Dear Editor,
The quote “Oh! What a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive” refers to how complicated life becomes when people start lying. It originally referred to a love triangle in the play “Marmion”, written by Sir Walter Scott.
The quote is often used to talk about the complex destructive effect that lying tends to have on life. When people start lying, they have to remember all the details of the lie rather than their true memory, in order to keep the lie going when others ask about it. The quote also refers to the fact that lying often has unforeseen consequences.
The quote is so characteristic of the notorious Georgetown Parking Meter Contract, which is just riddled with inconsistencies, deception and concealment. First of all, the Town Clerk is yet to verify his claim that the previous Council had approved the project, and thus the reason why there is no reason for the present Council to do so.
Where is the report of the committee that examined the proposal and recommended it? Where is the agenda of the statutory meeting that it was tabled at? And where are the signed minutes of the approving statutory meeting?
The second question to be asked — if indeed there was such an approval – is: Why was it not acted upon during the life of the last Council? Can the purported decision of the last Council be brought forward and implemented during the life of the new Council without the review and ratification of the new Council?
Third: How could a contract signed by the Town Clerk on behalf of the City Council and the City of Georgetown be made into a classified document? This is not a private arrangement, but must be a public document for the citizens to examine.
And fourth: How could the Town Clerk and City Council even think it is possible to defy an order given by the Minister of Communities to suspend the contract, given that it is the very Minister of Communities who had allowed for the commencement of the parking meter arrangement when he signed and gazetted the requisite by-laws into effect?
Sincerely,
Shanta Singh
