WESTERN BUREAU — The unexplained absence of eight of the 17 councillors in the St James Parish Council at Monday’s meeting on local government reform has sparked criticism from Montego Bay mayor, Noel Donaldson, and former deputy mayor Gerard Mitchell.

Of the 11 councillors absent, only Heroy Clarke of the Montego Bay South East Division sent an apology for missing the meeting. Six of those absent, including deputy mayor of Montego Bay, Cecil Davis, were elected on June 19.

“I hope this is not a sign of things to come,” Mitchell said, referring to the poor turnout of the councillors at the consultation between the council and the Social Development Commission (SDC).

Mayor Donaldson also voiced his displeasure, saying that the councillors should have been at the meeting, especially since they were notified of the event. In addition to Clarke, and Davis who represents the Somerton Division, the other absent councillors were:

* Charles Sinclair, MoBay Central/Flankers,

* Leroy Williams, MoBay North/Glendevon,

* Milton Russell, MoBay Western,

* Trevor Parkinson, Salt Spring,

* Horace Lawrence, Welcome Hall,

* Michael Troupe, Granville,

* and Donald Colomathi, Spring Mount.

Local government reform, a move to give the island’s local government authorities more autonomy, is seen as a vital plank in building effective and responsive governance. Former councillors, like Erica DeSilva who used to represent the Flankers Division in the western city, have long stressed the importance of reform. And it has long been mooted that those who represent citizens at the local government level have to understand and fully get behind the reform process.

“The people are demanding service and in order to serve, you need to be informed,” Mitchell argued Monday.

Monday’s presentation by the UDC, entitled “Proposed Participatory Governance Framework to Enable Sustainable Development in the Parish for St James”, addressed governance issues such as the ambiguity of the roles of local government, the need for autonomy of the parish councils and a bottom-up participatory mode which is the essence of local government reform. The seminar was chaired by Robert Bryan, executive director of the SDC.

And while most of the issues raised were not new, an operational plan is to be implemented by the parish councils in the financial year 2003/4. Under that plan, councils are to establish civil society mechanisms, inclusive of Parish Development Committees (PDCs) and Community Development Committees (CDCs) which will get underway in St James next month.

The proposal was put forward by the SDC and the councillors are to sign off on it. It will see the parish being divided into four development areas, forming themselves into committees to better have their concerns aired at the local level. There will be development areas for Greater Montego Bay, Adelphi, Cambridge and Maroon Town. The PDCs and the CDCs should complement the committees formed in each development area.

“We are going to lead from in front,” said Donaldson.

And the SDC’s Bryan stressed the need for a new approach.

“We have to think development and not constituency… we need to change our approach (to governance),” he urged.

“There is genuine confusion between who is responsible for what… there is only one clear, unambiguous area in which the parish council has responsibility and that is cemeteries,” he added, alluding to the conflicting roles between local and central government.

He also asserted that there needs to be greater allocation of resources to the parish council in order for it to be effective.

The council’s secretary/manager, Christopher Powell, estimates that of the $60 million the council collected in motor vehicle licences last year, half went into the consolidated fund.

“That (other) $30 million could go a far way,” the secretary/ manager said.