Political rift mars KSAMC sitting

A departure from “convention” in the establishment of committees at the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) triggered a heated debate during its general meeting on Tuesday.

The disagreement resulted in 15 Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillors abstaining from the vote to pass a resolution for the appointment of the committees.

Accusing Mayor Andrew Swaby of “removing the fence”, Deputy Mayor Delroy Williams took umbrage over the fact that the membership of the Finance, Roads and Traffic, Public Health and Civic and International committees membership did not include all elected councillors.

Williams stressed that the usual practice is for all councillors to have automatic membership on these committees, arguing that their membership provides a medium for the residents of Kingston and St Andrew to participate in the operations of the council.

He dismissed suggestions that having all councillors on these committees may impede the governance as the KSAMC has an equal number of 20 councillors for both the JLP and the People’s National Party (PNP).

In a letter to Swaby, Williams labelled the move a “retrograde step”.

According to Williams, if a tie occurs when voting on issues in these committees, the mayor is entitled to cast a second vote to break the stalemate.

“I’m saying, since you have a casting vote and can break a tie, why remove members – elected members – from those critical committees?” he asked.

But in a press conference shortly after the council meeting, Swaby, who is the PNP’s councillor for the Vineyard Town division, chastised Williams for appearing to want to split the leadership of the committees between both political parties.

“What Mr Williams hasn’t told you and haven’t said out there is that what he was suggesting in our meeting for my side to have chairman, his side to have the vice chairman and 50-50,” Swaby said.

“What Mr Williams and his side must understand is that yes, there is a tie in the council, … but there is a convention that says the popular vote determines who is the mayor and who forms the government of the local authority, and he needs to accept that,” he added.

In addition to contending that “these big meetings are not productive”, Swaby further stated that adhering to the tradition in the establishment of those committees would not give him time to perform his other duties as mayor.

“If I’d gone to what he suggested, I could not leave the room, not even to answer a question from you outside because it would have forced me here as the mayor to be here at all times in a meeting,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dennis Gordon, PNP councillor for the Maxfield Park division, who moved the resolution, emphasised that the mayor was acting in accordance with the law, which, he said, supersedes convention.

Section 37 of the Local Governance Act 2016 gives the mayor the authority to appoint a committee for any general or special purpose that he believes would be better regulated and managed by means of a committee.

“Against that background, it is rather uncanny that anyone could misunderstand or misinterpret the clearly defined legislative framework that sets out the governance procedures,” Gordon said.

“Therefore, to seek to embrace convention at the expense of the settled legislative framework is simply misguided and wrong. The net effect means that it is the mayor who determines the composition of all committees, none of which have to be all council. The role of the deputy mayor is also clearly defined; the deputy acts in the mayor’s absence, full stop,” he added.

He asserted that the committees will execute their mandates based on the administration’s mission and vision to be inclusive, equitable, transparent and productive.

“The new administration will allow the committees to operate as intended by the laws and will not be circumvented for administrative expediency. This administration will try to avoid cancellation or postponement of statutory scheduled meeting dates. The mayor is insisting on full bipartisan deliberation on all matters of the council,” he said.

In the meantime, Councillor Eugene Kelly of the Whitfield Town division, who seconded the resolution, outlined that all members of the KSAMC will still be able to participate in all committee meetings.

“One of the things that must be restated is that every councillor still has the ability to attend the meetings to raise concerns and those concerns will still be minuted,” he said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com