Blows for San Fernando City Corporation from mayor

SAN FERNANDO Mayor Robert Parris has demanded action from the City Corporation's administrative arm in treating with daily paid workers' plight following a protest by the employees on May 27.

The Contractors' and General Workers' Union picketed City Hall to call for better working conditions. Among their complaints were a severe lack of necessary tools, adequate PPE and broken infrastructure at ward offices like those at Carib Street and Jamadar Street.

Speaking during a statutory meeting of the council at City Hall on May 28, Parris acknowledged the municipal body had two arms; the administrative and the political but used the weight of his seat at the head of the latter to make the plea.

Parris noted the corporation's administrative arm made strides in rectifying some issues under the direction of CEO Heather Crawford but said better communication was needed with the workers. He said workers were coming to members of the council to voice their frustrations due to the lack of communication by the administrative arm.

"We are, as a council, as the political arm, are directing the administration to have a meeting about all the outstanding matters that affect the daily paid workers of the San Fernando City Corporation."

Regarding the employees' working conditions, the city engineer admitted there were several infrastructural issues at some of the offices, particularly the Jamadar Street location. Among the problems he confirmed was issues with the sewer system. While Parris floated the idea of relocating the workers to another ward office until repairs could be made, the council opted to undertake the necessary repairs to the sewerage system as emergency work over the weekend.

During the meeting, Parris also condemned the theft of $90,000 from the corporation's office which was discovered on May 26.

"I will not be the helm of the political arm of any organisation that there is any alleged corruption. Members of council if you hear anything that sounds untowards the operations of this organisation, your job is to come to me, the mayor and I will go to the CEO. I hold no brief for nobody. I have no friends. Unfortunately, when you are a leader, that is one of the things that we must accept. We are all colleagues, but we have to stand on good governance as it pertains to the public purse."

In winding up the meeting, Parris made one last appeal to the corporation's administration, voicing his own frustration.

"I as mayor, as the first citizen of the city of San Fernando have had enough with the nonsense that is going on here in the corporation and I will, with the support of members of council, intervene when I have to once I am legally bounded to. We want production."

Speaking to reporters after, Parris said the missing money fell under the remit of the administrative arm but described the missing money as embarrassing for him and the corporation.

"It is very alarming and I think I made it quite clear that I feel very uncomfortable."

He added: "I think that whoever is involved in these improprieties, they need to be disciplined."