Mayor Williams welcomes PNP about-turn on chairmanship challenge

 

Mayor of May Pen and Chairman of the Clarendon Municipal Corporation, Joel Williams has responded to a decision by the People's National Party caucus of councillors that it will no longer be pursuing court action over the chairmanship of the corporation.

 

Mayor Williams says he feels vindicated by the legal opinions of the Attorney General and Solicitor General that, based on the law, he should continue in the chairmanship of the corporation.

 

The controversy stemmed from last November's by-election in the Aenon Town division, which resulted in the PNP and the Jamaica Labour Party having 11 councillors each.

 

The PNP caucus of councillors has said it will no longer be heading to the court over the chairmanship of the corporation but wants changes to the composition and leadership of committees within the local government body.

 

Scean Barnswell, Councillor for the Hayes Division, said while the PNP councillors believe there is ambiguity with the law, they will not go any further with the matter in the interest of time. 

 

Mayor Williams said he is hoping that the PNP councillors will settle down and continue the business of the parish. 

 

"You'll recall that the first meeting where we had the disruption, I would have laid out clearly what the Local Government Act would have said. They refused to accept and so I would have written to the minister requesting to get the...final words from the Solicitor-General and our AG, which he has done. And that was presented here today. I don't believe that they were not aware of it. I believe that they just wanted to be disruptive to prove a point," he reasoned.