There’s been a shuffle of portfolios at City Hall, which in actual terms
means very little – considering the council’s financial state and
its low public approval ratings but any tweaking of the political power base
is news, so here goes. Councilors showed up at City Hall for a meeting yesterday
and were surprised to find out that a shuffle of the portfolios was on the agenda.
But it is the Mayor’s prerogative and as she explained it to the council,
some councilors were underperforming in their portfolios, so she would be shuffling
portfolios.
But in the area of greatest concern – which is the council’s finances
– there will be no re-adjustment; the Mayor stays on as the councilor
with responsibility for Revenues, Finance and Human Resources. Deputy Dion Leslie
keeps special events and public relations and gets the culture added in there.
From what we’ve been told, he had to fight to keep public relations though,
because the Mayor had planned to give it over to Phillip Willoughby –
a logical progression if you’re a perverse optimist.
For his part, Willoughby’s Sanitation portfolio has been split in two
and half of it has been handed over to Roger Espejo. Espejo will now be in charge
of cutting, cleaning, canals, and the obscure art of drain shaping. Willoughby
will only be in charge of garbage collection, but will have responsibility for
Municipal Courts added to his portfolio – which is a significant responsibility.
Willoughby’s other portfolio for youth and sports will now be taken over
by Andrew Faber.
A significant add has also been made to the portfolio of councilor Eric Chang
– previously relegated to the perpetually under funded parks and playgrounds
portfolio now has responsibility for works streets and drainage on the northside
– which formerly rested with Espejo. This assignment is also known as
the “go ask Boots to do it” portfolio – since the Ministry
of Works is the only one doing any real repairs on city streets.
Those are just about the biggest changes. Mayor Moya’s loyalists, or
“Moyalists”, as we like to call them, who are Dean Samuels, Wayne
Usher, Kevin Singh keep their core responsibilities. Non-Moyalists like Laura
Esquivel and Leila Peyrefitte remain in a kind of nether-world with Peyrefitte
getting responsibility for parks, medians, roundabouts & beautification
while Esquivel gets Sister City Relations and Liaison for NGOs & Civil Society.
The changes take effect on January first, 2010.
In other council news, the council has taken a decision to cut its allowances
in half. As we’ve reported councilors get allowances of $7,200 a month
– that’s $3,600 for fuel and $3,600 for phone. As their goodwill
gesture to the Prime Minister they will propose to cut both allowances –
but not their salary of twenty four thousand dollars. We’ll see how that
rests with the Prime Minister who spoke specifically about a salary cut.
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