Portmore council meeting cancelled due to lack of quorum

Ruddy Mathison/Gleaner Writer

The minority leader of the Portmore Municipal Corporation, Courtney Edwards, has blasted councillors who failed to show up for the first general council meeting for the year, forcing a cancellation of the sitting.

Edwards also disclosed that no committee meetings have been held this month because of the absence of councillors from the eight scheduled committee meetings.

Deputy mayor Alric Campbell, who was down to preside in the absence of mayor Leon Thomas, announced the cancellation of the meeting at 8:00 p.m. when it was clear that he would not have the required five councillors that constitute the quorum for the scheduled 7:00 p.m. start of the meeting.

Council meeting are held on Wednesday nights.

The Portmore municipality currently has 12 councillors representing the 12 municipal divisions.

Except for the mayor who is directly elected by residents, all the councillors caucus with the St Catherine Municipal Corporation.

The cancellation of last night's meeting did not sit well with the minority leader, who represents the Independence City division, describing the councillors' absence as a slap in the face.

“We are representatives of the people and at the end of the day, here we are trying to get a quorum and can't, without any prior communication, move forward,” Edwards said.

He added, “As a matter of fact all eight committee meetings fell through this month, it's not looking good and if we are representing the people we must endeavour to be present at meetings to do the will of the people or send timely apologies if we are going to be absent.”

Edwards noted that committee meetings are important to the running of the council, in that, they allow for decisions to be taken outside of the general council, and he fears that these decisions will be taken unilaterally.

Campbell, Bridgeport division councillor Kenard Grant, Vanrick Preddie, who represents the Helshire division, and Edwards were the four councillors present for the meeting.

The minority leader said he plans to speak on the situation at the next general meeting scheduled for February 9.

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