Georgetown: Expanding the revenue base of the Georgetown City Council is top on the agenda of newly elected Mayor Patricia Chase-Green.The current figure of the Council’s budget is unable to manage the city, Chase-Green told the Chronicle on Sunday.
As such, an estimate will have to be conducted in certain areas to determine who are paying their rates and taxes and who are not.
For instance, in the areas of Sophia and Cummings Lodge, Greater Georgetown, the Mayor said only a few persons engaged in squatting, but whose areas have become regularised, are paying their taxes.
Further, many buildings which operate on a commercial basis are still paying the residential rates. These two rates are different, Chase-Green pointed out.
Meanwhile, the Mayor said she is looking forward to working along with the 30 new councillors, who include fresh faces, along with some older folk who are more experienced.
According to Chase-Green, the laws which govern the Town Clerk and other officers at City Hall, and city councillors, are very clear and thus everyone is aware of their responsibilities.
The Local Government Commission, soon to be established, will help to address any concerns that may arise, she said.
According to the Mayor, things have improved at City Hall since the May 2015 general and regional elections, when the then Local Government Minister stopped controlling the City Council.
As such, Chase-Green said she foresees no complacency, as everyone would be accountable to the council.
Meanwhile, Sherod Duncan, a former University of Guyana Student Society President, was elected Deputy Mayor. Others who were elected to the council are Heston Bostwick, Tameshwar Budhoo, Carolyn Caesar, Noelle Chow-Chee, Oscar Clarke, Welton Clarke, Yvonne Ferguson, Malcolm Ferreira, Gregory Fraser, Junior Garrett, Carlyle Goring, Linda Gomes-Haley, Winston Harding, Ivelaw Henry, Lyndon Hilliman, Salima Bacchus-Hinds, Lionel Jaikarran, Bishram Kuppen, Desiree Liverpool, Andrea Marks, Alfred Mentore, Roopnarine Persaud, Akeem Peter, Trichria Richards, James Samuels, Phillip Smith, Monica Thomas and Sophia Whyte.
Following her election, Chase-Green, the fourth woman to serve in the post of Mayor, told the Chronicle that she felt excited at the appointment, although becoming Mayor never crossed her mind when she first entered the City Council in 1994.
She said she was very thankful to those who assisted in her campaign, including those persons she had met for the first time while campaigning.
As for the smaller parties whose representatives sit on the council, Chase-Green said they will all have a say. She noted that there are several committees on the council in which they could participate; and according to her, there are legal provisions for other committees to be formed.
“So they will have a say. There will be no one who will be left out of a committee system; everyone will be given an opportunity to serve,” she declared.
Chase-Green went into the City Council under the Good and Green Guyana (GGG) environmental group that was headed by former Mayor Hamilton Green.
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