The Editor, Sir:

News out of the Portmore Municipality suggests that the first meeting was very contemptuous, ending without consensus on the chairing of committees.

I listened to both sides arguing their point in the media. The mayor, on one hand, said that there were six committees and he suggested that the minority Jamaica Labour Party councillors should chair two while the majority People's National Party councillors would chair the other four.

The deputy mayor, on the other hand, contended that the mayor was trying to set precedence with this formation that had never been attempted. The majority were contending that, as is the norm, they should chair all the committees of the council.

When the discussion was over, what came from it was that the Portmore Municipal mayor and councillors had got the opportunity to showcase to the rest of Jamaica how members of a council can work together for the good of their community, setting aside partisan politics, and they threw away the opportunity.

A first

I believe that this is the first time in Jamaica that a mayor is from the minority and the cooperation should be such that it could be used as the 'text-book case' for future occurrences.

I must declare that I have no clue on the running of a council or the by-laws that govern the operation, but, as a lay person, the issue is that the mayor's request to have his minority councillors chair two of the six committees could never be seen as being unfair or undemocratic.

Additionally, I have a funda-mental difficulty with persons who believe that 'if it's not broke, don't fix it'. In an era of global dynamism, we must embrace change for the greater good.

The members of the coun-cil/municipality must move with alacrity to remedy any ill-conceived perception by the populace that they place party politics above the needs of the people of Portmore.

I am, etc.,

PAT BIGNALL

wilbig@cwjamaica.com