Councillors begin with an objection

Saturday, 12 July 2008




Councillors begin with an objection
K. Harinderan
(From left) Selayang Municipal Council president Zainal Abidin Azim and his deputy Jamri Basni with the 24 new councillors at the first full board council meeting.

SELAYANG: Many of the new councillors objected to a regulation under the Selayang Municipal Standing Order during a meeting on Thursday.

Councillor Lim Jit Lee says new technology will help waste management.

The regulation that states each committee is to be chaired by the council president was met with objections from the floor .

The members questioned the reasons for the regulation and asked whether there would be a conflict of interest.

This issue was one of the many raised during four-hour full board council meeting at the Selayang Municipal Council.

Held after the swearing-in ceremony at the council headquarters, the panel chaired by council president Zainal Abidin Azim, discussed council procedures, issues faced by residents and functions of the sub-committees.

The 24 councillors were also appointed to eight sub-committees at the meeting:

• Finance
• One-Stop Centre
• Service and Appointment
• Licensing and Development
• Town Services, Traffic and Tourism
• Investment and Privatisation
• Human Development, Sports and Culture
• Tender and Quotation Evaluation

Councillors Datuk A. Rashid Omar, a former Public Works Department director and Tan Hui Chuan, a lawyer, voiced their concerns that the council would only be an endorsement body to decisions made.Zainal Abidin replied that all council proposals by the sub-committees are open to scrutiny.

He went on to explain that the sub-committees would meet at least twice monthly and the full board would sit once monthly.

"This does not mean that decisions by the full board would be final. Councillors can debate the matter and raise objections or submit new proposals," said Zainal Abidin.

Councillor Abdul Rahim Abdul Rahin Abdul Wahab requested that the minutes of sub-committee meetings be given out beforehand so the members have sufficient time to digest the matters before they are tabled at full board meetings.

The other major topics brought up were rubbish disposal, collection of assessment, hygiene of food outlets and the passing of the previous year's board minutes and accounts.

To a question by Tan on the state's grading system for food outlets around Selayang, it was explained that more than 20 outlets have been fined due to non-adherence to council guidelines this year.

Zainal Abidin added that on-going checks based on existing set guidelines would be done on all outlets periodically with the assistance of the State Health Department in light of many complaints and possible health risks.

Upon presentation of the statement of accounts for 2007, Tan sought clarification on why more than a third of the council's expenditure was spent on waste management.Lim Jit Lee added that new technology methods were needed to reduce costs.

The council president explained by saying: "The collection of waste had been privatised. The higher tipping fee charges by disposal sites, wide geographical area covered and rising fuel costs had left them unable to make a profit."

We are looking into better measures to control costs such as a better incinerator and to open new disposal sites which are closer. The present disposal centre is at Bukit Tagar in Selangor," he added.

On the subject of council revenue and expenditure, Zainal Abidin said over 75 per cent of the council revenue is collected from the assessment rates collected twice yearly.

"We have issued 159,427 bills amounting to RM37,553,310 for the first term but collection of the rates always poses a challenge.

In light of this we have called up many commercial property owners to discuss settlements and even offered installment plans. A total of 64,746 notices and 9,383 warrants have been issued to enable the council to collect past dues.

"Councillor Gurdip Kaur @ Rina Pritam Singh, the secretary of the Independent Living and Training Centre in Rawang, brought up the matter of the many illegal stalls operating during school hours in the vicinity of four schools there. She said:

"There have been many complaints of food poisoning from the students and these stalls also pose the threat of hindering traffic flow along the road fronting the schools."

She also called for more handicapped and elderly citizen-friendly pavements and public transportation.

Zainal Abidin, when asked, said the new councillors formed "an enthusiastic panel with experience in many fields who offered many plausible proposal in heeding to the needs of residents here.