Committee completes deliberations on Municipalities Bill
THE joint parliamentary committee deliberating the Municipalities Bill yesterday completed its examination of all the clauses and recommended amendments to be submitted to the chief parliamentary counsel.
The committee is scheduled to have one more sitting where it is expected to approve the amendments before the Bill is tabled in the House.
Yesterday’s sitting, however, was marked by parliamentarians’ sharp exchanges on matters such as the powers to be granted to a directly elected mayor in the case of Portmore.
At one stage, Opposition MP Abe Dabdoub accused head of the Portmore Citizens Association, George Lee, of wanting to impose “a colonialist-type structure” with too much power vested in the hands of administrators and the Government rather than the people themselves. “What the people of Portmore want is somebody accountable, a person who responds to them,” said Dabdoub.
Lee had advocated a system whereby a chief executive officer would directly interface with state administrators on business matters concerning the proposed municipality, while the mayor would oversee the process, a role which Dabdoub saw as “ceremonial” and virtually “the same thing as before”.
Dabdoub was also adamant that the municipality status of a particular community should be determined a public opinion poll. He noted that what was agreed on was the need for a percentage of those persons on the official list of electors to so decide.
It was concerns such as these raised by Opposition member and a former minister of local government, Pearnel Charles that led to the Bill being deferred when it was first brought to the House by Local Government Minister Portia Simpson Miller earlier this month.
Under the proposed legislation, a community can be declared a municipality if it has at least 50,000 inhabitants, of which no less than seven per cent of those on the voters’ list sign a petition in favour of municipality status; and representation is made by registered community organisations.
Additionally, the decision by the minister has to be subject to affirmative resolution by Parliament.
However, the Bill had an “escape clause” as it made exemption by name to Portmore, giving the leeway to the minister to rule.
It was on this point that Charles again brought up the matter of a referendum, which he suggested, should show at least a 51 per cent level of support for the idea in a community instead of the seven per cent mooted in order to seek municipality status. “I don’t know what Portmore will be in charge of if the minister can just decide not to vote funds… or that this must be done by the parish council… the people at the grass roots must determine,” he said.