Call for new mayor of San Fernando

DISGRUNTLED citizens protested in front of City Hall, San Fernando on Friday afternoon, calling for Junia Regrello not to be reappointed.

“Junia must go,” “Junia Regrello must go,” the five protesters chanted as they waved placards with the same messages.

“Robert Parris for mayor,” urged the spokeswoman for the group, Jovanne Edmund of Medine Street, San Fernando.

Parris, the longest-serving councillor on the San Fernando City Corporation (SFCC), denied he had anything to do with the protest.

“I did not put up anyone to protest in favour of me becoming mayor. "I have been accused of perhaps the worst things as a politician, but I have good spiritual and moral values. I did not put anybody up to do anything like that.”

He said while he knew Edmund very well, she was the only protester he knew.

"I was shocked when she called my name. She was one of the people openly writing on Facebook that they want me as the mayor of San Fernando.

“I am not denying Jovanne is my friend and I am overwhelmed and I am grateful for her confidence in me.

"But we all know there is a process. Everywhere I have gone this wee,k people have been saying this to me (Parris for mayor), over and over. I thanked them. I just continue to work and do what I have to do for the PNM and the people of Pleasantville.”

Edmund accused the outgoing mayor of betraying the trust of the people of San Fernando.

She called on the Prime Minister to investigate why the fire station on King’s Wharf, which was renovated and earmarked for occupation by the Municipal Police Station, was not yet open, why toilets on Harris Promenade near Library Corner remained closed and why female employees in the administration department of the SFCC have lost their jobs.

She said, “Junia Regrello must go. We need change. We want new, vibrant, young blood as the mayor. Give someone else who can make a difference and fruitful contribution.”

She appealed to the hierarchy of the PNM for San Fernando West "to get back to the grassroots of the people. Is the people who work hard for you.”

“Give Pleasantville boy, our Robert Parris, a chance. Mr Rowley, you promised him if he worked hard, you would give him the chain, and it is only fair Robert Parris (to) be given this opportunity.

"Junia must go, Robert Parris for mayor,” she chanted, before rain ended the protest.

Contacted by phone, Regrello said he believed this was not a PNM versus PNM fight, but a protest orchestrated by the United National Congress (UNC). He said Edmund had been seen at UNC meetings in a yellow jersey, and in a video sent to him, he had seen someone in a yellow T-shirt among the protesters.

“Two of them are UNC," he charged. "From what I have been told, they were hired to do that. On the UNC social media chat they are saying 'Robert Parris for mayor.' "Villiana Ramoutarsingh, the campaign manager for Rishi Balramsingh who won Les Efforts West/La Romaine, she is saying, 'Robert Parris for mayor.'”

At a retirement function for Phillip Allard, principal of the Pleasantville Secondary School, on Thursday, NPTA executive member Clarence Mendoza called on the party to give an opportunity to govern the city to Parris, who was present.

“There is nothing wrong with people aspiring to high office. There is nothing wrong with anybody wanting to promote their community, but San Fernando is much bigger than Pleasantville and it can’t be a Pleasantville thing,” Regrello said.

Regrello's name is on the PNM list of three aldermen for SFCC – Abigail Cox and former deputy mayor Vidya Mungal-Bissessar are the other two. He is eligible to be reappointed mayor, but Regrello said the candidate will be elected on the basis of the PNM’s policy decision.

“I am too old for all this political drama," he said. "It is all political mischief, and I am not doubting it’s a UNC ploy.”