ST ANN’S BAY, St Ann — Ivan Anderson’s announcement last week that he will be taking leave as mayor of St Ann’s Bay to fight a fraud charge could cost him the chairmanship of the St Ann Parish Council, according to Robert Montague, the minister with responsibility for local government.
In explaining the predicament facing Anderson, Montague said that under the Parish Council Act, once the chair of a parish council steps aside, the vice-chair assumes the chair forthwith.
“There can be no vacancy in the position of mayor,” Montague said last night, adding that Anderson, the People’s National Party (PNP) councillor for the Brown’s Town Division, has not applied to the parish council for leave.
Anderson had issued a statement last Thursday saying that it was brought to his attention that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had ruled that he be charged with fraud in a matter relating to a real estate transaction.
“I wish to affirm my total and complete innocence and my intention to vigorously challenge these charges and clear my name,” Anderson said. ” In light of these developments, I have indicated to the party and my colleagues at the St Ann Parish Council that I will be taking temporary leave of my position as mayor and of all my other positions within the party until the case is resolved.”
But last night, Montague insisted that Anderson has no provision in law to step aside from his post. He said that he intended to publish a notice in the gazette that the chair of the parish council had been vacated and that the vice-chair, PNP councillor Vinette Robb, should assume the mayorship.
“Once the lawyers have completed drafting the document we will publish the notice,” Montague said.
Yesterday, Anderson was offered $500,000 bail when he appeared in the St Ann’s Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court before senior magistrate Carolyn Tai on an arrest warrant after police charged him with fraud yesterday morning.
He has since taken up his bail and is to reappear before the court on February 1, 2011 when the case will again be mentioned. As a condition of his bail, Anderson was ordered to give his fingerprints to the police and surrender his travel documents.
The mayor is alleged to have sold a parcel of land in Manchester, on behalf of a relative who was overseas at the time of the sale, for $8 million. The relative alleged that Anderson failed to turn over $5 million from the proceeds.
The allegations were forcefully rejected by his attorney Ernest Smith yesterday, as he applied to the court for bail.
Smith said the DPP was not privy to all the facts in the case when the ruling was made and expressed confidence that once all the facts were presented, the charge would be withdrawn.
Smith told the court that the complainant was not the owner of the property and that all the proceeds have been turned over to the right owner who, he said, is serving time in a US prison.
“The full amount of $8 million has been paid over,” Smith later told the Observer. “It’s a really unfortunate case that the character of a councillor and senior justice of the peace should have been tarnished in this way.”
Smith had earlier told the court that the complainant met the owner of the property in prison where she was also serving time. He alleged that while in prison, the two became good friends and that the complainant, on her release, returned to Jamaica and claimed ownership of the property.
“She (complainant) knows nothing about the sale of the property, she was in prison with the owner at the time of the sale of the property and she has come back to Jamaica and now seeks to claim the money,” said Smith.
Smith said he was very confident that Anderson would return to his substantive post as chairman of the St Ann Parish Council when the matter is concluded.
