New push to solve council office row

By MOHAMMED AL A'LI
COUNCILLORS are to meet today over an apparent split over calls to move out of their cramped headquarters. Manama Municipal chairman Majeed Millad Al Jazeeri says he is backing the push and that colleagues who believed otherwise had misunderstood him.
He says a move would take at least a year to be complete, thus his decision to install partitions, to create temporary offices for councillors.
The seven councillors want to move to other premises because four of them are stuck in one office, while three are without desks, more than a month after being elected.
Council technical committee chairman Al Wefaq's Abdulmajeed Al Sebea'a is already refusing to use the council headquarters, saying there is no room for him.
He is operating out of his original office as an engineer in a major engineering consulting firm and will soon rent his own office for council work.
Mr Al Sebea'a is attending general-secretariat, council and committee meetings at the council headquarters, and then going back to his original workplace.
The chairman and his secretary and the secretary-general, have their own separate offices in the council premises.
There are two offices for clerks and one office with four tables, divided amongst the seven remaining councillors.
The council and the Municipalities and Agriculture Affairs Ministry are in one premises and the Manama Municipality is in a building adjacent to it.
Mr Al Jazeeri says that the decision to stay was that of former council chairman Murthada Bader. "The problem is councillors didn't listen to my plans on the move and they think that I am pushing for a stay," he said.
He is planning to sit with the seven councillors today to explain his plans for the move and clarify the misunderstanding that he was against it.
Mr Al Jazeeri said he had been unable to have long meetings with councillors since going to Haj last month and then being taken into hospital two days after coming back, in addition to the death of his brother last week. He said he had been going to the council to clear pending requests, but had been unable to sit with other councillors, to discuss any major issue.
Mr Al Sebea'a said that the move would take two months at most, since the budget had already been promised by the ministry. He said that the idea of partitioning the hall was bad.
"There are offices for council employees already set up in the meeting hall, which is also being used by the ministry and municipality for their meetings," said Mr Al Sebea'a.
"It is very noisy, since it has two doors and people pass through it all the time.
"There is no control over who enters that hall and to take a decision on any issue, someone needs quiet and not disruption."
Mr Al Sebea'a believes that it would be unnecessary to hire new drivers or other employees if the council moved to other premises, since messages could be sent through the government electronic system.
"Other councils, which are far away from the area's municipality, don't face difficulties getting their mail delivered every day. I don't think we would face any trouble doing so, since both are in the same governorate," said Mr Sebea'a."
He said that councillors haven't sat with Mr Al Jazeeri since the death of his brother, but would do so during the week.
"It is still unclear what he wants to do, but six out of seven, who were present during our meeting last week want to move and the chairman knows that, but we are yet to listen to him."
Councillors Sadiq Rahma and Khamees Al Rumaihi are the other two with no desks.