Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Up to Fri­day evening, four days af­ter the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions (LGE), the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) was yet to fi­nalise the list of chair­men and may­ors for the sev­en cor­po­ra­tions it se­cured.

Speak­ing with Sun­day Guardian on Fri­day evening, the pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer for the UNC Dr Kirk Meighoo said he could not say when the fi­nal list of al­der­men and chair­men will be avail­able.

The UNC re­tained lead­er­ship of the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough, Siparia Bor­ough, Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al, Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro, Rio Claro/Ma­yaro Re­gion­al and San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tions.

The swear­ing in for coun­cil­lors, may­ors and chair­men will be on Wednes­day.

Sun­day Guardian called four of the UNC’s pre­vi­ous lead­ers of cor­po­ra­tions.

Faaiq Mo­hammed and Hen­ry Awong, past lead­ers of the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough and Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tions, re­spec­tive­ly, did not an­swer when called.

Ray­mond Co­zi­er and Den­ish Sankars­ingh, lead­ers of the Rio Claro/Ma­yaro Re­gion­al and Siparia Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tions, said they could not com­ment when called as they were un­sure of their se­lec­tions. Sankars­ingh ad­vised that Sun­day Guardian to call back on the week­end while Co­zi­er said the in­ter­view would have been a very in­formed con­ver­sa­tion that he could not get in­to im­me­di­ate­ly.

The men were told the in­ter­view cen­tred on their great­est achieve­ments while in of­fice, any re­grets for projects that were not com­plet­ed and if they were be­ing re­placed, what ad­vice they had for their re­place­ments.

While the UNC was get­ting its house in or­der, the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) had al­ready se­lect­ed a fresh slate of lead­ers for its sev­en cor­po­ra­tions.

Af­ter last Mon­day’s elec­tions, the PNM and UNC tied 7-7 for con­trol of the 14 re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions. The UNC re­quest­ed re­counts in 12 elec­toral ar­eas and the PNM in two.

A day af­ter the elec­tions, Chief Elec­tion Of­fi­cer at the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) Fern Nar­cis-Scope, re­ceived re­quests for the re­counts. By Thurs­day, three of the 14 re­counts were com­plet­ed.

PNM ready for new term

Out­go­ing chair­men Kwasi Robin­son and Sigler Jack of the Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co Re­gion­al and Diego Mar­tin Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tions re­spec­tive­ly, en­cour­aged their re­place­ments to serve the peo­ple. For­mer Ari­ma may­or Cagney Casimire al­so con­grat­u­lat­ed his re­place­ment and said he was avail­able to pro­vide any ad­vice and guid­ance the new ex­ec­u­tive want­ed.

Robin­son said: “The par­ty made the best choice in my re­place­ment (Josi­ah Austin). I be­lieve he can take the cor­po­ra­tion for­ward in ways I could not.”

Robin­son said one of his great­est ac­com­plish­ments has to be bring­ing the chair­man­ship clos­er to the peo­ple as well as bring­ing ser­vices clos­er to the man on the ground. His one re­gret was that he failed to de­liv­er, faster, for his burgess.

Casimire said he wished the new may­or, Bal­li­ram Ma­haraj, all suc­cess.

“The in­ter­est of the peo­ple is para­mount. It is im­por­tant to in­clude the peo­ple in the de­ci­sion-mak­ing process. I wish the new ex­ec­u­tive all the best and I am here if they need me for sup­port or ad­vice,” he said.

He said some of his ac­com­plish­ments are set­ting the stage for the re­fur­bish­ment of the Ari­ma Velo­drome, re­fur­bish­ing the Ari­ma Mar­ket, im­ple­ment­ing smart bench­es and so­lar-pow­ered lights in the bor­ough, and break­ing ground for the Ari­ma Re­gion­al Com­plex.

Jack said he wished his re­place­ment and first-time may­or for Diego Mar­tin Akeilah Glas­gow all the best as she leads the bor­ough through lo­cal gov­ern­ment ref­or­ma­tion.

“She is not new to the cor­po­ra­tion. I wish her the best of luck. I will not want to im­pose my thoughts on any man­ag­er, es­pe­cial­ly not one new to the space. Each man­ag­er will have their own views on how to do things and I will not want to say any­thing to in­flu­ence that.”

He said the cor­po­ra­tion will need a ges­ta­tion pe­ri­od as it will be a new slate op­er­at­ing with­in a new di­men­sion.

Calls to for­mer may­ors of San Fer­nan­do and Port of Spain Ju­nia Re­grel­lo and Joel Mar­tinez went unan­swered. The for­mer may­ors of Trinidad’s cities are be­ing re­placed by Robert Par­ris and Chin­ua Al­leyne re­spec­tive­ly.

The oth­er lead­ers of cor­po­ra­tions to be re­placed are An­tho­ny Roberts at the San Juan Laven­tille Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion and Saleema Mc Cree Thomas of Point Fortin Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion. Roberts will be re­placed by Richard Wal­cott and Thomas by Clyde James.

Work­ing in the ref­or­ma­tion

The lead­ers and their coun­cils for the next four years will op­er­ate un­der a re­formed lo­cal gov­ern­ment. Lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form has been in the works for about 33 years but in 2016, un­der Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, the Cab­i­net ap­proved a draft pol­i­cy on re­form­ing lo­cal gov­ern­ment.

On elec­tion night, Row­ley said the re­form will be im­ple­ment­ed in phas­es. From 2016 to the present the re­form faced op­po­si­tion through court pro­ceed­ings and lack of par­lia­men­tary sup­port.

The aim of the re­form, Row­ley said, is to give the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of main­tain­ing schools, re­pair­ing sport­ing fa­cil­i­ties, main­te­nance of health cen­tres and even the man­age­ment of com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres from cen­tral gov­ern­ment to lo­cal gov­ern­ment bod­ies.

In an in­ter­view last week, Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Faris Al-Rawi not­ed that com­ing out of COVID-19, there was an in­crease in spend­ing by the cor­po­ra­tions.

In the last three years, Gov­ern­ment’s spend­ing on lo­cal gov­ern­ment has in­creased by more than 200 per cent from $138,805,850 in 2021 to $389,284,000 in 2023.

In his mid-year bud­get re­view, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert in­creased the sum to the cor­po­ra­tions by $112,294,500 for the fis­cal 2023 al­lo­ca­tion to move from $389,284,000 to $501,578,500, an in­crease of 29 per cent and an over­all in­crease in spend­ing of 129 per cent from 2022 to 2023.

One sig­nif­i­cant change in the re­form will be the im­ple­men­ta­tion of prop­er­ty tax which will be­gin in 2024 for res­i­den­tial prop­er­ty.

Mu­nic­i­pal polic­ing will be the sec­ond ma­jor change, tak­ing them from just pa­trolling mar­ket ar­eas, to be­ing first re­spon­ders with­in their re­gion of op­er­a­tions.