On Wednesday, March 17, seven Belize City Councilors held a press conference in the Conference Room of the Belize City Center to apologize to residents of the city for not attending a public meeting held Tuesday night at Grace Primary School. The councilors said that they did not attend the meeting because of difficulties they have been experiencing with the Mayor
recently. The seven frustrated Councilors are Eric Chang, Roger Espejo, Leila Peyrefite, Laura Esquivel, Deon Leslie, Andrew Faber and Kevin Singh.
According to the Councilors, they sent the Mayor a letter with the signature of seven councilors requesting a Council meeting on March 11th. The Mayor responded on March 10th saying that she would not be able to have a meeting on the 11th but offered an alternative time for March 16th at 2 p.m. A public meeting was also scheduled for March 16th; however, the councilors accepted the offer. They received a copy of the agenda for the caucus on March 15th. Then at 1 p.m. on March 16th, one hour before the caucus, they received a new jam packed agenda. Then again at 2:30 p.m., half an hour after the meeting was supposed to start, they received a third edition of the agenda. Between 2:15 and 3 p.m. the Mayor had been trying to summon two Councilors to her office but these individuals refused. Shortly after, the Councilors were told that there were phone calls for them. They refused to leave the gathering to go answer the calls. Later the Mayor arrived at the meeting, handed her cell phone to one of the Councilors and instructed him to take the call. That individual refused.
The meeting commenced and when it was Esquivel’s turn to speak, she deferred to Dion Leslie. According to the councilors’ statement to the public, he started by reading one of his several resolutions. At this time the Mayor tried to stop him. Leslie continued and the Mayor said that she would not allow a vote and instructed the City Administrator not to record the resolution in the minutes of the meeting. She then stated that she would end the meeting. At this point, Councilor Espejo motioned for the meeting to continue. This was seconded by Dion Leslie and Eric Chang. The Mayor ignored the request, got up, walked out of the meeting and instructed the City Administrator to do the same. Seven Councilors remained after the Mayor walked out. They confirmed their vote and signed Leslie’s resolution.
The resolution was for there to be a revote on the selection of a Deputy Mayor for 2010/2011. The Mayor called a caucus on February 17th at which there was a vote for the new Deputy Mayor. Phillip Willoughby won three of the six votes recorded. One vote was spoilt and four of the Councilors were absent- three were out of the country and Laura Esquivel was on maternity leave. According to Councilor Espejo, not only was the vote unfair, it was illegal. The constitution of the City Council says that a Deputy Mayor is to be selected a day before the present Deputy had served an entire year in the post. Dion Leslie was selected as Deputy Mayor on March 17, 2009. Therefore, the new Deputy was not to be selected until Tuesday, March 16.
The Councilors wanted to be clear that they are not saying that Councilor Willoughby does not have the capacity to be Deputy Mayor; however, the selection should be done in accordance to the laws of the Council.
On the issue, Mayor Moya-Flowers stated that if Leila Peyrefitte had won the vote for Deputy Mayor there would not be an issue. According to the seven Councilors, there is no Deputy Mayor at the moment since the resolution for a revote was signed by seven Councilors. They said that if the Mayor does not adhere to the decision of the Caucus then they will go to the Ministry of Local Government for advice.
