COUNCILLOR LLOYD Hill, chairman of the Hanover Parish Council, has moved a resolution calling for amendments to the laws relating to sitting councillors who are elected Members of Parliament and who chose to hold both positions simultaneously.
The resolution came after it was noted at the monthly meeting of the Hanover Parish Council on January 9, that two councillors who were elected Members of Parliament on October 16 last year had not attended any Council meetings since the general election.
The Hanover Parish Council was one of several Parish Councils islandwide that had sitting members contesting the general election. Three of seven councillors contested the elections with two of them being successful.
In the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation, Councillor Victor Cummings was elected MP in the general election and his decision to retain both seats still stands although other councillors had criticised the move.
Mr. Cummings said he had been to every Council meeting since the election, and had been serving both areas as best as he could. He said he did not want to leave either seat vacant and the people unrepresented.
The decision of Councillor Hill, who also is Mayor of Lucea, to push for the law, should soothe many councillors who had questioned the logistics of any person holding both positions simultaneously and serving them effectively.
After Mr. Cummings' decision, other KSAC councillors suggested that his election as MP would make him less concerned about Local Government issues. They said he would not have the time to serve both offices. They argued that in the past MPs had forgotten where they were coming from, moving up in Parliament and not lobbying for the resources to support Council projects.
Mayor Hill said the most important aspect of a councillor's responsibility was his attendance at Council meetings and reiterated widely-held views that members could not function properly as councillors and MPs at the same time.
The secretary/manager of the Hanover Parish Council was asked to present formal wording of the resolution to the next general Council meeting which is slated for February. On its presentation then, the resolution, which will call for laws to make it compulsory that councillors who have been elected MPs to resign from the post of councillor, will be circulated to the KSAC and all other Parish Councils for support before being forwarded to Central Government.
