Mr Swaby’s opportunity

ANDREW SWABY’S pledge to run an open, transparent and inclusive local government in the joint administrative region of Kingston and St Andrew has a welcome, if familiar, ring to it. It is what new government leaders tend to say, having displaced their opponents.

In this case, however, Mr Swaby has the circumstance which should incentivise such an approach to governance.

First, it was a key campaign pledge, asserted in the manifesto, of his People’s National Party (PNP) for last month’s municipal elections. But as chairman of the council of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC), the island’s most influential local authority, Mr Swaby will preside over an evenly divided body (both parties have 20 members each) where his casting vote may be necessary to break ties. He got the job, displacing the Jamaica Labour Party’s Delroy Williams, and the designation of mayor of Kingston, because his party won the popular vote in the elections.

“This KSAMC administration is committed to transparency and believes in open, unbiased dialogue with all stakeholders, ”Swaby said at his swearing-in. “As a local authority, we have an obligation to the people we serve, to account to them for the way we spend their resources, and to ensure it is for their benefit.”

Indeed, in the existing circumstances, Swaby and the PNP can expect their actions to be under closer scrutiny than their counterparts at other municipal councils. Further, it is this newspaper’s sense that this could be a final shot for the local government system before Jamaicans, less than 30 per cent of whom voted in the elections, give up on it. Citizens expect better delivery of the services that are the remit of the municipal authorities, as well as a clear acceptance of ownership of their responsibilities by their local representatives, especially the leaders of the councils.

Put another way, people expect a new assertiveness from local authorities, instead of their passive sublimation to central government and of local representatives performing as factotums of the members of parliament on their side in whose constituencies their divisions lie.

In this regard, Mr Swaby’s promise to follow his party’s directive that councils under its leadership hold quarterly press conferences to account for their activities, as well as undertaking to, over the next three months, meet with business and other stakeholder groups to hear their priorities is a positive development.

PUBLICLY ENGAGE CITIZENS

These are positive developments. But there is much more that Mr Swaby must do now if he and his party are serious about transparency and open and inclusive government. He should start by just following the law.

The Jamaican Government’s new fiscal year begins on April 1. On Tuesday, the finance minister, Nigel Clarke, outlined his spending priorities in the parliamentary debate for the J$1.3-trillion Budget for 2024-25.

By last October, each municipal council should have provided the local government minister with their budgets and strategic plans for the year. That information would feed into Dr Clarke’s national Budget.

Importantly, the law says that each municipal corporation should publicly engage its citizens on its strategic plan ahead of its submission to the local government minister. If that happened in the case of the KSAMC, or, for that matter, any other council, these would have been rather muted, almost secret affairs. Few citizens knew about them.

In that regard, Mr Swaby should cause both the KSAMC budget and strategy document, if one was prepared, to be immediately posted on the corporation’s website and published in the press. Further, even at this stage, town hall meetings, such as proposed by Mr Swaby, should be held across the municipality to discuss the budget and accompanying strategic plan. These must not be perfunctory affairs.

Additionally, the Local Governance Act allows the appointment of non-elected members, with appropriate skills, to the committees of the municipal authorities, including two standing committees, the finance committee and the local public accounts committee (LPAC). With respect to the LPACs, which are to review the integrity with which the councils manage their affairs, the chairman, by law, is to be an independent, nonelected member.

REACTIVATE TECHNICAL COMMITTEES

If these rules have been followed by the councils, it has been largely without enthusiasm or significant citizen participation. That must change, and Mr Swaby has an opportunity to lead the charge. He should reactivate or establish all of the relevant technical committees of the KSAMC and, where allowed, nominate independent, nonelected members to them. The list of these committees, with the names of their members and their terms of reference, should be posted on the KSAMC’s website and otherwise published.

The law, on its face, requires that municipal councils meet formally at least once monthly, but the chairman can, at any time, with specific notice, convene meetings at other than that standing session.

A monthly meeting of the councils, especially the KSAMC’s, is too infrequent, given the size and complexity of the municipality and the amount of work. The law, in our view, is amenable to a more expansive interpretation with regard to the holding of full council meetings, which should take place at least fortnightly. Which is what Mr Swaby should do.

Andrew Swaby has an opportunity to be a transformative leader and to set the pace and direction of the other corporations. That is if he did not just utter words.

The opinions on this page, except for The Editorial, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Gleaner.