Cummings
SEVERAL KINGSTON and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) Councillors have expressed concerns about newly-elected People's National Party (PNP) Member of Parliament, Victor Cummings, retaining his seat in the Council.
However, Mr. Cummings insists he has a legal right to serve out his term as Councillor for the Allman Town division of his constituency.
Town Clerk, Errol Greene, said yesterday the KSAC Act prohibited the holding of both offices, but Mr. Cummings, a lawyer, said he was willing to prove the contrary in court and show that, as Councillor and MP, he could serve both offices efficiently.
Amid guffaws at the KSAC monthly Council meeting yesterday, Mr. Cummings pointed to the KSAC Act section 16: "If the Mayor and Deputy Mayor can sit (in the House) and the Mayor must be a Councillor, so a Councillor can sit in Parliament," he rationalised.
Subsection 5 says that "the Mayor or Deputy Mayor shall not ... be disqualified from being an elected member of the House of Representatives or be subject to any penalty for sitting and voting as such member while holding such appointment".
"I believe that I can continue to be of service, it is in the best interest of the Council to have someone who will take forward the view of the Council to Parliament. Until it is proven to me in law... I will remain here," he said.
The KSAC Act states that "no member of the House of Representatives should be eligible for election as a member of the Council", but it doesn't say that a member of the Council cannot be elected to the House and it does not prevent the Councillor for serving the rest of his term in the Council after being elected.
In section 13 and under 'Persons disqualified from being Councillors' there is no mention of MPs being disqualified from sitting on the Council.
The term of office for Councillors run until the next local Government elections expected by March next year.
The debate was triggered by statements from some Councillors suggesting that Mr. Cummings' elevation to Member of Parliament (MP) could make him less concerned about Local Government issues.
"He won't have the time," said Councillor Merline Daley (JLP). Her concerns include that MPs in the past "have forgotten where they were coming from".
"Some move up, they start to bad mouth the Councillors, treat the Councillors in their divisions very badly and behave as if they were not Councillors themselves," she said. "A lot of things that we'd like to do we are not able to do because we do not have the resources and support."
Yesterday, Mr. Cummings and Desmond McKenzie, who was recently named as a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Senator, pledged to use their appointments as encouragement to the Local Government level. There was no opposition raised to Councillor McKenzie continuing in that position while being a Senator.
