Tensions boiled over into open confrontation at a second special statutory gathering of the Siparia Borough Corporation on Wednesday, culminating in Mayor Doonath Mayrhoo ordering municipal police to escort People’s National Movement (PNM) alderman Christopher Encinas out of the council chamber.
The latest clash comes on the heels of a chaotic meeting one week prior that devolved into shouting matches and verbal insults, ending with a walkout by Encinas, former United National Congress alderman Victor Roberts and other PNM representatives. The PNM now holds a controlling majority on the borough council following three key developments: Roberts crossing the floor to join the party, Siparia West/Fyzabad councillor Jason Ali also switching allegiance, and the recent death of sitting councillor Romona Victor.
In post-meeting media interviews, both top figures traded accusations of improper power grabs, with each side blaming the other for attempting to take unauthorized control of the local government body’s operations.
Mayrhoo explained to reporters that Wednesday’s special meeting had been convened specifically to approve a budget virement needed to cover recently mandated salary increases for daily-rated workers set by the Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government, with additional financial and public governance items also added to the official agenda. According to the mayor, all required legislative items on the agenda were ultimately approved by the body.
The core point of contention centered on Encinas’ invocation of Standing Order 8(3), which holds that any decisions made without a valid quorum are legally null and void. While Mayrhoo acknowledged the general validity of this rule, he pushed back on Encinas’ application of it to last week’s meeting, confirming that a quorum was in place when chairmen for the four standing council committees were elected during that gathering.
Following the election of standing committee leaders, Mayrhoo noted he had exercised his mayoral authority to appoint chairmen for all of the corporation’s ad hoc committees, circulating the full list of appointments to every council member as part of this week’s public agenda. Under local governance rules, he emphasized, the mayor holds the exclusive power to fill leadership roles on committees that do not fall under the standing committee structure.
“The PNM secured all four standing committee chairmans through a democratic election aligned with the Standing Orders, and I fully respected that outcome, as those elections are guaranteed by regulation,” Mayrhoo stated. “I followed all legal requirements for that process, and the council elected four PNM members to those roles. I had no objections whatsoever, because they were well within their rights. The problem only arose when I exercised my own clear legal authority to appoint chairmen to non-standing ad hoc committees, which the rules grant directly to this office.”
Addressing the decision to remove Encinas from the chamber, Mayrhoo clarified that the alderman had already been given time to speak, but repeatedly attempted to interrupt proceedings and challenge the chair’s authority while another councillor waited to speak. “Encinas was being openly disrespectful to the chair, and his allotted speaking time had already expired,” the mayor explained. “I did not suspend him permanently. I simply asked him to step outside for five minutes to cool off, and requested municipal police to escort him out to maintain order.”
Mayrhoo further alleged that the PNM caucus is intentionally working to engineer quorum failures and derail the corporation’s core public services to consolidate power. “This administration will not allow the PNM to hijack this local government body,” he said. “If we need to resolve this through the courts, or if the PNM chooses to take legal action, we are fully prepared to defend our position.”
For his part, Encinas pushed back with a starkly different account of the conflict. He argued that the entire previous statutory meeting was legally invalidated when PNM members walked out, which he claims left the body without a quorum, meaning all decisions taken at that gathering – including the standing committee elections – are null and void.
“We expected the mayor to call an entirely new meeting to address all committee leadership appointments, as required by the rules,” Encinas said. “Our reading of the standing orders is clear: if a meeting ends without a quorum, the entire meeting and all decisions made during it are invalid. The mayor simply refused to acknowledge that basic rule.”
Encinas claimed that instead of opening the committee leadership process up for debate, Mayrhoo tabled a pre-arranged list of ad hoc committee chairmen and refused to allow any council member to raise questions, challenge the selections or debate the appointments. “When we attempted to raise our concerns, invoke Standing Order 8(3) and open a debate on the legality of the appointments, the mayor refused to allow any discussion at all,” Encinas said. “He simply unilaterally declared the appointments valid, but in our view, none of these committees are legal because the entire foundational meeting that led to them was invalid. The only correct step was to hold a new special statutory meeting to reconsider all committee appointments, including the standing committees.”
Encinas confirmed that when he attempted to formally raise his objection, the mayor ordered him removed from the chamber. “The mayor had police escort me out. I complied peacefully, because I recognize that the mayor holds the procedural authority to maintain order in the chamber, so I followed his direction,” he said. Encinas also categorically rejected Mayrhoo’s claim that the PNM caucus is intentionally avoiding meetings or trying to obstruct the corporation’s work.