Gail Alexan­der

The Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment will come with a slate of fresh faces in may­oral po­si­tions by the time the process of se­lect­ing gov­ern­ing bod­ies for the re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions is com­plet­ed next week.

The T&T Guardian un­der­stands that the par­ty se­lect­ed new may­ors for the cor­po­ra­tions they now con­trol fol­low­ing an ex­ec­u­tive meet­ing at Bal­isi­er House, Port-of-Spain, on Tues­day night. The PNM al­so changed chair­men at five of the cor­po­ra­tions, the on­ly ex­cep­tions be­ing San Juan/Laven­tille and San­gre Grande, which is yet to be re­solved due to the tie be­tween the PNM and the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress fol­low­ing the re­cent Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions.

Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein said yes­ter­day that may­ors, deputies, chair­men and vice chair­men were se­lect­ed dur­ing Tues­day's meet­ing.

Lead­ing the new group of may­ors is Lisa Mor­ris, the grand-daugh­ter of for­mer Ari­ma may­or Leroy Mor­ris, who is set to con­tin­ue in the fam­i­ly's tra­di­tion as the sec­ond gen­er­a­tion may­or of that bor­ough on Tues­day. She is to be ably as­sist­ed by Cagney Cas­simere as deputy.

Al­so on Tues­day, Port-of-Spain will say farewell to May­or Keron Valen­tine and wel­come Joel Mar­tinez and his deputy Hillan Mur­ray. Mar­tinez was an­nounced as a North West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (NWRHA) board mem­ber last year soon af­ter the PNM took of­fice. He's been a front­line PNM ac­tivist in the north-west for years and is chair­man of the par­ty's Diego Mar­tin North East con­stituen­cy, where par­ty vice chair­man Colm Im­bert is MP.

On the same day, Ju­nia Re­grel­lo will take over from Ho­sein as may­or of San Fer­nan­do, while the deputy po­si­tion he held in the last coun­cil will be be­stowed on Vidya Mun­gal-Bisses­sar.

Re­grel­lo, a for­mer San Fer­nan­do West Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment un­der the Patrick Man­ning ad­min­is­tra­tion, spear­head­ed op­er­a­tions that brought home the Les Ef­forts West seat for PNM in last week's Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions. The PNM had not won that seat in 24 years. Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Re­grel­lo said he was hap­py to serve his par­ty, San Fer­nan­do and his coun­try.

Lat­er on Fri­day, the may­oral chain will be placed around the neck of for­mer coun­cil­lor Ab­don Ma­son, who will suc­ceed Clyde Paul as may­or of Point Fortin. His deputy is a sec­ond gen­er­a­tion coun­cil­lor Kennedy Richards Jr, the son of for­mer coun­cil­lor for Hol­ly­wood, Kennedy Richards.

Ford said yes­ter­day that when the elec­tion tie im­passe is over, in their favour, San­gre Grande will con­tin­ue for the next three years with Ter­ry Ron­don as chair­man. When that hap­pens, he said Si­mone Gill will be­come the vice chair­man. Ford said An­tho­ny Roberts is the on­ly oth­er chair­man who is be­ing re­tained. His vice chair­man will be Richard Wal­cott.

In Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co, Paul Lea­cock will take the oath of chair­man and Oni­ka Haynes that of deputy. In Diego Mar­tin, act­ing chair­man Cathy Christo­pher, who filled in when Dar­ryl Smith was elect­ed as MP and lat­er Sports Min­is­ter, will make way for an­oth­er woman, Su­san Hong.

Hong had spear­head­ed op­er­a­tions in the PNM's Diego Mar­tin west unit - Prime Min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley's con­stituen­cy - for years. Cather­ine Mendez will serve as vice chair.