A BROUHAHA brewing between the St. Catherine Parish and the Portmore Municipal councils over the allocation of tax revenues could derail the plans of the Portmore Council to exercise greater control over the community's affairs in the near future.
Following a stormy meeting between the councils last week, to discuss the allocation of functions and resources, Dr. Raymoth Notice, Mayor of Spanish Town, criticised what he dubbed a "poor presentation made last Friday to the Spanish Town Council by the Portmore representative."
"The gentleman making the presentation left us in the dark as it pertains to the figures. He told us that Portmore is responsible for 15 per cent of barber/hairdresser fees, but he gave us no figures. It was a totally ambiguous report, and in my opinion, incomplete," Dr. Notice said. "We need a new and proper proposal from them before we can move forward."
Further, Dr. Notice urged the Ministry of Local Government not to do anything 'hastily', and not to allow the Portmore Council to piggyback on the human resources and work of the St. Catherine Parish Council, while siphoning off the limited resources of the parish.
"Portmore should be given the proper human resources to collect their own taxes, they are using our human resources to collect revenue for themselves," Dr. Notice said.
"The Local Government Ministry should ensure that Portmore be given its full quota of personnel because, as it stands now, the parish, as a whole, will be short of funds to manage the Parish Council. Both Councils should be working together to increase revenue and then, later, we sort out the allocation of those resources," he added.
However, Mayor of Portmore George Lee said yesterday that Dr. Notice's objection is based on ignorance.
"He is ignorant of the facts. We are not piggybacking on them. I went to the meeting with a spirit of accepting whatever proposal was made by the technical team (including representatives from the Local Government Ministry). I was willing to bend over backwards just to keep things moving along," he explained.
"For instance in the area of revenue collected from buildings, the St. Catherine Council is collecting on our behalf and, for the months September to October, the recommendation was that Portmore be given 18 per cent while Spanish Town be given 82 per cent. I thought that figure was extremely low, but given the fact that it was their staff, I said OK, because I wanted to move things forward," he explained.
"There was no need for the breakdown, I don't see the motive as to why he is objecting at this point," Mayor Lee said.
The Portmore Council meets to discuss the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today, while the St. Catherine Parish Council is slated to meet on Thursday. More than 160,000 Jamaicans reside in Portmore, making the community the second largest and fastest growing urban centre in Jamaica.
"If they don't accept the memorandum by Thursday, I will have to ask the Minister to intervene and work out a solution. This is preventing us from carrying out our functions as a municipality. We can't afford to sit down and just wait," Mayor Lee said.
HOLDING PATTERN
Meanwhile, the plans of the Portmore Municipal Council are in a holding pattern even though, according to a press release from the Ministry, "a Ministerial order which will be prepared after these discussions are concluded does not have to go to Parliament".
A second Ministerial Order which will speak to the sharing of the proceeds from the Parochial Revenue Fund, is being drafted following discussions and agreement between both councils, as well as officers of the Ministry of Local Government. The Order will be finalised in the shortest possible time subject to review by the Permanent Secretary and the Minister of Local Government, the release said.
According to the MoU being formulated by the councils, Portmore will be in charge of functions such as solid waste management, environmental management, provision of municipal amenities, street lighting, infrastracture works, such as drains and parochial roads, mosquito eradication and establishment and management of public parks.
"However, there will be four things that Spanish Town will have control for that will affect Portmore, and that will be the animal pound, the cemetery, poor relief and the board of health," Mr. Lee explained.
- Claude Mills
