Chybar: Let voters, not councillors, choose mayors

WESTERN BUREAU:

Westmoreland businessman Moses Chybar wants Jamaica to rethink the way mayors are chosen, arguing that the country’s constitutional-reform debate should examine whether municipal leaders should receive their mandate directly from the people.

Chybar, the president of the Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is proposing a system in which mayors would be elected separately from councillors, giving them a parishwide or municipalitywide mandate and greater independence from the political grouping that controls the municipal corporation.

“A mayor should be the civic leader of an entire parish or municipality – not merely the political leader of the majority grouping within the council,” Chybar said.

He said the country’s governance arrangements should evolve as the country changes.

“The question should not be which political party gets the mayor’s chair,” he said. “The question should be: Who can best lead the development of the parish on behalf of all its people?”

Under Jamaica’s current local-government arrangement, councillors are elected to represent municipal divisions, and the mayor emerges from the party with the councillor majority or, in the case of a tie, the majority vote. Only the mayor of the Portmore is currently elected directly as a result of the St Catherine-based town becoming a municipality in 2003.

The Portmore arrangement recently become entangled with the Government’s push to establish Portmore as Jamaica’s 15th parish and end the direct election of the mayor.

But, rather than abandoning direct election, Chybar believes Jamaica should examine how the model could be strengthened.

MAYORAL CONTEST

His proposal would have mayoral candidates contesting separately from councillors and presenting their own development programmes for the municipalities they seek to lead. Those programmes could cover roads, markets, sanitation, public spaces, investment, economic development, disaster preparedness, and other priorities.

Chybar said mayors should then be required to report publicly against measurable targets, allowing residents to judge whether the promises made during campaigns are being translated into development.

The debate could have particular relevance for Negril, where the government has already signalled plans for a new municipal arrangement.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness announced in July 2024 that the Government intended to pursue the necessary consultations and legislative changes to give Negril its own municipality.

He said the rapidly growing resort town had outgrown its existing governance structure and had expanded across the Westmoreland-Hanover boundary, creating uncertainty over which local authority should have responsibility for its development.

“Negril has also outgrown not only its physical infrastructure but its management structure,” Holness said at the time.

For Chybar, the proposed Negril municipality provides another opportunity to consider what Jamaica wants from local government.

He said the mayor should be capable of working with businesses, churches, schools, community organisations, citizens, central-government agencies and councillors across political lines.

“This is not an argument against political parties or councillors,” Chybar said. “Rather, it is an argument for examining whether the office of mayor should occupy a different space – one capable of bringing people together across political lines.”

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com