DAWN RITCH
THERE IS something seriously off-colour about the way Desmond McKenzie, the Mayor of Kingston, conducts the business of the KSAC. And here I am not talking about the colour of his tie or his wardrobe in general, but the operations of the KSAC under his control.
The mayor has shown a marked preference for extracting more and more fines and rates from citizens and taxpayers. So eager is he, that heavy-handedness is his preferred method of operation.
Tearing down signs, stopping the circus. I have to say that it takes a heart of stone to stop the opening of a circus. The action was only saved from being purely arbitrary because the mayor was imposing the law about illegal flyers (nobody in Jamaica has had that imposed in living memory) and architectural drawings for the big tent.
DISCRETION
The mayor could have exercised his discretion and let the circus open while he had the drawings examined by his technical staff. But instead, he had to have a guided tour accompanied by camera crew so he could be on TV that night in solitary splendour. And this while all the little children could not get to go on opening night, or even for the whole weekend. Now the circus has lost so much money it may not be able to go to rural Jamaica as planned, and many more children will be disappointed. And this cold treatment for a circus that's been coming to Jamaica for the past seven years.
His Worship the Mayor seems to think he ought to be enough nightly entertainment for us. Him and the murders on the news. The citizens of this country have a right to something else, and on that occasion, they were looking forward to a circus.
The vendors in Coronation Market, when they saw him installing opposite them a paid municipal car park, were looking forward to the mountainous garbage heap being cleared and a clean market. But those hopes remain as forlorn as the market itself. What does he do with all the money he collects?
Anybody who thought that municipal regulations would also apply to the members of the largest parish council in the island was sadly mistaken. While the mayor tows vehicles away downtown for parking on sidewalks and in 'no parking' areas, cars park untroubled on the sidewalks of Tower Street and Church Street, directly outside the KSAC all day long.
These belong to the councillors, I'm told. I hear that the morale has never been higher among them. If they alone are above the reach of the law, I can understand why.
Certainly, I can assure you that none of them has to pick up a shovel, or make sure anyone else does. Before Hurricane Ivan, Jamaica had been experiencing heavy showers for weeks.
CLEANING DRAINS
The mayor did nothing about sweeping the streets or cleaning the drains in downtown Kingston. Before Ivan, the drain at the bottom of East Street was running clear like the water in a stream, so comfortably had the earth compacted in the drain with the water running over it.
Long before 'Ivan', the only way to cross the street in front of the mayoral parlour in a heavy downpour was in a handcart for $50 one way and two at a time. His own employees, along with everybody else downtown, pays it. Every street is under six inches of water when it rains because nobody in the KSAC has a shovel, or knows anybody with one.
Last week, the mayor therefore set upon a programme of going to large Jamaican businesses, and asking them each to adopt a drain. I've heard of adopting a ward in a hospital, but never a drain on the street. And it's the sickest idea to come along in a long time. To my astonishment, Desmond McKenzie approached three companies and they bit the hook. They immediately promised hundreds of thousands of dollars for their three new members of the family. And all because the mayor of Kingston can't bother anybody in the KSAC to carry out their municipal duties to the city.
Desmond McKenzie is an aggressive force unleashed upon an unsuspecting city. The KSAC is collecting more money left, right and centre than ever before from the citizens themselves. Yet there's nothing to show for it, save the continued pointless aggravation of taxpayers.
The bottom of Mark Lane is now under four inches of hard-compacted earth. So is the bottom of Duke Street. And they weren't any better before Hurricane Ivan. Everybody is still crossing the street by handcart when it rains, yet the mayor has time to be on TV virtually every night. He even found himself in a television studio being interviewed the morning after the hurricane, when he could have occupied himself in a more worthwhile way with a shovel, or seeing that somebody at the KSAC made sure somebody else took up one, even from time to time.
MUNICIPAL REGULATIONS
It is not the duty of a mayor to enforce municipal regulations only as long as they are revenue-generating, but allow the non-revenue ones to lapse. The latter usually ensure the health and safety of the citizenry, and are equally important, if not more so. Indeed, the mayor has a sworn duty to uphold them, which he neglects. This mayor clearly determines the importance of a municipal matter based only upon its monetary value to the KSAC.
It cannot be money, and if it is a money problem, then Desmond McKenzie needs to see to his books. Not the ones with the dusty laws he's so fond of citing, but the accounts of the KSAC itself. It is a voracious and predatory beast. The public is entitled to know exactly how it spends its money, line by line.
This mayor must get a new modus operandi. He needs to love the media a little less and the city a little more.
