The Tribune

THERE has been much behind-the-scenes muttering about the PLP government’s selection of some of the persons appointed for a year to the various statutory boards. Some of their Urban Renewal appointments have also been criticised.

The public want an assurance that the persons selected for these positions have in fact a degree of expertise to offer at the various board tables around which they will sit. They resent the thought that their taxes might be used just to reward the party faithful from which the country will get no benefit.

The chatter continues about the appointment of Michelle Reckley, assistant secretary general of the PLP in Grand Bahama, to head the Urban Renewal programme on that island. The fact that Ms Reckley still is, or was the PLP secretary general had no bearing on the matter of her appointment —although somehow PLP chairman Bradley Roberts thought it did when one of our editors sent him an e-mail asking him to confirm whether Ms Reckley still held that position. To justify what Mr Roberts thought was an underhand criticism, he referred our editor to the FNM’s earlier appointment of Ms Ella Lewis, chairman of the former FNM Centreville and Fort Fincastle Constituency Associations to coordinate the Urban Renewal programmes for New Providence.

Mr Roberts completely missed the point of our editor’s e-mail, which was to confirm Ms Reckley’s qualifications for such an onerous position. Our editor had made no mention of Ms Ella Lewis, nor – other than to confirm a fact in Ms Reckley’s case— was he interested in the political position held by either woman.

In a Tribune article on June 26, Ms Reckley was answering her critics who questioned her suitability to head Urban Renewal, pointing out that she was a school caterer. When asked by a Tribune reporter what she felt qualified her for a job that would organise the whole island under Urban Renewal, Ms Reckley said she was qualified because she has “lived” the problems that Urban Renewal was set up to address.

On the other hand the FNM contends that Ms Reckley does not have the appropriate professional background or expertise to manage several Urban Renewal Centres and a staff that includes police officers and social workers.

“What makes me qualified is that I come from urban. I have lived it and who else can appreciate Urban Renewal more than someone who has lived it?” she asked.

We appreciate what she is saying, but we do not understand how this gives her the special qualifications to know how to solve the problems of these people who desperately need help.

In thanking the PLP for giving her the opportunity to exercise what she sees as her “urban” skills she vowed that “the PM and the people can rest assured that this once poor girl from Hanna Hill will be guided every day by her own history and experience, and make life better for all. Our efforts will go beyond politics, and it will truly be about the people,” she said.

Already she has demonstrated her lack of administrative and people skills from the recent fall-out she caused when she was accused by FNM-appointed Urban Renewal workers, whose completed contracts were not being renewed, of making them out to look like thieves. The argument was over missing industrial sewing machines —since located — from the Eight Mile Rock Centre. Ms Reckley is accused of going to the Centre, before it was time for staff to hand over inventory lists on vacating the premises, and asking questions about the machines. When she was told that at that moment they did not know where the machines were, she threatened police action.

Latoya McKenzie, facilitator at the Eight Mile Rock Centre, said Ms Reckley arrived at the Centre with a ZNS news team in tow. She asked for the inventory. She then asked for the sewing machines. However, when told their whereabouts were not known, she left, returning with two police officers.

Although Ms Reckley denies the accusations and maintains that instead of being rude to outgoing Urban Renewal staff, they were rude to her, Ms Tirzah Carey, coordinator of the programme for the past four years, said that the handover to the Urban Renewal 2.0 group has been anything but smooth. She maintained that there have been “several incidences of what” she called “unprofessional acts on behalf of Ms Reckley in terms of going to the centres and harassing the staff.”

Ms Reckley might well be a good cook, she might even be the “excellent cook” that Mr Roberts says she is. However, although she might be gifted at putting a chicken in the pot and cooking it to succulent tenderness, this episode alone illustrates how ill-equipped she is to handle people.

In his reply to our editor, in which Mr Roberts mistakenly thought that The Tribune was digging into Ms Reckley’s political affiliations, he invited our editor to look at the political ties of the FNM’s Ella Lewis. Ms Lewis was not only an FNM constituency chairman, but also coordinated the Urban Renewal programmes for New Providence. Our editor was not interested in that search, but in this column tomorrow we shall take Mr Roberts up on his invitation and compare the qualified educator and experienced business woman, the qualified social services and housing woman in the person of Ms Tirzah Carey, and the acknowledged excellent cook, and let our readers decide for themselves, which one of them – all good in their individual areas of expertise — would be best qualified to manage Urban Renewal for Grand Bahama.