MoBay mayor demands apology from Phillips

WESTERN BUREAU:

Montego Bay Mayor Homer Davis is demanding an apology from Opposition Leader Dr Peter Phillips for accusing the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP)-led St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) of corruption and abuse of authority in the recent booting of two People’s National Party (PNP) councillors.

Last week, the StJMC moved a motion to disqualify Sylvan Reid and Gladstone Bent as councillors based on Section 30 (1B) of The Local Governance Act for missing three consecutive monthly meetings without giving notice. The councillors said they were absent from the March, April, and May sittings due to advice by the prime minister for persons with underlying medical conditions to stay home as the island tackles the coronavirus outbreak.

On Sunday, Phillips charged that the move was an abuse of power and was done in response to the minority caucus’ efforts to expose corruption at the local- government level.

“There is no basis for Dr Philips, a man of high learning, to even contemplate the disqualification of two councillors from the corporation as an abuse of power,or that it was done as a means to avoid oversight and accountability,” Mayor Davis said at a press conference yesterday.

“As chairman of the StJMC, I’m challenging Dr Phillips to produce the evidence or immediately retract the statement and issue a public apology to the hard-working men and women of the StJMC.”

Added the mayor: “Yes, councillors can be absent from meetings, but there are certain protocols that have to be followed, and that’s why I will say that the minority leader (Michael Troupe) led them astray because I saw no doctor’s certificate, but they’re claiming how sick they are now,” said Davis.

“Let me also remind Dr Phillips that it was his Government, in 2016, which reduced the number of consecutive monthly meetings that a councillor can miss from six to three and that all councillors were aware of this change,” he further said.

editorial@gleanerjm.com