PEOPLE'S NATIONAL Party (PNP) councillors yesterday walked out of sittings of Jamaica Labour Party (JLP)-controlled councils in Port Antonio, Spanish Town and Mandeville; while in the Hanover Council, PNP councillors were forced to postpone efforts to move a no-confidence vote against the JLP Mayor.
At the St. Catherine Parish Council, PNP councillors stormed out of the monthly meeting following questions raised by Natalee Neita-Headly, councillor for the Lauriston Division, regarding the status of JLP Councillor Henry Fisher of the Mount Industry Division.
She wanted to know from Mayor Raymoth Notice if Mr. Fisher had resigned and if he was still being paid by the Council. The Mayor told the Councillor that the questions would be addressed in the Chairman's remarks.
Councillor Neita-Headly then asked if she could raise questions during that time and was told no. PNP Councillors then walked out of the meeting.
In Portland, all four PNP councillors stormed out of the Council sitting, claiming that they have lost all confidence in the leadership style of Mayor Alston Hunter.
The councillors, Doreen Forbes, Wayne McKenzie, Dexter Rholand, along with former Mayor of Port Antonio, Phillip Thomas, expressed dissatisfaction regarding what they claimed is the ineffectiveness of Mayor Hunter.
INFLUENCED
"Mr. Hunter has been led and influenced by an individual councillor," remarked Mr. Thomas. "He lacks the vision and has failed to continue the work started by the previous administration. We had hoped for a continuity in many of the projects started by us."
But Mayor Hunter rejected the allegations as false. "My administration has performed creditably so far," he said.
In Manchester, the July meeting of the Parish Council ended in chaos when the seven PNP councillors walked out after the issue of ownership of the Nashville bus park came up. The question arose earlier in the year after residents of Waltham district petitioned the Council to have the bus park named after former Mayor and councillor for the New Greene division Horace Williams.
REJECTED
The majority JLP councillors rejected the residents' request on the ground that there were some doubts as to whether the Manchester Parish Council did in fact own the property on which the park is constructed. That move has divided the council along strict party lines despite Mayor and chairman of the Councillor Desmond Harrison's attempts to resolve the matter at each successive sitting of the council.
Yesterday, the Council erupted into confusion with councillors from both sides taking verbal swipes at each other when PNP Councillor for the Alligator Pond division Darlton Brown questioned if the council should not take a decision to either close the bus park or put the money now being collected for its use in a safe account as a 'matter of principle' until the matter is resolved.
Meantime, a notice of a resolution tabled by former Mayor of Lucea, Councillor Lloyd Hill of the Sandy Bay division declaring "no confidence" in Mayor of Lucea and chairman of the Hanover Parish Council, Lester Crooks, which was to be voted on yesterday was deferred to the next sitting of the Council in September, due to Councillor Hill's absence from the meeting. The notice of the resolution was tabled by Councillor Hill during June's sitting of the regular monthly meeting of the Hanover Parish Council.
"I don't know that I have done anything illegal. At this time I would ask that we actually settled down and move to the future," said Mayor Crooks.
- Compiled from stories filed by Gleaner correspondents Rasbert Turner, Gareth Davis, Angelo Laurence and Claudia Gardner.
