AFTER THE June 19 Local Government elections, the country will have to shell out close to $190 million annually to pay incoming councillors and mayors.

This is against the background that councillors, 10 years ago, were taking home a meagre $12,000 per month, plus a travelling allowance of $36 for every meeting they attend. A few years before, they were not even paid a salary. Instead, they were given a stipend to assist with travelling and other miscellaneous activities.

Councillors are currently paid a basic salary of $735,000 annually, up from $476,193 since the last Local Government elections in 1998, and from $369,513 in 1996. In addition, they are given a monthly stipend for travelling and each granted a 20 per cent concession on motor vehicle imports.

Their mayoral counterparts in rural towns are paid an average of $1.2 million annually, plus perks. The mayors of Kingston and Montego Bay are paid more than their colleagues in rural parishes. Those salaries could be increased, depending on whether a salary review committee believes it is warranted at this time.

QUALITY CANDIDATES

Both the People's National Party (PNP), which has control of 169 of the 227 Parish Council divisions islandwide, and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which controls the remaining 58 divisions, have been boasting about the high-calibre candidates they will be fielding in the elections.

"We have a highly qualified group of candidates representing the party," said Maxine Henry-Wilson, the PNP's General Secretary. "As a matter of fact, I think both parties have strong candidates, which probably explains why there is so much interest in the upcoming election."

Olivia 'Babsy' Grange, a Deputy Leader of the JLP, agrees. She said her party's decision to go after "really solid candidates" was simply an attempt to bring "more respectability to the office of the councillor." She added that "we are bringing to the table a higher level of performance, more respectability and integrity."

There are those, however, who see money as the real reason for the interest being shown in running for a Parish Council seat. "It's not my intention to broadbrush anybody," said president of the James Avenue Small Business Association in Ocho Rios, Tan Young. "It, however, would appear that there is a direct link between what councillors are now being paid ­ not to mention the impending increases ­ and the people who are now running for the office. It can't be that all of a sudden everybody wants to serve their country."

QUESTIONABLE INTEREST

Joylan Silvera, the sitting PNP Councillor for the Gayle division in St. Mary, who will not be contesting the upcoming poll, also sees a connection. "It's indeed astonishing the amount of interest that has been shown in this election," she said. "In my case, I was the overwhelming choice of the delegates yet... I was denied the chance to run. The party later resolved the issue but I decided to step down anyway. It's a reasonable question to ask why all this interest. The remuneration package, I suppose, could have a lot to do with it."

St. Mary Member of Parliament, Dr. Neil McGill, taking a cue from Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, who last year said "the hustling mentality" had to be eliminated from Parish Councils, said there has to be more accountability at the local level. "Everybody wants to be mayor but not everybody can," he said.

Victor Cummings, MP for Central Kingston and a former councillor, said that while money has played a role in the calibre of persons now running for a Parish Council seat, that was not the main factor. "I believe people genuinely want to get involved to serve at the local level," he said. "It's a lot of sacrifice. It has to be more than just money."