Claudia Gardner, Gleaner Writer
HANOVER:
MAYOR OF Lucea, Lester Crooks, was taken to task by Councillor of the Cauldwell Division, Sheridan Samuels, during last week Thursday's regular monthly meeting of the Hanover Parish Council.
According to Councillor Samuels, Mayor Crooks had failed to follow the proper procedure when he called in the Lucea Police last month to eject deputy mayor and councillor of the Hopewell Division, Vasca Brown, from the finance and administration meeting. Councillor Brown had refused to apologise for having used expletives to the mayor.
RESPONDING TO QUESTIONS
Councillor Samuels' comments came after the mayor told the councillors to "follow the Bible, be Christ-like, forgive Councillor Brown and move on". The mayor was, at the time, responding to questions posed by councillor of the Green Island Division, Fredrocious Miller, as to whether or not he believed Councillor Brown should resign from his position as deputy mayor.
"Mr. Chairman, I told you from day one. I can remember I got up and I said to you that we need a two-thirds majority to get the councillor out of the meeting," Councillor Samuels said. "When I looked back at the legal aspect of the whole thing I realised that we blundered. We shouldn't have gone to the police.
"We should have moved the motion to get the councillor out of the meeting; get the two-thirds majority that is required, and asked him to move! If him don't move, then we send for the police! Without even going down that road, you tek up the telephone and you call di police! I actually run out a di building dat day, yuh nuh! We didn't take a decision on it. So, we treated the man (Brown) unjust!"
"I am not defending Councillor Brown or anything like that; what I am doing is to ensure that nothing like this reaches me!" Councillor Samuels added.
'STRUCK FROM THE MINUTES'
Councillor Samuels was joined in his stance by councillor of the Sandy Bay Division, Lloyd Hill, who requested that the issue be "struck from the minutes of the meeting". This request was unanimously supported by the other councillors, including the mayor.
At that time, Councillor Brown stood up to address the meeting: "At no point did I try to say that what I had done was correct, and that is one of the reasons I came to a finance meeting to give an apology. That's why that apology was extended to persons who were offended. I want to express, if we are going to have meetings, procedures must be followed every time," he said.
