WESTERN BUREAU — In the face of threats of legal action and a furious administrative staff at the St James Parish Council, Montego Bay Mayor Noel Donaldson yesterday wrote to the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers to clarify his recent comments.

Donaldson, who called for an audit of the council’s books, earned the ire of JALGO, which maintained that he had questioned the integrity of the entire administrative staff. Yesterday, he told the Observer that this was not his intention, and he had said as much in his letter to Helene Davis-Whyte, JALGO’s general secretary.

“I find it incredible that anyone could think, for one moment, that I could be speaking of the majority of members of staff of the council in that light,” Donaldson told the Observer.

His concerns, he said, surround a “small group of persons within the council”. And he made it clear that he stood by his comments about the council’s secretary/manager, Christopher Powell, adding that he was undaunted by Powell’s threat of a lawsuit.

JALGO had intimated that if the mayor failed to retract his comments about the wider administrative staff by Friday, it would seek legal advice and help the employees plan their next step.

Yesterday, Davis-Whyte said that up to 4:00 pm, she had not yet received the mayor’s letter and therefore their position had not changed.

Meanwhile, Auditor-General Adrian Strachan is to meet with the council’s staff members, next week, to formulate plans for the auditing of the council’s books.

Local Government Minister Portia Simpson Miller ordered the audit, Wednesday, after tensions escalated at the local government body as a result of Donaldson’s comments.

Yesterday, Strachan could not give a definitive date for when the audit would begin, or how much it would cost.

“We don’t have resources sitting down here, so as soon as they are in place it will start,” he said, adding that the price tag would not be known until the scope of work is determined.

Minister Simpson Miller, Strachan said, had so far advised him of some of the areas of concern.