BELIZE CITY, Mon. Dec. 10, 2018– Attorneys representing former Belize City Administrator, Candice Miller, and Belize City Mayor Bernard Wagner were called into the chambers of Supreme Court Justice Courtenay Abel this morning, shortly after 10:00 a.m. for a case management hearing.

When the parties emerged from Justice Abel’s chamber, it was disclosed that each party can file up to eight witness statements by February 1, after which there will be a another case management hearing on February 4.

Miller is being represented by attorney Magali Perdomo, while the Belize City Council and Mayor Wagner, who is named as the First Defendant in Miller’s claim, are being represented by attorney Anthony Sylvestre from the law firm of Musa and Balderamos.

Shortly after the Opposition People’s United Party defeated the incumbent United Democratic Party council slate, which had held the reins at City Hall for 12 years, the newly elected Belize City Council suspended City Administrator Miller for one month, with pay.

Miller was subsequently terminated by a vote of the entire council.

Mayor Wagner’s council said it terminated Miller for failure in her fiduciary duty to the council.

Miller, who had inked a new four-year contract with Mayor Darrell Bradley shortly before the March municipal elections, then initiated a wrongful termination lawsuit against the council for $498,135.

Mayor Wagner and the City Council counter-sued Miller for one million dollars, alleging that this was the cost suffered by the council when she, as administrator, had failed to file a defense in a timely manner on behalf of the council in a lawsuit brought against the council by a sanitation company.