With Local Govt reform, there'll be no room for 'crapauds'

COME next year, when reforms to how the Local Government system is operated becomes law, there will no longer be room for any UNC or PNM "crapauds" to benefit by way of getting into office becuase their party controls a specific regional corporation or borough.

This was the view by Pleasant councillor Robert Parris who welcomed news by Rural Development and Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein of the reform legislation planned for Parliament next year, during an end-of-year meeting Hosein held with mayors, corporation CEOs and Chairmen, aldermen and councillors of the country's 14 municipalities, at the San Fernando City Corporation auditorium.

The meeting was held to discuss plans and strategies Minister Hosein wants to see implemented to take Local Govt foward and ensure people from various communities are better served by those elected into Local Govt office.

Hosein said that a package of legislation which government intends to bring to the Parliament for debate and passage into law will see qualified people, rather than political party hacks (or crapauds as they are deemed locally) holding office so as to equitably service the burgesses.

It is a move welcomed by San Fernanco councillor Robert Parris who said at the meeting that when reform comes on stram, some crapauds will be left behind.

“To me a councillor is not about being most popular or being on point, it is about being fully qualified. TT is a microcosm of the entire world which is moving in a certain direction and we have to move with the times,” Parris told the meeting. The San Fernando City Corporation is PNM-controlled.

Parris said local government reform will see councillors now having to work full time in this capacity and this would raise the bar on the quality of individuals offering themselves for service at this level.

He said this has been a proposal since 2010, giving elected officials ample opportunity to qualify themselves in management, project management and other relevant areas of studies as they are the ones who interact with the people, thus taking pressure off the MP’s back.

“It is long overdue.” Opposition MP Suruj Rambachan also expressed hope that the proposal for executive councils and full-time councillors will attract professionals with an emphasis on management, project design and implementation.

In terms of the Local Gov arm of Hosein's ministry being shifted to the Ministry of Finance come next year, Rambachan said the issue is not which ministry has oversight of local government but whether resources needed by local government, will be provided.

At the meeting last week, Hosein revealed that come next year, legislation for the long proposed local government reform will be taken to Parliament in time for the constitutionally due 2019 Local Government elections.

Hosein said the reform will provide executive councils with councillors, who now serve part time, being made full time. Corporations will also have more autonomy and authority to make decisions as they will be collecting residential taxes including Property Tax.

Councillor Parris said under the current arrangement, corporations do not have the autonomy to do things. “With this reform, the municipalities and regions would have the authority to do things differently and raise money. What is going to happen, in my opinion, is that political parties would now have to look at the standard of the people they interview to be councillors. Individuals would have had three years to do something to qualify themselves for serving in the corporations.”

Parris who has served as the councillor for Pleasantville for the past nine years, said he has always advised his colleagues, “we are policy makers. I have told them to learn about management, about project management, drafting of policies in order to bring the city, or municipality or region to a higher level, to improve the lives of the people we serve.”