Ten councillors and four aldermen, all People's National Movement representatives, were sworn in at the Diego Martin Regional Corporation yesterday.The swearing in of the new chairman, tipped to be alderman, Darrel Smith, will take place next Tuesday. Diego Martin North East MP Colm Imbert said the corporation got its declaration of the list of aldermen from the Elections and Boundaries Commission yesterday and, according to law, has to elect a chairman and deputy chairman within four days.
He said the EBC would have sent declarations to all the corporations at the same time and all mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen and deputy chairmen will have to be elected by Tuesday.The function was initially planned for the swearing-in of councillors only, but shortly after it started corporate secretary Julia Charles-Joseph announced there was a diversion to include the swearing-in of aldermen too.
Noticeably absent from the ceremony was Opposition Leader Dr keith Rowley, Diego Martin West MP, Diego Martin Central MP Amery Browne and Local Government Minister Marlene Coudray. Rowley could not be reached for comment yesterday.Outgoing chairman Anthony Sammy, welcomed with much pomp and fanfare, gave what CEO Marva Carter described with apparent dismay as a farewell speech.
"That sounded like a farewell speech. Didn't he sound like he was saying goodbye?" she asked guests present."He's here until next week, when the new chairman will be sworn in."Sammy, in his address, thanked Imbert for working with him during his tenure and listed major programmed he initiated over the last three years. He urged the new council to continue the work, which included a master drainage plan for Diego Martin, an area prone to flooding.
Sammy said when he came in the corporation got $10.5 million in funding under the Development Programme and after much pleading on his part, got $20.4 million for the 2013/2014 fiscal year."Everything I did was to benefit the area," he said.