City Hall still to write Local Gov’t Commission on decision to dismiss City Engineer

Although the APNU+AFC Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) successfully passed a motion on Monday intended to terminate the employment of City Engineer Colvern Venture, it is the Local Government Commission (LGE) that has the authority to do so and which will make the final decision.

“The Council is free to take whatever action they deem necessary but the only problem is that they will have to write to the Local Government Commission informing us of the action that they have taken for us to deal with the matter,” Julius Faeber, Chairman of LGE told the News Room Wednesday.

Faeber said that the Council has not written to the Commission but noted that there is no timeline for them to be notified.

“They have not written us so we do not have any document or we are not in receipt of any document pertaining to the matter,” Faeber said.

During a media briefing at City Hall on Wednesday, Mayor Ubraj Narine revealed that the Town Clerk will have to approve the minutes of the last statutory meeting before correspondence is sent to the Commission.

The motion seeking to terminate the City Engineer was heard at the Council’s first statutory meeting for 2022 on January 10.

“The Council did its part because we are fed up, we are being accused on many occasions by government wrongfully, we have written to Mr Venture on several occasions and nothing has been done, it is now with the Local Government Commission,” Narine stated.

According to the Mayor, several letters were penned to the City Engineer with concerns from citizens while other letters dealt with issues at the Council.

But the Mayor claimed that there was no response from the City Engineer. The Mayor believes he lacks managerial skills and is often involved in “procrastination”.

“Many times, we ask Mr Venture; how often do you hold meetings with your senior officers, your deputy engineers? He couldn’t answer us, he often says that he has one on one with his officers,” the Mayor explained.

While the Mayor listed many infractions by Venture, he pointed directly to the building by-laws which is still awaiting a review by the City Engineer.

“How could we pass or present a by-law to the public or ask for the public views when our own Chief City Engineer could not give us his views?” the Mayor questioned.

In conclusion, Narine said if the matter regarding the termination of Venture is not dealt with professionally, the Council will be forwarding all future complaints leveled against the Engineer Department to the Local Government Commission.

Meanwhile, Venture says he does not plan to leave his post without a fight and is in discussion with his attorney to determine the legality of the motion passed.

Venture previously prevented other attempts to fire him with resorts to the High Court last year.