Chang backs MoBay Mayor in Council row
published: Friday | November 28, 2003
By Denise Clarke, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE NEWLY-ELECTED deputy leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Dr. Horace Chang, is backing Montego Bay Mayor, Noel Donaldson, in the current impasse between the Mayor and employees of the Council.
Against the background of planned industrial action by the Council's employees, Dr. Chang, who is also the Member of Parliament for North West St. James, said there are unanswered questions about the operations of the previous political administration of the Council.
However, while agreeing with the stance taken by his colleague, Dr. Chang admitted that the matter could have been handled more discretely. "They have gone about it the wrong way," said Dr. Chang in a telephone interview with The Gleaner yesterday. "It has gone too far and too fast."
Dr. Chang said the Mayor's bid to find answers to questions concerning some of the operations of the People's National Party-led administration of the Council prior to June, was not being welcomed as, in the past, transparency was not encouraged within the organisation.
RESOLVING THE STALEMATE
The MP said he was prepared to meet with Mayor Donaldson, the other eight JLP Councillors, as well as the remaining Councillors and officers of the Council, to help resolve the stalemate.
"The Mayor is trying to break the old habits and he is not getting the co-operation," said Dr. Chang. "What we have to do is make the Council aware and the community aware of how the Council operates and that it is a transparent process."
Mayor Donaldson, who has been the Chairman of the St. James Parish Council for only five months, has come under fire from the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers (JALGO), for statements he made earlier this week, alleging widespread corruption in the Council.
NO RESPONSE TO ULTIMATUM
Up to press time yesterday, the Mayor had not yet responded to a 24-hour ultimatum issued by JALGO demanding the withdrawal of comments he made alleging financial improprieties.
Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who heads the Local Government Ministry, has asked the Auditor-General to investigate the Council's books to ascertain whether the allegations have merit.
A senior officer in the Council told The Gleaner yesterday that the employees were prepared to stage a peaceful protest, 'placards and all', in front of the Parish Council Building on Union Street if the Mayor does not respond by today.
The JLP leads the St. James Parish Council with a slim nine to eight majority.
