Madam Mayor

I am happy that Marlene Coudray is the Mayor of San Fernando. I still do not know the nature of the fallout between Coudray and Patrick Manning and at this point I really do not want to know.
I am happy for a specific reason that has nothing to do with the PNM or the Peoples Partnership. It has everything to do with how the council is run.
Mayor Coudray knows all the ins and out, the entire workings of the council and as Mayor she must erase what is bad and promote what is admirable. To start with, the Mayor must ask the new Chief Executive Officer to maintain a proper record of all contractors so that councillors do not get contracts through the back door.
Former Mayor Ferguson knew that was one of my biggest beef with the corporation. I will still like to know how Jennifer Marryshow's spouse became a contractor with the San Fernando City Corporation when he had no skills... no knowledge and couldn't hire people with those qualities. How did Hasoma continue to get contracts after Marryshow became a director of the company? Those contracts passed through a process involving civil servants and Marlene Coudray was the head of that branch of the public service.
I have heard numerous stories about why Marryshow was favoured. I went several times to Coudray's office without success. I was asked to leave my name and phone number and never received a call.
I want here to tell Coudray of two, only two of the experiences I have had. One actually involves Ferguson. I called him on his cell. He didn't recognise my number but he still answered. He was at his brother's funeral in Grenada and he asked me to call him on Sunday when he returned to Trinidad.
On another occasion I called him about the Waterfront development project. He did not answer. Within ten minutes he returned my call and said he was at a meeting at PTSC in Port of Spain. The man does not even know my name but he returned my call.
The other involves the new Speaker of the National Assembly in Suriname, Jennifer Simons-Geerlings. I walked past Simons once in Paramaribo when I was trying to get an interview with Desi Bouterse. When Simons became chairman of the Assembly, I called her to find out what arrangements were being made for the election of the president. A colleague at the office where she worked as a doctor answered the phone, asked for my name and number so she could call me back. YEAH RIGHT!
In four minutes flat, my phone rang. Jenny Simons had returned my call. The colleague, also a doctor relayed the information to Simons who was at another office and THE CHAIRMAN OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY IN SURINAME returned a call to an ordinary San Fernandian.
Even if Coudray did not want to return my call her secretary should have called me with some reason or referred me to someone else. And please don't tell me that the clerk did not forward that message.
I have known Mayors and Town Clerks in San Fernando from the seventies, before the term of the late Carlyle Kangaloo. Many of them have died. I liked Rakeeb Hosein and Gertrude Kirton and Lynne Sumadh. I never let Clyde Boyce, Vasco Loreilhe and Fitzroy Fahey get away with anything. And I kept the late Ralph Gordon Neville Brown and Bury Clifford on their toes.
I objected to San Fernando being made a City because I knew we would get nothing for it except higher rates and taxes. And I am on record as having warned the people of Chaguanas that "City" is a word that comes with partying for politicians that taxpayers must pay for. All this nonsense about 'City" must be put aside and needs of people must be addressed instead.
San Fernando is a City, but we have a dump for a market in Marabella. San Fernando is a City but the streets are a mess. One cannot walk on Coffee Street without fear of pigeon droppings. San Fernando is a City, but there are barrels covering drains in Mon Repos. There is no proper drainage on Jones Street.
San Fernando is a City but vendors control the town. The City hired a town planner from Port of Spain, Margaret McDowell to address the vending problem. She brought the Princes Town taxis to the Library Corner to create chaos and the vendors are still on High Street.
Madam Mayor, I do not want to hear anything about sanitation standards in food places. That is a routine thing and should be done as a matter of course...no pun intended. I want to know how this dump of a town can earn its title of "City"
And I am looking to you to show me how that is done.

Ride out Atherley!

There is talk around town that Ian Atherley will be mayor of San Fernando again. According to the reports circulating around San Fernando, the Prime Minister visited Atherley at his pub opposite Skinner Park.
Now can you tell me why the Prime Minister should go to a rum shop to court a member of the PNM? During his tenure as mayor Atherley did nothing to distinguish himself and the City Corporation was so plagued by one internal dispute after the other that the people's business had to take a back seat.
There is a word for that and it is called "mismanagement". So why would the Prime Minister go to a pub frequented by PNM members and PNM supporters to court a member of the PNM? Atherley fell out with Manning before the 2007 elections. It was so bad that Manning went to Parliament to amend legislation just so he could remove Atherley by having new nominations for aldermen.
People were "begging" him on public platforms to join the COP, even to be the single UNC/COP candidate against Manning in San Fernando East.. Not Atherley! All the signs were clear that the PNM was going to win.
Atherley never left the PNM. In the build up to this election, he sat on the PNM platform and never said a word anywhere against Patrick Manning. Rowley spoke out against Manning, but not Atherley.
But in case I am giving you the impression that Atherley is being loyal to his party we can look at his past. He once contested the elections for the City Council for the Organisation for National Reconstruction (ONR) and lost. Before the dust had cleared Atherley was on Coffee Street partying with the winners from the PNM. Since then Atherley has known where his interests lie.
And today, reports suggest that he can once more be mayor of this dump of a town that he once presided over!
I am giving fair notice to everyone that I am back in town and I am going to ensure that the People's Partnership Council does not go the way of the PNM. If those councillors think they will take taxpayers money to sound good, let them know that this City must look good and feel good and residents must get the benefit of all the increassed taxes they have been paying since San Fernando became a city. And if Atherley is the mayor, well... we will see about that!

Lessons for Rowley

For a little while I did see Patrick Manning as a prime minister. He had the look of a prime minister, he dressed well (I hope not at taxpayers' expense) and he spoke well. And please don't hand me stories about looks being deceiving.
Somehow I cannot picture Keith Rowley as a prime minister. His voice grates on my nerves, when he lifts his arms in front of the TV cameras, all those huge wet patches bother me and his pronouncements are more of convenience than of conviction. At least that is how it seems to me. Of course my opinion of him is coloured by an early judgement and try as I might to change, I find the effort burdensome. I was passing through Couva during an election campaign in the nineties. The PNM was having a public meeting in from of Republic Bank. Rowley was speaking. "If it wasn't for the PNM, you would be living in Bangladesh", he roared. I thought I might be mistaken until I saw the footage on Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) the following night. I don't feel I should comment on that issue anymore.
Having taken over the leadership of the grand ole party from Manning he found himself leading the PNM into a local governemnt election- the election that would never have taken place if the PNM was still in power.
He was in government so long and voted with the PNM time and again to deprive me of my right to choose my local governemnt representative. He never did anything to make sure I retained that right to vote. The he walks about telling Kamla Persad-Bissessar what she should and should not do.
The classic, however, is after the damaging results, he tells us that he is good, but not so good. GOOD WHAT! The new PNM leader failed to bring out his supporters to vote and that essentially is how good he is. No one expected him to win all the corporations, but good lord, does he not see that the places where they won, it is still Eric Williams they were voting.
Does he not realise that he could not mobilise his supporters?
And here is why. The example I am using is how Marabella West was lost. If you look at the post of July 12, you will see that Rowley did not care about public opinion. He retained Jennifer Marryshow as the candidate and the electorate told him what to do with his prize candidate. People did not want Marryshow, but Rowley did not care about that - very Manningesque I must say.
Anytime a leader can say that Jennifer Marryshow is the strongest councillor, or that Jennifer Marryshow is their strongest candidate they are saying that the party is in very bad shape. That is the worst start a leader can have...not losing an election, but the standards he sets for his party.
Which is why Pennelope Beckles must get more involved in the PNM. Forget tht job you were given to keep you quiet. Set high standards and people will look at you differently.

Welcome Kamla, Rowley; Bye Ferguson

Thanks to those of you who wrote reminding me that local government elections will take place on July 26.
First I wish to congratulate the People's Partnership on winning the general elections and also to extend best wishes to Prime Minister Kamla-Persad Bissessar.
The truth is, if we did not have a change of government there would be no local government elections this year. So we have the new government to thank for that.
Just let me remind you of the posts last year concerning the functioning of the City Council under HIS WORSHIP the Mayor Kenneth Ferguson. I hope I am seeing the back of Ferguson who confessed to me that he was virtually helpless to make any changes or to tackle the corruption I had brought to his attention.
What is most baffling about the People's National Movement (PNM) is that the only member of the old council they have retained on their slate is the one who I had cause to go to the Mayor about- JENNIFER MARRYSHOW. Is there some reason that the PNM wanted Marryshow there? Marryshow's only claim to fame is that she is a CEPEP contractor and she and her spouse are contractors with the City Council through her company Hasoma Limited.
Ferguson even confessed that Hasoma did not know that when building a drain, they should take the water to the river instead of into the community."Even an 11 year old child knows that", he told me. Yet he, Mayor Ferguson, and his Council continued to support this woman by giving her more contracts.
When I inquired about her candidacy, I was told: "Rowley really like she, he have full confidence in she". Well, good for him! And with that I also wish to welcome Keith Rowley to the leadership of the PNM, a role he fits perfectly.

Latest on Boy

Boy's mother Ridgette, the second dog in picture, was poisoned the very next night.

Oh Boy!

The first is a picture of Boy when he was small

The next is a picture of Boy, older, playing with his mother

Boy died around 7 o'clock on the night of December 27 from poisoning. Not by accident. He died with the poisoned food in his mouth. He was nine months old.

I last saw Boy around 6.22 p.m. playing with another dog in the yard of the Parish of St. Joseph Catholic Church Presbytery on Torrance Street, San Fernando. I stopped and watched him and wondered whether I should call him. But the gate at the Presbytery was open and there were a number of strange people walking around the Community. So I decided that since he was playing he would come home when the time was right.

The truth is that Boy should not have been there. He does not belong there. But Boy and his sisters, his mother and his grandmother before them have kept our community relatively safe, mainly with their barking. Boy's mother Ridgette and grandmother Cricket were responsible for alerting us to young men loitering around the cars parked by Eugene Joseph Dance Theatre for his Christmas party last year. When Boy started to bark the man cursing at the top of his voice in the street early Sunday morning (the same day he died) became quiet.

And this brings me to the saying "one hand cannot clap". To do so I refer to an extract from The Catholic Pulse of November 8, 2009, the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary time. It reads like this:

"In recent weeks a band of marauding dogs has been creating mess and destruction (a shredded spare wheel cover, door mat and newspapers) in and around the church and presbytery compounds in Mon Repos. Attempts will be made this week to get their owners on Torrance Street to exercise responsibility in controlling the 'pets'. If that is not done, then the next step will be to call in the dog catchers. A word to the wise! Kindly pass the word along."

I discovered this by accident because no one from the Church ever approached us. Prize winning communication for you! No, the work of a communication genius if you ask me.

And while I do not believe that the two incidents are linked I feel there is need for the church to handle problems differently. The Church has set the tone for its followers and must review its position.

I will deal with the issue of the note in The Catholic Pulse in my New Year's message to parishioners.

Private, Public, Private

What is a Public Consultation? Whatever your interpretation is, I want to share with you how San Fernando City Corporation organised a public consultation on the development plans for San Fernando.

I had seen an advertisement in the newspaper placed by the Diego Martin Regional Corporation inviting members of the public to share their views on the development plans for that municipality. I know contracts had been given out to companies for development proposals and their contract includes input from all stake holders. Whoever the other stake holders are, I have always believed that the view of the man sitting on the pavement with his beer, the homeowner, the pedestrian, the roadside vendor and the store clerk will be the most important.

So I want to commend the Diego Martin Regional Corporation for doing what is necessary for a public consultation. Not San Fernando, though. I was told by a friend that the consultation would be held soon, how soon I didn't know. I called the City Council and was told that no arrangement had been made yet. I pored through newspapers to see if there was any information. Then I learnt that the date had been set for December 2 at 7.00 p.m. I called the Mayor's office again and learnt that the time was actually 5.30 p.m. So I am coming from Port of Spain in hours of traffic jam... did i ever get there?

It was then I realised what was going on. Another private tea party no doubt! Private guests. A time that suits them. The coordinator, Daniel Dookie, should get a pay cut for not knowing how to do simple things. He is already coasting on taxpayers' money having not faced the electorate. Where do they ever get these people from? Then there are his several extensions in office, legislated, to get additional salary. I have Senator Gail Merhair to thank for that.

This Council will not spend money to place an ad in the newspaper, but they will buy a brand new X -Trail PCL 1672 to go shopping at Southern Food Basket on a regular basis. Who on this Council has done anything to deserve an X- Trail? They will not hire a car with a loudspeaker to tell residents about the meeting but they will do so for some Carnival activity. Mayor Ferguson make big speech at his swearing in about how people will see their Councillors.. on bikes too!

Well, friends don't hold your breath. the San Fernando City Council is a Private Club and it is harder to find out what is going on there than at the Freemasons Lodge