Mary Broh goes to Capitol Hill

By: ralph geeplay

This week, Mary Broh, the hot tempered Monrovia City Mayor was on Capitol Hill, in Liberia’s capital of Monrovia to face the Liberian Assembly over parking fees her city council introduced last year. Liberian law makers were not impressed, with one of the newly elected representatives declaring that his sister was losing money to her business, because she was paying too much money for parking fees.

Thomas Koom fumed to Broh, that his “sister pays L$500.00 daily, when the L$50.00 she pays per hour is multiplied by ten hours (8:00am-6:00pm) for parking her car in front of the shop she rents in central Monrovia, totaling more than US$150 monthly when she hardly nets US$150 monthly” from her business, said Koom. Representative Steve Carven also chimed in, declaring that citizens would end up paying more for parking tickets annually than the worth of their cars. “The fact that John Brown has a used car he bought for US$1,000 does not mean he should spend US$1,800 yearly just on parking fees.”

Mary Broh and her city council last year contracted the City Park Management (CPM), part owned by Ms. Barku Tubman, an enterprising Liberian entrepreneur and entertainment impresario to collect 50.00 dollars, per hour at strategic streets within the city center. The fees amount to 75 cents (U.S.). Broh also told the House, that the fees were approved by her City Corporation Management based on proposal to regulate traffic and introduce the ticket parking system to Monrovia. This she said, has employed youths. 10 percent of the fees are given the Ministry of Public Works for street maintenance, while about 18 percent are retained by  city hall. While Broh has won plaudits in the discharge of her duties as mayor for her no none sense approach to cleaning the city and instituting city ordinances, she has been criticized in other quarters for her hard handed approach as she seeks to carry out her functions.  She also is a really good friend of President Sirleaf.

Reports say, representatives questioning Madame Broh were unenthusiastic about the venture, because she failed to tell them how she arrived at the fees. They therefore suspended the collection thereof for two weeks pending investigation into the matter. 

According to the press bureau at the Liberian Assembly, Liberian law makers drew their powers to suspend the ticket fees based on article 34 of the Liberian constitution, which amongst others gave them the powers to levied and imposed taxes. A released from its public relations cafeteria said“The imposition of taxes and duties, as it is in the case of the parking fees, remains a constitutional responsibility of the Legislature as enshrined in Article 34 (d) of the Liberian constitution.”  But critics charged that the assembly was overstepping its bounds, since, article 34 refers to taxes and levies at the national and not municipal levels. The Executive Mansion  took notice, and the presidency responded immediately to the first branch of government.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf still basking in re-election victory and to her credit an adherent to the separation of powers heretofore  in Liberia's 1986 constitution during her first term of office, in less than 24 hours ignored the decision of the House plenary, the highest decision making body in the Liberian House of Representatives. Her presidential spokesman, Jerelinmick Piah said the president was revoking the decision and that she had spoken to the speaker of the house Alex Tyler, before adding “the president simply informed the speaker that she has reversed the decision and it was not intended for him and his colleagues to agree.” Piah might have misspoken, the Liberian president cannot reverse the decision of the legislature in the absence of a veto. A veto would constitute a binding resolution from the both houses in the Liberian assembly and sent to the president's desk, in which case this wasn't.Sirleaf, observers say must have consulted her top legal advisers stringently before making the move. Some Liberian legislators in instances have been accused as a confused bunch and not adequately aware of the laws with which they are expected to have mastery, say pundits.

With an estimated population of 1.2 million inhabitants, Monrovia is an over congested city, observers say. The traffic congestion is beyond imaginable proportions and parking in the city, especially the city center needs regulation to control traffic. Parking in the city center the world over is a comfort, some have said. “Parking where you want in most cities is a luxury. The entire city is not a fee parking zone. If you need to park right in front of your office all day you pay. Otherwise, you park in a free parking zone and walk to your point of work. The free parking zone is within city limits and a reasonable walking zone,” said Henry Jones, an online poster who added his voice to the current debate about the city parking fees currently under review in Monrovia.

The ticket parking wars between the city government, the legislature and the presidency, highlights Liberia emergence from war to peace, and the often conflicting misuse of powers by officials of government in the post war nation. The over lapping of political powers or the confusion thereof, has been eminent between the three branches of government, according to those who watched governmental affairs in the West African state. Within minutes of the president's decision, Mary Broh and her parking attendants were back in the streets enforcing the parking regulation, a move the Liberian House of Representative said was "regrettable."