AHEAD of tomorrow’s parish council polls, People’s National Party (PNP) Mayor of Kingston Dr Angela Brown Burke has sought to defend the institution of local government amidst a wider belief that this aspect of governance is irrelevant and onerous on the country’s coffers.

The Senate, on July 17, 2015, passed legislation to entrench local governance in the Constitution. The Constitution (Amendment) (Local Government) Act, was passed without amendments. Under the Bill, local authorities are being given the ability to perform regulatory functions to facilitate the management, improvement and development of resources of local communities. It also allows Parliament to make provision for local authorities to generate and spend their own revenue, and to provide for the holding of local government elections.

“I understand why many persons would think that it is a waste of time. [But] the fact that many people don’t believe that it is important doesn’t make it any less important. Right across the world, everywhere, the research and the practice show that when local government works, it works in the interest of the people and the majority,” Brown Burke said.

Added to that, she said that for a number of years there have been administrations that have scrapped and dissolved local government, noting that this has helped to shape a message that it is insignificant.

“I am a believer in local government and local governance, and I believe that across both parties we have a number of individuals who think as I do. I wish we had more,” she told the Jamaica Observer in an interview last Tuesday at her Church Street office in downtown Kingston.

Jamaicans have long argued that a country with a population of just 2.8 million people does not need local government. The mayor believes, however, that size should not be a deterrent in the arguments for and against it.

“Jamaica is small, and I understand that. I won’t say that there are other jurisdictions much smaller than Jamaica that have both local and central. So it means that our size is not a deterrent or reason for it not to be. Even though there is this confusion about the roles of MPs (Members of Parliament) versus councillors I would hazard a guess that in the majority of cases, even those things that have been done by the councillors, people believe it was the MP who did it,” she said.

Brown Burke made the argument that it is the councillors who are more on the ground than the MPs. She also said a part of the reason that there is the notion that local government should be scrapped is that for too long people have seen the councillors as just assistants to the MPs.

“That is part of what has allowed people to form the impression that it’s the MP doing it. It may be that what we need to do is to scrap or to peer down the number of MPs and strengthen local government,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Brown Burke also rejected the belief that local authorities are merely agencies that prey on the country’s resources.

“It is not true,” she insisted. “The evidence is not there to support it. Most persons who hold that view hold it in the context of a general scepticism about politicians and not necessarily about councillors.”

A long-serving councillor for the Norman Gardens Division in East Kingston and Port Royal, she said that she is positive that local government is headed in the right direction.

“I believe that the new strategic laws summarise a lot of our discussions over the years and a lot of the solutions that have been placed on the table, and so I believe that the important part of what needs to be done going forward is to actually make the laws work, make them relevant and make people aware of how their roles are changing,” she said.

She also said that the local government reform process will see the roles of the councillors and private citizens changing.

“In the new strategic laws, our strategic plan [and] our budget must be subject to public consultations, and what we need to do is to make those consultations real, make them genuine and not just the checking of a box. So we provide that space for individuals to understand what is it that we do and are responsible for; have them help us identify the priorities and understand how that’s funded.

“I believe that if we do that, and if we do that well, what that’s going to mean is that people are going to understand the role of the local authority. But more importantly, they are going to see how they can influence what we do as the local authority,” said Brown Burke.