KEVON FELMINE

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

De­spite the eu­pho­ria of elec­tion vic­to­ry still among the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) in Point Fortin, MP Kennedy Richards told the new­ly elect­ed coun­cil that the days for re­lax­ation was over. Point Fortin Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion (PF­BC) Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer Don­na­may Tay­lor swore in the six coun­cil­lors yes­ter­day, which in­clud­ed re­turn­ing of­fice hold­ers Kwe­si Thomas and Leslie Pas­call.

But the PF­BC will have a new­er look with for­mer Na­tion­al Joint Ac­tion Com­mit­tee coun­cil­lor Mar­i­lyn Ram­nar­i­nesingh now serv­ing as a PNM rep­re­sen­ta­tive.

The new­com­ers are Christo­pher “Boy Ross” Wright, who con­test­ed against the PNM as an in­de­pen­dent in 2019 af­ter the par­ty re­ject­ed his can­di­da­cy and Steve Guishard. The PNM won all six elec­toral dis­tricts in Point Fortin in the Au­gust 14 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions.
Ad­dress­ing the swear­ing-in cer­e­mo­ny at the Point Fortin Town Hall, Richards told the coun­cil­lors that col­lab­o­ra­tion with the PF­BC ad­min­is­tra­tion and their com­mu­ni­ties is cru­cial for ex­e­cut­ing their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties. He said the ad­min­is­tra­tion plays a crit­i­cal role in car­ry­ing out the coun­cil’s de­ci­sions for over­com­ing the chal­lenges in Point Fortin.
De­scrib­ing the elec­tion cam­paign as “a gru­elling ex­er­cise”, Richards said they must re­mem­ber what the peo­ple said on the ground and ex­e­cute them.
“The days for re­lax­ation are done. You are sworn in now, and we ex­pect that you hit the throt­tle all the way down, and we will work to­geth­er to en­sure that we take Point Fortin to where it needs to be,” Richards said.

Tay­lor said the ad­min­is­tra­tion re­mains com­mit­ted to work­ing with the coun­cil to ful­fil the PF­BC’s mis­sion and vi­sion. She said it was note­wor­thy that all coun­cil­lors swore on the Holy Bible, re­mind­ing them that their pres­ence was a tes­ti­mo­ny of God’s se­lect­ing them to ful­fil his pur­pose here on earth, specif­i­cal­ly in Point Fortin.
“My prayer is that you serve with wis­dom, hu­mil­i­ty, knowl­edge, un­der­stand­ing and eq­ui­ty, ac­cept­ing that pro­mo­tion does not come from the East and West but it comes from God,” Tay­lor said.
Out­go­ing may­or Saleema Thomas told the new coun­cil that as they take their seats in the cham­ber, re­mem­ber that they are the voice of their burgess­es.

“You are en­trust­ed with the pow­er to shape poli­cies, al­lo­cate re­sources and make de­ci­sions that will im­pact the lives of those who call Point Fortin their home. Let your de­ci­sions be guid­ed by the prin­ci­ples of trans­paren­cy, ac­count­abil­i­ty and the greater good. I en­cour­age you to fos­ter an at­mos­phere of col­lab­o­ra­tion and open com­mu­ni­ca­tion with­in the coun­cil,” Thomas said.
The out­go­ing al­der­man al­so called on them to em­brace Point Fortin’s di­ver­si­ty as it was the bor­ough’s great­est strength. There­fore, each coun­cil­lor must lis­ten to the voic­es of all, re­gard­less of their back­ground or be­liefs and work to­geth­er to find com­mon ground that serves the best in­ter­est of Point Fortin. 

“While the chal­lenges you may face are unique to our bor­ough, re­mem­ber you are not alone. Reach out to your fel­low coun­cil­lors, seek ad­vice from ex­pe­ri­enced lead­ers and draw in­spi­ra­tion from the ac­com­plish­ments of those who came be­fore you.”