PRIME Minister Bruce Golding has warned the historic Portmore Municipal Council (PMC) that he will dissolve the body responsible for Jamaica's first directly elected mayor if it continues to break the law.

Golding's threat came as a long-standing row between the Council and the Attorney General's Office, concerning voting by chairmen of committees, appeared to be have reached stalemate.

The prime minister is insisting that persons chairing committees do not have the right to exercise original or casting votes, but that the Council had been allowing the practice, contrary to the law.

Golding was seemingly angered by a meeting of the Finance Committee on February 9, 2010, at which the Council allowed the committee chairman to vote in favour of granting a 50 per cent building fee waiver to a resident.

Minutes of that meeting show that two councillors, the chairman included, voted for the waiver to be granted, two voted against it, and one abstained. The chairman then used his casting vote to break the tie.

In a terse and strongly worded letter addressed to his junior minister in charge of local government, Robert Montague, and copied to Portmore Mayor Keith Hinds, Golding accused the PMC of violating the law.

"I am giving the Portmore Municipal Council two options, if it continues to violate the law as stated in the opinion of the attorney general dated June 24, 2009," the prime minister said in his June 21, 2010 letter.

Option one would see the dissolution of the Council pursuant to section 20 of the Municipalities Act, he said.

That section states that "It shall be lawful for the minister, by order subject to affirmative resolution, to dissolve any Municipal Council which, in the judgment of the minister, (a) persistently makes default in the performance of the duties lawfully imposed upon it; or (b) exceeds or abuses its powers."

For purposes of the Act, Golding is the minister because local government is no longer a self-standing ministry but a department in the Office of the Prime Minister.

The second option as outlined by Golding, is for the PMC to seek advice from the Supreme Court, which Golding presumes will uphold an earlier opinion dispensed by the attorney general's office.

The Council must seek a declaration of the law from the Supreme Court, in defiance of which, if it confirms the opinion of the attorney general's department, would constitute punishment by contempt of court.

Either way, there appears to be no getting off for the municipal council which was established in 2003 as a model in the local government reform process. It is the only council of its kind in the only local government jurisdiction with a directly elected mayor.

In referring to the June 29 opinion of the Attorney General, Golding noted that she had advised the Municipal Council that in the same way that the mayor could not vote, persons chairing committees did not have the right to exercise original or casting votes.

"The Portmore Municipal Council is the parent body and the committees are set up to help it carry out its functions. A parent body cannot give to its subsidiaries any more power than it has... Any individual who presides as chairman of any committee of the council cannot have an original or a casting vote," Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne wrote.

She based her opinion on section 5 (1) (f) of the Municipalities Act which states that subsection 94 (a) of the Parish Councils Act does not apply to the operation of the municipality.

The latter, however, allows chairmen of committees in the 13 parish councils to vote.

Lightbourne's letter came after one dated February 2, 2009 from then director general in the local government department, Devon Rowe. It was addressed to Mayor Hinds in response to a January 19 correspondence seeking clarification on the matter.

Based on the foregoing, committee chairmen or vice chairmen or the person presiding at a committee meeting of the Portmore Municipal Council does not have an original or casting vote, Rowe said.

Documents obtained by the Sunday Observer also show that Rowe wrote to the Council again on January 27 this year, urging it to comply with the law. There have also been letters to the same effect from minister Montague, as well as a previous letter from Golding.

According to minutes from some sittings of the Council, however, the council refused to accept the Attorney General's advice and continued to allow chairmen to vote.

The PM's most recent letter made reference to the general council meeting of May 12, 2010, in which chief administrative manager for the Portmore council, David Parkes called for the matter to be referred to Parliament for review. He also called for an explanation of the Attorney General's opinion.

Yesterday, Parkes declined to comment on the matter but Mayor Hinds confirmed that he had received the PM's letter outlining the two options.

"The PNP councillors have said that they refuse to listen to the opinion of the Attorney General," Hinds said, indicating that he has referred the matter to the Portmore Citizens Advisory Council (PCAC).

"It's important that we have some discussions with the PCAC, because the Portmore Municipal Council was borne out of citizens' agitation and it is unfortunate that we have got to this stage where political expediency has taken precedence...The law of the land must be adhered to. That to me is something that should be easily understood," he insisted.