Barnswell seeks legal advice over Clarendon chairmanship dispute
McKenzie says law sides with Williams to continue as chair of the municipal corporation
Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 9:26 AMKimone Francis/Senior Staff Reporter
People’s National Party (PNP) Councillor for the Hayes division, Scean Barnswell, says the opposition caucus in the Clarendon Municipal Corporation is taking legal advice amid an announcement by Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie that Mayor Joel Williams rightfully occupies the chairman’s seat.
Yesterday, Barnwell told The Gleaner that discussions with attorneys at Knight, Junor and Samuels law firm are ongoing following McKenzie’s pronouncements at a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.
McKenzie told journalists that the Government’s chief legal advisors, the attorney general and the solicitor general, have concluded that Williams, the mayor of May Pen, rightfully occupies the position amid an impasse over the chairmanship of the corporation.
This stalemate follows November’s by-election in the Aenon Town division, which the PNP won, resulting in a tie with the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in the 22-division municipal corporation.
The PNP also won the popular vote and has, since that time, insisted that the chairmanship should be handed to them, a move which would see Barnswell, the considered minority leader, occupying the post.
But McKenzie said while PNP councillors in the municipal corporation have been pushing to have Williams removed, “based on the law, what they are asking for is not allowed”.
McKenzie said Attorney General Dr Derrick McKoy and Solicitor General Marlene Aldred have both advised that Clause 32 of the Local Governance Act clearly lays out what happens when a tie occurs after a by-election.
He quoted from their letter, stating, “Where there is a tie in the political representation following a by-election, the person who occupied the chair as chairperson before the by-election remains as the chairperson after the by-election.
“Additionally, Clause 19 of the Act states that the tenure of the chairperson of a municipal corporation lasts from one local government election to the next. The only way in which that chairperson can be removed between islandwide local government elections is if there is a no-confidence motion, supported by the majority of all councillors in the municipality, no sooner than 12 months after the date of the last local government election.”
McKenzie said the advice means that Williams remains the chairman of the corporation, while Clive Mundell remains the deputy mayor.
“With the legal position being clearly expressed, I’m expecting that the outburst and the disruption of the Clarendon Municipal Corporation will come to an end and that the needs of the people in their respective divisions will occupy the attention of all the councillors,” he said, noting that he was disappointed about the manner in which the dispute has unfolded.
NO LONGER A MINORITY CAUCUS
But Barnswell said the PNP’s agitation is not solely for the removal of Williams as mayor but for chairmanship of some of the committees of the municipal corporation.
He asserted that there is no longer a minority caucus.
“We are asking that the committees chaired by the JLP and the deputy chairman, also controlled by the JLP, we’re asking for those committees to be revisited. We’re asking for the composition of these subcommittees to be revisited and we’re also asking for the signatory for the accounts of the council to also be revisited,” said Barnswell.
“We’re not just asking for a change of leadership; we’re going beyond that because there is no more minority and I don’t think that we need to sit one side and allow the JLP to sit at the decision-making table. We need to have our voices heard there.”
In November, former Director of Elections Orrette Fisher said that there should be no change in the mayorship of the Clarendon Municipal Corporation, based on the Local Governance Act.
The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) has remained silent on the matter and declined to comment when contacted by The Gleaner at the time.
Section 19 (1) of the Local Governance Act 2016 states: “The term of tenure of mayor and office of the chairperson of the council of a municipal corporation or city municipality shall, unless sooner determined in accordance with Section 16, expire on the conclusion of the next general election of councillors, but that chairperson shall continue in office until the successor in the office has accepted office and made and subscribed the required declaration.”
Section 16 (1) speaks to the condition in which a sitting mayor can be removed from office. That condition is through a vote of no-confidence.
It states that “a person elected chairperson of a local authority may be removed from office as chairperson after the expiry of twelve months from the date of that election on a motion supported by a majority of all the members of the council of the local authority in such manner and form as may be prescribed”.
Yesterday, McKenzie suggested that a no-confidence vote after February 26 is unlikely to succeed in removing Williams.
“If, after the one year, there is a vote of no-confidence against the mayor, it means that all the councillors will have the right to vote, and, interestingly, the mayor who sits as the chairman, has the right to a vote, but he also has the right to the casting vote. So that in itself answers the question,” McKenzie stated.
“So, if there comes a time when there is a vote of no-confidence, nobody would expect that the person who the vote of no-confidence is raised against will vote against himself.”