Councillors to receive original parking meter contract

– Chase-Green says nothing to hide

The original contract for the controversial metered parking project undertaken by the City Council will be circulated among councillors, Mayor Patricia ChaseGreen said yesterday, at the conclusion of an extraordinary statutory meeting.

“… As I said, we don’t have anything to hide. Let it go, let it go… I have nothing to hide. There is nothing corrupt in this deal so let it go, let them see it,” the mayor said, in a 180-degree turn from her earlier position that the contract could not be given to councillors.

It was APNU+AFC Councillor Oscar Clarke who requested that councillors be furnished with the original contract, since meaningful discussions and comparisons could not be made in the absence of that. Several councillors who spoke before Clarke had made it clear that it was impossible for them to offer any concrete input since they had not seen the original contract to make comparisons with the amendments.

Prior to the rolling out of the metered parking project, councillors had been asking for the contract but it was never issued to them. Chase-Green had indicated that the contract was available in her office and that of the Town Clerk. After seven weeks of protest by citizens, following the implementation of the project, government suspended the project for three months pending a review.

Yesterday’s meeting was the first of several the council is expected to have to engage in meaningful discussion on the way forward before negotiating with Smart City Solutions, Chase-Green said.