Micah Goodin, the hot headed PUP politician, has been stripped of his portfolios at the Belize City Council. That basically means that he has been benched by the mayor and his fellow city councilors, even though he was elected to office. He cannot be fired, and will still collect his stipend from the City.
Since the move, things have gotten testy at the Belize City Hall as an outright back and forth has developed between Micah Goodin and Mayor Bernard Wagner. Goodin posted on facebook that the council was being fleeced and the mayor retorted on Wednesday saying that he hoped Goodin would have taken the time off to assess where he is and do some soul searching. He added that Goodin has engaged in a game that is non-productive. Additionally he said that the path Goodin has taken is destructive one for his ambitions as a young politician. What came as a shock is that Wagner stated that, “our story has not been told. I keep those close to my chest and I know where the goods are and I’ll continue to keep those close to my chest and when I’m ready I will use it.”
Those were strong words and tells us that in less than a year being in office the council has apparently not been operating in an above the line manner. For the Mayor to admit that and to refuse to state what is wrong is worrying to say the least.
On Wednesday, February 20, Goodin went to the office of the City Administrator to query whether the Council was able to release funds for a program he was organizing. He attended the City Hall Caucus meeting the previous day, and his program was approved for funding. The issue is that Goodin wanted those funds to be released the following day, and that’s where the friction between him and the City Administrator occurred.
Mayor Bernard Wagner told the media in a press conference, “The council’s accounting procedures require certain requirements to be met prior to funds disbursement. So while these budgets were approved, it was not anticipated that funds were required by for immediate disbursement on Wednesday morning-as was demanded for the inter-office football team. This is what was explained to staff within the councilor’s portfolio. However, this was interpreted as an unwillingness to disburse the funds, which led to Councilor Goodin’s outburst with our city administrator.”
A voice recording of the confrontation outlines that Goodin would not take no for an answer, and neither would he wait until those accounting procedures run its course. He accused the City Administrator of disrespecting his authority as a Councillor, and that she was “targeting” him and his “people”.
As the confrontation progressed, Micah stormed out of the City Administrator’s office angry, a city council staffer allied to the City Administrator confronted him in the stairwell of the City Council’s headquarters. Reports suggest that Goodin was choked in the stairwell, and the voice recording captured raised voices, a heated argument, and Goodin daring this staffer in this verbal confrontation. Mayor Bernard asserted that no physical assault actually happened.
This is not the first time that Goodin has had angry public uproar; however, for this one, he’s being sanctioned by the Mayor and the City Council.
Wagner said, “After gathering the pertinent information, I have taken the following decision with full support of my deputy and all councilors: we will be redistributing the portfolio assigned to councilor Goodin as follows: management information systems will now be assigned to Deputy Arnold; youth and sports will now be assigned to Councilor Ryan Elijio and training and staff development will be reassigned to Councilor Pitts. It is regrettable we have reached this point.”
So, basically Goodin now gets paid as an elected official to do absolutely nothing, since his Council boss, Mayor Wagner, has taken away his portfolio.
Following the announcement, Goodin took to Facebook, and put his party and the City Council on blast.
His post says, “If standing up for my people will result in my public humiliation and degradation, I will still stand up every time. The truth is I was not even supposed to be here. A black barefoot boy from Majestic Alley was to never rise up and fight for the poor and marginalized people of Belize City… If Anthony Mahler did not call Mayor Wagner before we took the oath to office I would have from the onset been without a portfolio as is the case today.”
He then accuses the PUP council of improving the lives only a select few people.
Goodin says, “We campaigned on putting people first but life has only improved for a few special Belizeans. Those that have been awarded private contracts and prestigious positions.
The vast majority of Belizeans remain disenfranchised. The few regular folks who have benefited from this council have been made into street cleaners and security guards,” he said.
