Taxi drivers want board
to resign immediately
~ May take legal action ~
PHILIPSBURG--Months after the controversial re-election of Clyde Hook as President of the Dutch St. Maarten Taxi Association (DSTA), close to eighty DSTA members affixed their signatures to a petition calling on the new board to demit office with immediate effect.
The members, some 50 of whom attended a meeting to discuss their concerns with the functioning of new board last night, are also planning to take legal action against Hook for allegedly misusing his position for personal gain.
Hook could not be reached late last night to comment on the allegations.
Association member Louis Jeffers told The Daily Herald the members were unhappy with Hook and the functioning of the Board. He charged that the incumbent president was misusing his position by “taking away” work from taxi drivers to execute it under his “private company” Hook Up Services.
Jeffers alluded to the Divi Tours, which he said previously had been done by taxi drivers, but were now a service provided by Hook’s company.
He said some members of the association had begun a signature drive last Wednesday and up to last night 79 members had affixed their signatures to the petition calling for the immediate resignation of the board. Once the board members have tendered their resignations, fresh elections will be called within a week or even earlier, Jeffers said.
“It is clear and can be seen that the executive board and Clyde Hook are not working in the interest of taxi drivers, but for their own personal gain,” Jeffers charged. “Taxi drivers voted them in and now the livelihood of taxi drivers is being jeopardised. Hook is grabbing everything to enrich himself. This wasn’t the idea. The Divi run belongs to the Association.”
DSTA’s attorney Denicio Brison and incumbent Secretary Terrance Frederick, were among those who attended last night’s meeting.
