NEWLY elected Port-of-Spain Mayor Raymond Tim Kee yesterday said he will not be resigning as Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president as a result of the new political post that he now holds.
Speaking with Newsday after the swearing-in ceremony of new councillors and aldermen of the Port-of-Spain City Corporation at Port-of-Spain City Hall last night, Tim Kee said: “You better believe it.”
Asked if this could create a conflict of interest, Tim Kee said his situation was far different from that of Jack Warner when he was a Cabinet minister, FIFA vice-president and Concacaf president. “Jack Warner was the senior vice-president of 210 countries. He was an employee of FIFA. He was an employee of Concacaf,” he stated.
Tim Kee said: “I am a non-income earning president. My work is voluntary. The only person in the Federation who is paid a salary is the CEO, the General Secretary Mr Sheldon Phillip and the staff.” He noted Douglas Camacho was able to serve as Guardian Life Insurance president and TT Olympic Committee president.
In his inaugural address, Tim Kee said he preferred not to give himself such a lofty title as mayor. “I prefer servant. I prefer facilitator,” said Tim Kee to an audience which included Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley and PNM MPs Marlene McDonald, Donna Cox and Patricia McIntosh.
Tim Kee pledged the corporation will exhibit qualities that “place country above self, nation above profit and a commitment to service beyond acquisition of wealth.”
“Today as a people, we are seeing the perils of greed and have rejected it,” he said. Assuring outgoing mayor Louis Lee Sing that the projects started under him would continue, Tim Kee said Port-of-Spain would become “a true capital city not only in Trinidad, but in the Caribbean.”
Tim Kee urged residents to show a strong commitment to a lawful society and “a need to do right” regardless of whether law enforcement is there or not.