BELMOPAN, Fri. Aug. 12, 2022

Chairman of the People’s United Party, Hon. Henry Charles Usher, mediated a meeting between the members of the Belmopan City Council and the area representative for the municipality, Hon. Oscar Mira, to address the infighting that has been ongoing within the council.

Last week we reported on the apparent tension which seemed to be reaching a boiling point inside the Belmopan CitCo — the most recent source of contention being a release issued by the office of the mayor that named councilor Pauline Soberanis-Tillett as deputy mayor, without a vote among council members. Tillett subsequently declined the appointment following the issuance of an unsigned press release, seemingly by some councilors. Belmopan mayor, Madam Sharon Palacio, and all the councilors, two of whom joined via Zoom, were present at Friday’s intervention and, according to reports, have mended fences in order to move forward with the work of the people of Belmopan.

“The Belmopan City Council was elected by the people of Belmopan to serve the residents of Belmopan. They were elected by a big majority; they were elected as a team, and they continue to work as a team. They have pledged today to continue that work, and they will make sure that the residents of Belmopan receive the absolute best service working together with the area representative for Belmopan,” the PUP chairman said.

While he gave reassurances of a sound working relationship going forward, he explained that the release issued by the office of the mayor on the appointment of a deputy mayor was “jumping the gun”.

“In March of this year, councilor Darren Swasey was elected by the council, by his colleagues to be the Deputy Mayor. At that meeting it was also decided that there would be a rotation so that everyone would have a chance to be the deputy mayor of Belmopan. Of course, before the next person is selected, there had to be a meeting to make that selection. This meeting did not happen in time, and so that press release went out – really it was jumping the gun a little bit in terms of who would be the next Deputy Mayor of Belmopan,” Usher stated.

A caucus meeting is to be held on August 31. Such meetings are usually scheduled to take place on the last Wednesday of the month, but the tension within the council has caused significant time to pass by since a meeting was last convened. Usher informed that until such a meeting is held, and a vote is carried out for a new person to hold the post of deputy mayor, councilor Darren Swasey will remain in the post.

Following the issuance of the release by Mayor Palacio, some councilors took to social media to criticize the move, and in the process placed internal council matters in the public domain. The PUP Chairman said this behavior is not condoned.

“We want to be very clear that the party does not condone this type of behavior coming out, these negative comments, the negative post being put out there when really what should be done is that you have a proper meeting inside,” the PUP chairman said.

For Mayor Palacio’s part, she said that with a consultative approach, opinions will necessarily clash.

She said, “Today, was a very good example of the usage of the consultative approach, whereby you can see us here today and opinions clash, definitely, but we come out with a unified approach. The people of Belmopan elected us for a reason, and we don’t have a lot of time remaining, so the bottom-line is, from here onward, we will ensure that the people of Belmopan get exactly what they deserved.”

The current deputy mayor, Swasey, was also at the head table and said, “While we will never stop having disagreements, we will never agree on every single thing, today we have found a unity of purpose, as is one of the tenets of the People’s United Party, and we will move forward.”

The intention of the council is to have all councilors get a chance to serve as deputy mayor, as was agreed in the March election. This is a first according to Usher, and is being seen as a progressive step.

He said, however, “But also thedecision has to be made by the council as to who that person will be, and even if there is a change in portfolios and so on, that’s done at the caucus level.”

Area representative for Belmopan, Hon. Oscar Mira, in his contribution from the head table, noted that while the council and his constituency office have separate mandates, they both work for the people of Belmopan.

Mira said, “I will continue working with the Belmopan City Council. As it is said before, we might have differences in priority, but at the end of the day it is for us to find common ground and work towards serving the people of Belmopan.”

Mayor Palacio is still confident that the team will be able to achieve the goals they promised to the voters of Belmopan.

“The goals that we set out to accomplish will be accomplished, and all of you, everybody, the entire country, the entire Belmopan, the entire world need to understand that we as a council inherited garbage; everything was in a disarray,” she said.