Portmore’s Mayor Calls for Re-Education of Councillors

Portmore’s Mayor, Councillor George Lee, has called for the “re-education” of councillors, as part of the process to improve local governance.
He suggested that, “new councillors should go to school and be tutored in a specially designed course that teaches about governance, management and financial acumen, among other things,” while existing councillors should participate in “refresher courses.”
“For a true local governance system to work, councillors can’t just come in to look about their own narrow partisan mental picture or feel they are just to look about their constituency allocation or about who gets a contract and who doesn’t,” the Mayor said.
He told JIS News, that the move would ensure greater efficiency in the local governance system. “Councillors have to shed their old narrow partisan political image and adopt a new vision of development and governance,” he stated. Mayor Lee said that while some Council members were against the idea, the majority were comfortable with it.
“Change doesn’t come easily and some of us who are committed to that change have to take the lead and fight for that, and I am doing that”, he said.