Dear Editor,
It has been quite a long time since I have heard something half as ridiculous as the suggestion made by the Mayor of Georgetown, who has publicly reported her intentions to set up a Restoration Fund to begin the process of restoring City Hall.
This Fund, she claims, will be managed by a special committee, which will include corporate leaders, investors, and other stakeholders from civil society.
The folks at the City Council are just off the chain and have no shame. Could the Mayor of Georgetown, who was a Councillor, Deputy Mayor and Mayor for the last 23 years, a historical feat and record breaker in any supposed democratic society, say to the citizens what maintenance works, remedial initiatives, and rehabilitation were done to that edifice by the Council in the last quarter-century?
The most baffling thing about the City Council is that when it comes to maintaining its own buildings, including municipal markets, keeping the doors of its daycare centres open, running a modern hygienic abattoir, fixing roads and maintaining bridges, replacing defective street lights, up keeping the cemetery, etc, a spirit of poverty overcomes them. They become mendicants with a begging bowl in their hands, looking for handouts from the Government, the Private Sector, international funding agencies, etc.
But when it comes to paying themselves super salaries, to flying to every corner of the globe first class multiple times a year, to giving out huge contracts without adherence to national tender procedures, to building presidential parks and petting zoos, to creating new and fancy positions, which are filled by friends, relatives and church pals, the municipality seems to be very affluent and resourceful.
Why are property rates not being used to maintain City Hall as they are supposed to? Can anyone imagine the City Halls of Belfast, Northern Ireland; Brussels, Belgium or Hamburg, Germany awaiting a donation from civil society to be maintained? Do the folks at City Hall have no pride or dignity? Do they get no feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction from their own achievements?
But where exactly does the Mayor expect to find these extreme altruists from in a city where the citizens have been taxed to the max both by the local and central governments?
Has she forgotten that the Council has increased property taxes by 10 per cent across the board, increased compliance fees substantially, is charging a container tax, increased fees for barber shops and salons, instituted a steep rise in market stall rents, etc, and is trying to bring back the draconian parking meter system?
If the Council is serious about restoring City Hall, why don’t they cut their mammoth payroll by million a month, and use that money to restore the most handsome building in Georgetown?
Get real, Madam Mayor, your term is swiftly coming to an end!
Best regards,
Deodarie Putulall
