On March 1, 2006, Mayor Zenaida Moya was duly elected Mayor of Belize City. Mayor Moya won with 64.46% of the 18,931 votes cast for the three mayoral candidates.
On February 7, 2008, almost two years later, Hon. Anthony Boothes Martinez was duly elected to the House of Representatives of Belize as Area Representative for Port Loyola; Port Loyola being one of ten electoral divisions within Belize City. Area Representative Martinez won with 75.1% of the 2,632 votes cast for the three candidates who contested that election for Area Representative.
In addition to being one of 44 law makers in the National Assembly of Belize, Hon. Martinez was appointed Minister of Works in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Barrow. The Cabinet is the Executive instrument of policy with direct responsibility to the National Assembly – -.
Belizeans, the duties of the Belize City Council, under the stewardship of the Mayor of Belize City, include the following: doing all such other things or matters for the purpose of increasing the convenience and amenity of Belize City; and to construct, repair, alter, widen, lay out and make surveys for streets in Belize City, especially in new residential or commercial areas.
As a consequence, there is a joint Belize City Council/Central Government street rehabilitation project being undertaken in downtown Belize City. It was therefore very revealing to hear Hon. Boothes Martinez, an elected lawmaker in the National Assembly, speaking as Minister of Works in the Cabinet of PM Barrow, make the following comment to Jules Vasquez C7 TV on July 31:
“Jules, two weeks ago, our project execution unit has taken away this project. We have written City Council and say it is our turn to come in and finish; we will ask you to step aside, basically, and we will keep you informed. You are a part of the team, but we will be taking over the physical work. We gave City Council, the Mayor, a copy of the plan; we keep her updated on the work, and so we are taking over now.
“The sidewalk portion, we’ve already given the contract. They’re already beginning to work. We will have a special contractor that will be maintaining until the hot mix portion is ready to go in. It is here now, and it is here physically now, so people can rest assure it is on the table now; not only talking to be on the table, it is on the table now, and Albert and Regent Streets will be ready by the September celebrations.
“We need to put this to rest, and that’s why it is very important, this interview, so we can put it to rest. What happened that we knew, I think the initial foul-up was the time frame given by Belize City, who were not conscious of the amount of work that needed to be done for the preparation. So I have to be honest as I could; we stepped in just right in time. As a matter of fact, some of the works that should have been supervised by the City Council was, in my view, carelessly done; but, nevertheless, for us to put hot mix, we need to make sure that all the ground is solid and everything is prepared for it.”
Belizeans, would Hon. Martinez, as a lawmaker in the National Assembly of Belize, inform the rest of us under which law is the Minister of Works empowered to act the way he has done?