OUSTER LOOMS - PNP caucus plans to boot May Pen mayor, deputy; tackle permits, water

The minority caucus in the Clarendon Municipal Corporation says it will move a no-confidence motion against Mayor of May Pen Joel Williams and his deputy, Clive Mundle, at a special sitting it has requested following a dramatic end to Thursday’s monthly meeting.

Minority Leader Scean Barnswell, the councillor for the Hayes division, has declared that the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) is poised to take over the majority and steer the parish in a new direction.

Barnswell told The Gleaner on Thursday that already, there are plans to restore enforcement on building permits, fix crippling water shortages across 14 divisions, and mend fractured relationships between the council and local members of parliament.

Still, he acknowledged that should the opposition party gain control of the corporation, it would only have just over a year to execute plans before local elections become due by 2028.

“The mayor aborted the meeting, so the process wasn’t completed, but we will be doing so at a special meeting, which we’ve requested,” said Barnwell, referencing an attempt by councillor for the May Pen North division, Tanyalee Williams, to cross the floor and join the PNP caucus.

Verbal clash

That attempt was cut short as soon as Williams announced that she would be switching sides, with the chairman interrupting to indicate that she no longer had the floor.

A verbal clash ensued before the mayor and councillors representing the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) left the meeting.

Had Williams ended her announcement, the 11-11 balance within the municipal corporation would have been broken, shifting power to the PNP caucus, handing it a 12-10 majority.

At the same time, she indicated that she had renounced her JLP membership.

“And then from there, [we] will move to the next matter, which is serving no confidence on both the deputy and the mayor,” Barnswell said.

Calls to Mayor Williams and Mundle’s cell phones went unanswered on Thursday.

The Gleaner was told that the two were locked in a strategic meeting following the shock announcement.

It follows an attempt by the minority caucus in early 2025 to wrest control of the municipal corporation from the JLP following a victory by PNP candidate Delroy Dawes over the JLP’s Suzette Barton in the November 2024 by-election.

That brought the division count to a tie, causing Barnswell to assert that a PNP representative ought to have become mayor by virtue of the popular vote, which the party had won.

However, the Attorney General’s Chambers concluded that the Local Governance Act does not provide for an installed mayor to be ousted automatically because a subsequent by-election results in a tie or shifts the popular vote totals.

Further, it said because Mayor Williams had already been lawfully elected and installed prior to the November 2024 by-election, the tie did not invalidate his incumbency.

Minister of Local Government Desmond McKenzie, citing the legal opinion, stated that an incumbent mayor can only be removed through a formal vote of no confidence or specific statutory procedures once the required timeframes under the law have elapsed.

On Thursday, Barnswell said once there is a change, a different mandate will be carried out.

“We want to restore some semblance, some order of enforcement. We want to restore some enforcement in terms of building permits. Also, to look at the water situation because we have over 13 to 14 divisions adversely being affected by this water distribution situation. So we want to see how best we can maybe look at one or two low-hanging fruit.

“ … We want to build or strengthen the relationship between the MPs from the respective constituencies and the council because there seems to be a division, so we want to build on that,” he said, adding that there are also plans to re-energise the inter-agency network.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com