Jamaica-born candidate wins Mount Vernon city council seat

Jamaica-born Jaevon Boxhill has been elected as a member of the Mount Vernon city council.

Boxhill was successful in the democratic primary elections held on June 27, in his first foray into representational politics. His victory in the primary is tantamount to a win in the November general elections in the heavily democratic city.

There will be no republican representative on the new five-member city council when it takes office in January next year.

Boxhill was born in Mandeville, Manchester, but lived in May Pen, Clarendon, before moving with his parents to the United States in 1991 at the age of seven, where they settled in the Bronx before moving to Mount Vernon.

Boxhill is a product of Mount Vernon High School and later studied law at Albany School of Law. He worked as deputy controller of Mount Vernon and later became a senior financial analyst with the Board of Westchester County Legislature.

Boxhill said that he was motivated to enter politics because he sees a need to improve the city's prospects.

“I believe that I can help move the city in the right direction,” he told The Gleaner in a telephone interview.

The new city councilmember acknowledged that the city has urgent issues that need addressing, if the quality of life is to improve for residents.

“We need to expand the tax base of the city to bring in more revenue to provide better services to the citizens. We cannot raise taxes so we have to make a concerted effort to reopen businesses that have closed and to bring more properties onto the tax roll that are not currently on the tax roll because they are empty," he said.

Boxhill acknowledged that with a budget of $140 million the city needs to expand its tax income base.

“There are several services that are operating the way they should to benefit the city, but there are other services that have fallen off,” he said.

Boxhill said that the city's building department has been an area that people have complained about.

“We need to sit with them to find out how best the service can be improved,” he said, pointing out that the building department needs to operate at peak efficiency if the city is to attract new businesses and bring back houses on to the tax roll.

He also sees a need to bring the various communities of Mount Vernon together to work for the benefit of the city as well as to get more young people involved in the affairs of the city.

Boxhill noted that Mount Vernon has a gang and gun violence problem which the city is working hard to overcome.

He also pointed out that the police department has lost a number of officers but he is hopeful that when the new police wage contract is completed the city will be able to attract new recruits.

“The new city council will see a group of young vibrant professionals taking the rein and hopefully this will turn around the fortune of the city as we will be able to bring new ideas and fiscal oversight to the city,” he said.

-Lester Hinds

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.