Vendors of the old Queen Square Market, now temporarily located on the Pound Yard compound on Cemetery Road, are up in arms over a proposal from City Hall to increase rental rates to help in paying the rental to Hotchandani Holdings Limited, managed by Arun Hotchandani, owner of the compound, for a further six months from this month.
A meeting held Tuesday night at the Commercial Center on Market Square between the vendors and officials from the Markets’ Department of the Belize City Council, led by Councilor with responsibility for markets Kevin Singh, quickly turned volatile and hostile as the frustrated vendors traded insults and invective with Councilor Singh and Deputy Mayor Phillip Willoughby, adamant that they would not pay the increase (which the Council calls a “reinstatement”) of the fees.
According to a release from the Council on Wednesday, $21,000 is spent per month on operations at the Temporary Market, while only $6,000 in rental fees is collected from the 77 vendors who operate there. The Council says it cannot continue to make up the difference as it claims it has been doing for some time now.
At the expiration of the rental agreement with Hotchandani Holdings on April 7, two options were presented for renewal: $10,000 per month plus a combination of business collections and tax write-offs for a total value of $25,000; or $6,000 per month plus a combination of business collections and tax write-offs valued at $68,000. The Council’s counter-offer of $10,000 monthly, with no write-offs, was declined.
And so, the Council’s offer to vendors on Tuesday night was dramatically simple: pay the increase, or leave.
According to Councilor Singh, the Council collects $125 per month from each vendor. When he took over the portfolio in 2009, vendors had owed among them some $174,000 in unpaid market rental fees and claimed they were paying too much at a rate of $10/day for a total of $310/month. The Councilor, over the objections of his bosses, arranged with those vendors in arrears to pay $5 a day and establish a cutoff point for payment, but kept the rates the same.
Nevertheless, according to Singh, among the vendors they still owe over $61,000 in unpaid fees in the six months’ existence of the Temporary Market.
But behind the figures is the anguish of the vendors who say they are not seeing their way through and feel that the Council and the Government have let them down, big time.
Tuesday night’s meeting descended into the equivalent of a free-for-all as the vendors vocally made their position clear. It eventually spilled onto the sidewalk near the centre of town, where in front of media cameras, the vendors pleaded their case for the general public.
According to them, the Council had assured that the market would be completed in February. As reported in this newspaper, a delay in the start of Phase 2 of the Michael Finnegan Market due to funding problems has been rectified, and construction is due to begin again by the end of this month, with the contractor promising three to four months maximum for completion.
A number of vendors told media houses on the scene, including Amandala, that they believe the Council and/or Hotchandani do not understand their daily plight and what they are going through. Some Hispanic vendors allege they have been targets of robbery; most say their regular customers are refusing to step into the market on Saturdays, the busiest day, because it is no longer convenient, and so they do not make enough from day to day to even afford to pay $10, much less the new fees.
Some vendors questioned why the Racoon Street Football Field, next to the police station, was not used to house vendors, but according to Councilor Singh, area representative Hon. Michael Finnegan vetoed the proposal.
Singh told Amandala that they will go back to the drawing board with Hotchandani, who has ruled out personally taking over the collections, reportedly because of the unpaid fees.
However, Hotchandani has made it clear to the Council that if he does not get what he requests, the vendors must leave. The Council already owes over $17,000 to Hotchandani for the month since the expiration of the previous contract on April 7th.
A meeting with representatives of the International Development Bank (IDB), Social Investment Fund (SIF), CitCo, and the vendors is tentatively scheduled for next week on the Market compound.