MONTEGO BAY, St James — An aggressive enforcement campaign targeting unpaid advertising fees has yielded tangible results for the St James Municipal Corporation, with the local authority recovering just over $8 million in delinquent payments over a recent four-day period.
Richard Vernon, chairman of the corporation and Mayor of Montego Bay, confirmed to Jamaica Observer on Thursday that collections between Friday evening and the following Monday totalled $8,150,861.00. This successful haul cuts the original total outstanding balance of $16,308,620.50 nearly in half, leaving just $8,157,759.50 still owed by non-compliant advertisers.
The push for payment gained public attention last week, when the municipal corporation draped large branded banners over dozens of delinquent billboards across Montego Bay, drastically reducing the advertising exposure for companies and individuals that had fallen behind on their required fees.
While Vernon welcomed the early progress from the campaign, he made clear that enforcement efforts will not slow until every outstanding balance is cleared. To date, the remaining non-paying advertisers have not reached out to the corporation to address their arrears, so officials are shifting to direct outreach via phone and email to secure payment.
“Until full compliance is achieved, the enforcement measures currently in place will be maintained,” Vernon emphasized in his statement.
This is not the first time the local authority has had to implement strict collection measures. Declining revenue has repeatedly put pressure on the corporation’s ability to fund core municipal operations, forcing decisive intervention when delinquent payments grow to unsustainable levels.
“We have a city to run, and running a city requires adequate and reliable funding. Our resources are already stretched, and whenever there is a fallout in revenue we must intensify compliance activities to protect the city’s ability to function effectively,” the mayor explained. “Outstanding advertising payments are a revenue matter, and when arrears grow to a level that threatens service delivery we must intervene decisively.”
Moving forward, the corporation plans to implement more proactive account monitoring and will adjust payment terms for advertisers where appropriate, with all affected entities set to receive formal notification of the updated, stricter policies. Vernon stressed that the enhanced collection efforts are rooted in core principles of fairness and accountability, ensuring that every business that benefits from using public advertising space meets its financial obligations to the residents of Montego Bay.
The push to recover delinquent revenue and restore public order is not isolated to St James. Municipalities across Jamaica have rolled out similar compliance campaigns in recent months. Between January and March 2024, the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation first offered advertisers a window to resolve unpaid fee backlogs and remove illegally placed signage, before progressing to legal action and physical removal of non-compliant structures.
Beyond advertising fee collections, local governments across the island have also ramped up enforcement around property tax collection and unpermitted construction. In St James and Trelawny, authorities have cracked down on property owners that have launched construction projects without securing required approval from or paying the mandatory fees to local municipal bodies.
This coordinated nationwide push reflects growing pressure on local authorities to shore up revenue streams to maintain consistent public service delivery across Jamaica.