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Django

June 17, 2016 Source

Deputy Mayor of Georgetown Sherod Duncan yesterday upped his rejection of a controversial parking meters deal arguing that local government elections was meant to lead to a new way of doing business.

In his latest Facebook post on the parking meters deal which the Mayor, Pat Chase-Green and Town Clerk, Royston King are pushing for, Duncan said “…all the processes leading to and emanating from this contentious contract have been weighed and found wanting”.

Duncan’s strenuous opposition to the deal with National Parking Systems/Smart City Solutions (NPS/SCS) sets up a showdown with Chase-Green and King when they return from Mexico where they had gone with two other councillors to inspect the parking meters in operation.

Duncan and other city councillors have raised a series of concerns about the parking meters deal among which are that there should have been a competitive process, no information can be found about the bona fides of NPS/SCS and the secrecy surrounding the deal and the visit to Mexico which also included councillors Oscar Clarke and Junior Garrett. All four of those on the trip have been at the City Council for the last 20 years.

In his post yesterday, Duncan said he was nonplussed by the statement issued on Wednesday by the Town Clerk from Mexico on the issues surrounding the parking meter contract with NPS/SCS.

Amid mounting opposition to the deal, King said on Wednesday that the team was in Mexico City for the “final rollout schedule of the new parking project, which is actually more of a mobility solution for the City of Georgetown. In addition, the delegation is being presented with other innovations, which may be offered and brought to our great City.”

He added that the Mayor and City leadership continue with their “hands on approach in their overseeing of a project which began with extensive due diligence on a parking solution and continues now with their involvement in consideration of other complimentary projects that can be offered by the Smart City Solutions consortium to enhance the intelligent products, services and amenities available to the citizens of Georgetown”.

King’s release said that as a result of the visit, the delegation’s “opinion has been strengthened that the parking and mobility solutions coming to Georgetown will become the pioneering centre of wider modernisation and improvements coming to the City that will accelerate it towards parity with the other great capital cities across the world”.

The release added “While it is unfortunate that certain individuals have taken advantage of the absence of the Mayor to advance negative, divisive and completely untrue narratives, the Mayor and the travelling delegation plan to hold a press conference upon their return to provide updates on this very important and productive trip…”

Duncan fired back yesterday.

“It would require a willful suspension of belief, in light of the incontrovertible facts that not only my research has produced but which every major newspaper in our country has corroborated and expanded on, that this contract can move Georgetown forward”, he declared.

Duncan charged that King’s statement also went against the sentiments of every reasonable, right thinking Guyanese, and the mood of the majority of City Councillors, and hence the will of the people. He said that it was the collective Council which sets policy for the Municipality, legislates through bylaws and provides oversight to projects.

“The majority of our municipality sent us to the august house of City Hall, not to continue on the old tenor of business as usual. It is the people’s business that we transact and not what is in our own personal interest.

“This is why I stand against this arrangement, because all the processes leading to and emanating from this contentious contract have been weighed and found wanting.

“No Guyanese with the courage of their conviction would think this murky and shrouded contract is good business. I am guided by the law, by the regime of legislation which governs the Local Government, Chapter 28:01-28:09. And I am guided by the entire Constitution”, Duncan declared.

He said he is also guided by cases in administrative law like “Barnwell v AG” , adding that the the “Town Clerk is not the Council and the Council is not the Town Clerk.”

NPS/SCS emerged suddenly following the historic March 18, 2016 local government elections and there were immediate questions as to why the new council would embark on a project based on an engagement with one of its stakeholders many years ago. Another company, Astrolobe was also in the running for the installation of parking meters but was eliminated by the council in favour of NPS/SCS. It is unclear who on the council made this decision and who reportedly signed a contract with NPS/SCS. The previous city council dating back to 1994 had been routinely accused of opaque and shady transactions.

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Former Member

It was a free for all under H Green and now the same under Chase-Green. If not for Indo businessmen like BK and many others cleaning up Georgetown, these idiots would not have the funds to gallivant around the world sporting out GT tax payers dollars.

6/17/166:54 AM

DjangoAdmin

Drugb posted:
It was a free for all under H Green and now the same under Chase-Green. If not for Indo businessmen like BK and many others cleaning up Georgetown, these idiots would not have the funds to gallivant around the world sporting out GT tax payers dollars.

That is in the to process to be revisited,the deputy mayor Sherod Duncan is upping the pressure.

This guy and other councilors will straighten things out,the mayor and crew have to realize the city is not their private property,they are elected to govern in a transparent manner.

6/17/167:08 AM

Former Member

Sherod Duncan...One for the future

6/17/168:18 AM

Former Member

Django posted:
Drugb posted:
It was a free for all under H Green and now the same under Chase-Green. If not for Indo businessmen like BK and many others cleaning up Georgetown, these idiots would not have the funds to gallivant around the world sporting out GT tax payers dollars.
That is in the to process to be revisited,the deputy mayor Sherod Duncan is upping the pressure.
This guy and other councilors will straighten things out,the mayor and crew have to realize the city is not their private property,they are elected to govern in a transparent manner.

When Sooba was there you people cried fountain of tears. Now you ketch sense as Sherod Duncan now has taken up Sooba's torch.

6/17/166:05 PM

NehruBig Mouth Member

The PNC Govt and Uncle TOM are less valuable than Raw Sewage!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6/17/166:29 PM

Former Member

Sherod Duncan will get booted for speaking out against the corrupted habits of the old PNC guards like Carol Sooba did.

6/17/168:54 PM

Former Member

This is all crap, let us have the parking meters.

6/19/167:26 AM

Former Member

Seriously though, why do one need to take a plane trip to see how a parking meter work?

6/19/169:11 AM

DjangoAdmin

ksazma posted:
Seriously though, why do one need to take a plane trip to see how a parking meter work?

The Guyanese politicians like freeness,suh they set up the lil vacation to Mexico,masking it with the Parking meter deal,video presentation is not appropriate they waan see the real meter.

6/19/1612:01 PM

DjangoAdmin

KishanB posted:
This is all crap, let us have the parking meters.

No problem,how about the crookish deal with a fake company.

6/19/1612:03 PM

Former Member

Django posted:
ksazma posted:
Seriously though, why do one need to take a plane trip to see how a parking meter work?
The Guyanese politicians like freeness,suh they set up the lil vacation to Mexico,masking it with the Parking meter deal,video presentation is not appropriate they waan see the real meter.

How about saying "my PNC politicians". I am sure you only speak for a fraction of the Guyanese population.

6/19/1612:04 PM

DjangoAdmin

skeldon_man posted:
Django posted:
ksazma posted:
Seriously though, why do one need to take a plane trip to see how a parking meter work?
The Guyanese politicians like freeness,suh they set up the lil vacation to Mexico,masking it with the Parking meter deal,video presentation is not appropriate they waan see the real meter.
How about saying "my PNC politicians". I am sure you only speak for a fraction of the Guyanese population.

You head haad,I am for all the people,not affiliated with no party,most of the politicians from all the Parties in Guyana are crooks.

6/19/1612:34 PM

DjangoAdmin

Park the meters!

June 18, 2016 Source

– Gov’t uses influence to freeze controversial parking system

After a jaunt by city officials to Mexico to advance a plan to implement a controversial parking meter system in Georgetown, the government has reportedly decided to flex its muscle and propose a halt to the plans. Although the Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan and other councilors had registered their objection, Mayor Patricia Chase-Green was bent on pursuing the project with a company called the “National Parking Systems” in order to raise money run the city.

Burdened with a bloated staff and mounting expenses, especially with the drive to clean up Georgetown and “green” the city, City Hall is eager to widen its revenue base. But sources say the government is not pleased with how the project was sprung upon citizens, especially with regard to lack of consultations and sketchy details.
The Mayor has the full backing of Town Clerk Royston King and Councillors Junior Garrett and Oscar Clarke, with whom she flew to Mexico with last week.
But sources say the government’s intervention means the parking meters will not be put up – at least not yet.

Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan, commenting on the issue, had said he felt it was “unfair” for Councilors to endorse an arrangement they are not fully au fait with. Bulkan, who has responsibility for the nation’s local government system in the absence of a Local Government Commission, said while he endorses the traffic-management project, there is still need for greater public education, especially since Councilors still need to be fully informed on how the City will reap the benefits of the arrangement.

In May, the City Mayor had announced that a “parking contract” was given to the National Parking Systems, although the City Council had given overseas-based Guyanese Saratu Phillips an exclusive contract back in 2007.
It was subsequently revealed the Manhattan address listed by the National Parking Systems was not occupied by that company. The National Parking Systems is collaborating with another company, Smart City Solutions, on the project.
Nevertheless, Chase-Green maintained that the project was necessary to create vehicular mobility around the city, but she had failed to gain the support of many of the councilors including the Deputy Mayor, Sherod Duncan.

The situation quickly deteriorated when the Councilors were informed that the Mayor and team had travelled to Mexico, and that a contract has been signed, which they knew nothing of. Why, they didn’t even know of the Mexico trip!At a recent statutory meeting, the Councillors complained bitterly, explaining that the Mayor and the Town Clerk had promised the entire Council would have gotten an opportunity to peruse the contract and provide their feedback but this was never done. The Deputy Mayor, during that meeting, said he too needed answers.

However, in a social media post, Duncan had voiced his refusal to support the parking meter system, citing a lack of verifiable information on the parking meter company.
Duncan said he was provided with little information by National Parking Systems’ (NPS) Smart City Solutions from which he can make a quality judgment.
“In my research, I have not found any company by the name ‘Smart City Solutions’ associated with parking meter systems in any of the places the company is purporting to have done business, like Panama,” he said.

Further, he said that in his independent research on Simon Moshevilli, who represents Smart City Solutions, he has found no one with said a name connected with the said company. In fact, he said, there is no evidence that such a company even exists.
“Again, the total lack of verifiable information on the company and its capacity to execute the scope of the project, and in the absence of a contract on the proposed project, I cannot offer my support (to the project), and reaffirm my grave reservation of such a venture,” he declared.

But the Town Clerk, while still in Mexico, opined that people were taking advantage of the absence of the Mayor to advance negative, divisive and completely untrue narratives. In interest of transparency, King announced that a press conference will be held.He said everything will be made clear at the press conference, particularly the nature of the trip, which “engenders the City leadership’s duty of protecting and improving the lives and opportunities available to its constituents.”
King commended the “extensive due diligence” of the project, even as councillors spoke at the recent statutory meeting on the need for broader consultation on the matter.

6/19/161:40 PM

Mr.TI pity the fool

If they are looking at charging GY$500 an hour, then that charge is way too high. It costs me less than that to park in most parts of London, except the centre of the city. But here people earn on average the same amount in a day than a Guyanese earns in a month. This looks like a shakedown of drivers in GT.

6/19/164:15 PM

DjangoAdmin

City going ahead with parking meters – Mayor

June 20, 2016 Source.

Mayor of Georgetown Patricia Chase-Green said at a press conference this morning that the city will be going ahead with the parking meters project which will come on stream from September 1.

The team which had visited Mexico and Panama, she said, is very satisfied that the contractor, National Parking Systems (NPS) which is part of an international consortium can provide a product which will be beneficial to the people of Georgetown.

Having met with the Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan prior to the holding of the press conference, she stated that the city has provided the minister with a copy of the contract and supporting documents and has reiterated the right of the council in keeping with Chapter 28:01 to proceed with developmental works for the Local Government Authority they oversee.

The proposed deal has engendered controversy over a series of maters including the bona fides of NPS.