heavily armed City Constabulary ranks milling about, lots of heavy-duty construction equipment and machinery present an the demolition of a section of a business underway.
Leading the charge of this ‘break down’ exercise was none other than the Town Clerk Royston King, surrounded by a retinue of bodyguards and other municipal officials. This was the second time I had such a revolting experience, as not so long ago, I also witnessed first-hand a similar destructive exercise again personally led by King, that time it was removal and proposed cutting up of some swimming pools that were located on Ixora Avenue in Bel Air Park.
My first question is why does King, the Administrative Officer of the Council, find it necessary to take charge of everything personally? Should such an exercise, if deemed necessary, not be supervised by the City Engineer and/or the Head of the City Constabulary or their subordinates? Why does King like to micromanage so much?
Does he have a narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), or is he sending out a message to the businesspersons that ‘the buck stops at him’ in the most literal sense and therefore they have to talk to him and no one else for their salvation.
My second question is why are they being so selective in correcting purported faults in the city, when there are dozens of very glaring faults and breaches in each and every ward of the city for years now. This is discriminatory and counter-productive. By their own admission they said through large full page and full colour fancy newspaper ads that they would be tearing down 52 derelict buildings which are in a ruinous state and pose a danger to occupants and members of the public beginning October 5 last year. They may have pulled down two with the remaining 40 waiting to crash to the ground injuring and killing the occupants and innocent passers-by. Maybe they don’t have an axe to grind with the owners of those buildings or the owners come to an amicable settlement with certain officers of the Council. By the way, we don’t see any of the Council’s ruinous buildings, including City Hall appearing on that list of 52, but they should.
But isn’t this present City Council willing to stop King from usurping the responsibilities, mandate and authority of many of the Council’s senior officers, such as those of the City Engineer, Medical Officer of Health, Clerk of Markets, etc, in this march of madness? Or will they allow him to continue running around town, chasing vendors from one place to another, selectively breaking down structures, building presidential parks, putting down parking meters on streets that are not even under the purview of the Council, increasing fees, fines, rents and taxes.
They are failing the citizenry that elected them!
Sincerely,
Debra Gibson
