NEWLY elected Mayor of Kingston Angela Brown Burke has insisted that the decision to pay the 14 Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillors who boycotted the April Kingston and St Andrew Council (KSAC) meeting was improperly taken as neither she nor the town clerk were informed.

Additionally, she said the councillors were paid before the town clerk received guidance from the Attorney General’s office.

Brown Burke told Tuesday’s council meeting, at which the JLP councillors were eventually sworn in, that an internal investigation was being done.

The JLP councillors boycotted the April meeting at which the 24 People’s National Party councillors were sworn in after the venue for the council meeting was changed from the KSAC Church Street headquarters to the Jamaica Conference Centre.

Brown Burke said that based on the advice she had at the April council meeting, it was the view that the JLP councillors should not begin to receive salaries until they had actually taken the oath of office. However, the town clerk sought the opinion of the attorney general and his response received on May 3, said that payment of councillors salaries were due from the time they were elected and not after they were sworn in.

The mayor said that she had indicated that the council would be guided by the opinion offered by the attorney general.

The Attorney General’s Department informed Brown Burke and Town Clerk Errol Greene last Thursday that the JLP councillors were legally compensated.

“It is our view that the councillors who were not sworn in are eligible to be paid from the moment they were elected as members of the council,” the AG’s Department informed the KSAC in a letter.

The AG said that in terms of the tenure of a councillor, subject to the provisions of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation Act, “the term of office of a member of the council shall be from the date of his election and until the next general election of members under the provisions of the section”.

The AG, noting that the Act provides that councillors are to be paid a salary as of November 16, 1995, pointed out that “an election was held on the 26th of March 2012 and thus any councillor so elected would be entitled to a salary pursuant section 119A”.

The AG also noted that Section 3 of the Act describes a councillor as a member of the council of the KSAC, and Section 11 provides that “a councillor is to be elected by votes in the electoral division, which can only be as a result of an election”. Further, Section 15 states that the term of office is from one election to another.

The AG also stated that any refusal or neglect of the elected member to take the oath could only occur at the first meeting which he attends.

“Having regard to the fact that the councillors in question opted to boycott the first council meeting held, and were thus not present, they have not attended their first meeting after being elected to date, and thus have not run afoul of the KSAC Act,” the AG concluded.

Mayor Brown Burke and Minister of Local Government Noel Arscott had raised concerns about the payment of salaries for April to the 14 JLP councillors.