THE group of Petaling Jaya city councillors that staged a walkout during the full board meeting on Tuesday (May 30) did so to safeguard the city council’s own interest.
In a joint statement by the 19 councillors on Tuesday, they said that the walkout was done to avoid the Petaling Jaya City Council(MBPJ) from committing legal errors that may set a precedent and to take care of the wellbeing of the city dwellers.
The councillors said that they disagreed with Petaling Jaya mayor Datuk Mohamad Azhan Md Amir for disrespecting the legal processes involved in issuing approval for a development project in Lorong Sultan that was discussed in the One Stop Centre meeting on May 17.
In the statement, the 19 said that four councillors and the mayor had sat in that OSC meeting and three of them had stressed the importance of following the legal procedure when discussing the approval for the development.
The three had said that the developer must withdraw its file from the State Appeal Board before it could be considered for approval at the OSC.
It was reported that the OSC had rejected the development proposal in the first instance due to the plot ratio being higher than the city’s permissible limit at the time of consideration and the developer had filed an appeal with the State Appeal Board.
The state had come up with a new guideline on plot ratio recently.
While the matter is still pending at the appeal board, the developer filed another application for approval following the new guideline on plot ratio, which was discussed at that meeting on May 17.
The 19 had said in the statement that the mayor had ignored the views of the three councillors, which also made up the majority during the OSC meeting, and approved the application.
At the full board meeting, when the OSC minutes were read for endorsement, many councillors questioned the manner in which the approval was given.
Mohamad Azhan had said that councillors were not decision-makers at the OSC and were only present to give input on social and political aspects.
The 19 then said that they staged a walkout to show their disapproval for their views being disrespected at the OSC and the mayor’s statement on their power at the OSC that were against the Local Government Act 1976.
The councillors are firm on their stand that any development application must go through the proper processes and be transparent according to the law.
