Mayor Zenaida Moya-Flowers is under fire yet again on allegations from seven of the councilors at City Hall that the Mayor – who a group spokesperson described as “rogue” – has unilaterally vetoed a vote to recall deputy mayor Philip Willoughby, who had narrowly won a vote at a caucus meeting a month ago, on February 16.
The ruling United Democratic Party members, Eric Chang, Leila Peyrefitte, Roger Espejo, Laura Esquivel-Frampton, Dion Leslie, Andrew Faber and Kevin Singh, were unified in their stance when they held a press conference at the Belize City Center’s conference room Wednesday morning, alleging that the Mayor acted illegally.
It’s nothing personal against Willoughby, said the group, contending that their main issue is that the voice of a majority of councilors and the letter of the law were not respected in the process. Espejo told the press that what has transpired was not only disrespectful, but also illegal.
That’s a vocal seven against a muscular four: Mayor Moya-Flowers and councilors Wayne Usher (a veteran in local politics), Dean Samuels and Philip Willoughby, who had assumed the post of deputy to succeed Dion Leslie.
“Man, I feel like there are particular individuals who have a problem with me, you understand. And I will be frank with you, they said you shouldn’t call out names, but I will tell you, I think Laura especially, Leila and even Dion…I think it stems from these individuals. Roger as well, Roger has ambitions. Roger has key ambitions,” Mayor Moya-Flowers told Amandala Thursday.
Amandala is reliably informed that in the February 16 voting, carried out by secret ballot, Philip Willoughby got three votes while Leila Peyrefitte got two votes. One person abstained, and one vote was spoiled. Three councilors, Leslie, Chang and Espejo, were out of the country and one, Esquivel, was on maternity leave when the vote took place.
Now, a group of councilors, including some who had voted and participated in the meeting a month prior, are asking for a recall and revote. Esquivel-Frampton claimed that all 11 councilors were at the meeting on Tuesday and six of them voted for a retraction of the deputy mayor-ship vote, but the Mayor refused to have it recorded. They claim that the Mayor ordered City Administrator Kiran Vanjani to not document it.
The group of seven has now publicly called on the Mayor to have the resolution registered. They say that if she does not, they will take their complaint to the Ministry of Local Government for intervention. If Vanjani refuses to record the Tuesday vote, they could seek to have her fired by resolution, the group indicated.
For her part, though, Moya-Flowers said that the allegations against her by the seven are pure lies. She insisted, in speaking with Amandala today, that she acted legally – contrary to allegations by Laura Esquivel-Frampton that she broke the law.
Citing 2009 Standing Orders of the Council, Moya-Flowers said that the rules require that there are seven people to meet quorum at a meeting, and the majority rule applies, even if some people abstain in the vote.
The group contends that Moya-Flowers has had a habit of acting unilaterally and illegally: “All the conflicts that have come out, have come out because of non-adherence to the law,” said Esquivel-Frampton.
She told Amandala that she has nothing personal against the Mayor, as this has been a “continuous fight ever since” the last term of the UDP council, as former managers and staff of the Council have also come out and spoken against the Mayor’s actions. “Can all these people be crazy?” Esquivel-Frampton questioned.
The group of seven alleges that Mayor Moya-Flowers called the election a month early; however, Moya-Flowers said that she wanted to have it done before her trip to South Africa and Botswana on February 20, so that the appointment could take effect at the start of the financial year, March 1, 2010.
Indicating that a precedent had been set for early meetings, the Mayor also showed us notes from 2007 at which elections were, likewise, called a month early, and no one complained. Esquivel-Frampton said that was because all 11 councilors were present for that vote.
While media reports have indicated that the group of seven stayed behind to cast their vote on the matter on Tuesday, Esquivel-Frampton told us that the only vote that was taken happened at about 6:50 that evening, while the Mayor was still in the conference room. It took a few minutes to sign the resolution and they left, said Esquivel-Frampton.
Calling those claims outright lies, Mayor Moya-Flowers showed our newspaper the surveillance footage, indicating by time codes that the councilors allied with her had left the meeting hall around the same time that the other seven did. (Esquivel-Frampton said she does not know anything of surveillance videos being taken.)
Responding to allegations from the group that she walked out of the meeting in fury, Moya-Flowers said that she only left because a public meeting had been scheduled. After the Tuesday meeting, the group of seven decided to boycott their monthly public meeting, and in the statement presented Wednesday, apologized for the no-show.
There is evidently more beef than the deputy mayor seat stewing in City Hall’s pot of predicaments: “This is about contracts being signed without the knowledge and consent of the Council; the Council’s seal being used (which is against the law) without a resolution of the Council for that Council seal to be used,” Frampton-Esquivel alleged.
They pointed to an MOU (memorandum of understanding) that the Mayor and the City Administrator signed with the Ministry of Natural Resources (Lands) on March 15, even before it went to the Councilors for vetting.
Moya-Flowers told Amandala that the MOU has no financial implications, and she had full authority to sign it. As to the contract for which questions have been raised, she told us, showing us the documentation, that it was an agreement with Hubert Elrington to retain his services for a year for $5,000. The financial controller, Patrick Tillett, authorized the voucher, said Moya-Flowers, which we have separately confirmed. (That contract, we understand, is no longer in effect.)
Moya-Flowers claims she is innocent of the allegations: “The minutes speak for themselves.”
She reiterated her stance that there should be no more council meetings behind closed doors, only public meetings, because she claims that the other councilors are persecuting her.
“If Leila had won this, [public objection] would not have happened,” said Moya-Flowers.
Esquivel-Frampton said she had even told Willoughby that she might have given him her support.
As to the issue of Willoughby’s deputy mayor-ship, Moya-Flowers told us: “Man as far as I [am] concerned, that’s done.”