Local Democracy - Ministry Local Government Document on Montego Bay City Council

Ministry of Local Government Document Pertaining to the Montego Bay City Council

The Ministry has produced a document regarding the City Council, as reproduced below:

Local Government Reform
Establishing the Montego Bay City Council
A Forerunner to full Municipal Status for Montego Bay

Montego Bay gained City status more than 21 years ago, but has no autonomy in managing its own affairs. This situation is being immediately corrected by the establishment of a Montego Bay City Council, as a standing committee of the St. James Parish Council.

This measure is an interim one, until a City Council – headed by its own directly elected mayor, can be put in place under new legislation which will confer on Montego Bay the right to local self-management of its own affairs, within the broad framework of a reformed St. James local authority. The move is further confirmation of this Administration’s commitment to undertake meaningful and far-reaching reform to the Local Government system, as a means of giving local citizens greater scope for managing their own affairs.

With some 90,000 citizens, Montego Bay has a larger population than the entire parish of Hanover. It is the principal seaport for Western Jamaica and has a major international airport, which is also the hub of the national carrier – Air Jamaica. It is the commercial capital of western Jamaica, and is pivotal to the economic base of this Region, which accounts for 57% of Jamaica’s tourism product.

The negative consequences of unplanned urbanization & inadequate service delivery severely retards its progress. It is clear that further development and proper management of Montego Bay requires the kind of focused attention and capacity that cannot be accommodated within the normal operations of the Parish Council. Establishment of a City Council is a direct response to the urgent need for improved urban management in the nation’s western capital, and it also provides a mechanism to facilitate Participatory Local Governance in administering the affairs of the City.

Establishment of the City Council provides an immediate opportunity to improve service delivery and deepen the process of Participatory Governance. Additionally, there is no better mechanism for providing the learning experience and for trouble-shooting the many teething pains which will arise in establishing full municipal status for Montego Bay, and thus helping to ensure that this major milestone in Local Government Reform will be successfully undertaken.

A City Council is a body appointed by the Local Authority to have direct responsibility for ensuring the proper management and efficient delivery of service to the city for which it has responsibility. Its term of office is co-terminus with that of the elected Local Authority.

The City Council is not about another layer of traditional Local Government Bureaucracy. instead, it provides the opportunity to modernize the overwhelmingly clerical establishment with the technical and administrative capacity needed to transform Local Authorities into efficient and effective vehicles for providing their citizens with an improved quality of life.

At another level, it is about bringing together political representatives, social and economic planners, representatives of civil society, physical planners and service providers to take practical steps to facilitate the increasing demand for from every sector for meaningful involvement in the development of Jamaica.

· Elected Councillors representing divisions which fall within the area designated as a city. These are:

Councillors	Divisions
Heroy Clarke (Chairman)	Montego Bay South East
Noel Donaldson	Montego Bay North East
Calvin Ellison	Montego Bay South
Harold Henry	Rose Hall
Gerard Mitchell	Mount Salem
Trevor Parkinson	Salt Spring
Milton Russell	Montego Bay West
Charles Sinclair, Jr.	Montego Bay Central
Richard Solomone	Spring Garden
Michael Troupe	Granville
Leeroy Williams	Montego Bay North

The composition of the Council is consistent with the principle of participatory Governance, with each member having full voting rights.

The City Council is chaired by a Councillor chosen by members of the Council for the City. With the achievement of full municipality the Chairman of the Council will be the directly elected Mayor.

The staff of the City Council is appointed by the Local Authority after discussions with City Council. This is a small, highly trained and qualified secretariat which is headed by the City Manager.