What ex-campaign manager for the United Democratic Party (UDP), Karim “Kreamy” Berges thought was going to be a straightforward process in getting a license to sell liquor at his new business lounge at 48 Baymen Avenue, Belize City, has turned out to be quite a public quarrel among heavyweights inside the UDP camp.
The drama has unfolded over the course of the last week as a public spectacle over what some say should have been no news at all—except that Berges, whose license Government overturned without giving him a chance to defend his case, has threatened to sue, claiming a denial of due process.
The latest development is that on the heels of the Berges controversy, a high ranking official within Cabinet has asked the chairman of the Belize District Liquor Licensing Board, Wilmot Simmons, a UDP himself, to resign forthwith.
Simmons said that he received the call on Tuesday, telling him to resign by the following morning. He told our newspaper, though, that he will not step down.
According to Acting Prime Minister Patrick Faber, the call for Simmons’s resignation did not come from Cabinet. Our understanding from Faber is that the Minister in question, not being the minister responsible for the board, did not have the authority to make that demand of Simmons.
Sylvia Perdomo, the daughter of Minister of National Security and Caribbean Shores area representative, Carlos Perdomo, joined by area resident and florist, Soli Arguelles, a UDP supporter, teamed up in collecting 100 signatures in a petition against Berges’s liquor license.
When Berges’s application went to the board for consideration, the two women made their case, but the liquor licensing board nonetheless granted the license to Berges, saying that the board is satisfied that the type of business would not result in lewd conduct and is unlikely to create a nuisance to neighbors.
According to Berges, he canvassed thirty immediate neighbors who signed in support of his business, after an open house, including some who had signed the previous petition against it. Arguelles, too, attended an open house, on Berges’s invitation, but is sticking to her stance.
“It’s lovely. This is a good idea, Kreamy, but you don’t need liquor,” Arguelles said she told him.
“High-end, low-end, anytime you are going to sell liquor, it’s a nuisance…” she commented.
Arguelles said it is not politics and it’s not because they don’t like Kreamy: “I just want to protect my hood.”
From a personal stand point, she said that the noise is just too much for her to deal with, on top of her rheumatoid arthritis pain.
According to Arguelles, Minister Perdomo was supposed to attend the board meeting to make a case for his wife, Michelle, who, she said, cannot handle the neighborhood nuisances because she is going blind from a drawn-out battle with diabetes, but he could not attend that meeting.
On Thursday, May 13, 2010, the Belize District Liquor Licensing Board approved a Publican Special Liquor License for Berges.
However, two days prior, Perdomo had reportedly taken his objection to Cabinet, which had decided to support the petition against the license.
On Friday, therefore, the Ministry of Local Government, headed by Hon. Gabriel Martinez, revoked the license.
Darrell Bradley, attorney for the liquor licensing board, wrote Director of Local Government, Eugene Palacio, saying that if the Minister did not withdraw his decision by the close of business Monday, May 17, the board would go to the Supreme Court for judicial review, claiming that the Ministry did not follow due process in hearing the parties before rescinding the license.
It so turns out that on Tuesday, May 18, the Ministry wrote Berges a letter informing him that it had taken back its decision; but would proceed at 2:00 p.m. next Wednesday, May 26, to hold a hearing at the Biltmore Plaza in Belize City.
In a late evening press release today, the Ministry of Local Government says it views “…any stated intention of a law suit against it as unfounded and unjustifiable.”
While it claims that Berges had received the notification of the hearing and the reinstatement of his license on May 18, Berges told us that at press time this evening, he had still not gotten the letter, addressed to him, but had secured a copy through the office of Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya, to whom it was carbon copied.
Arguelles told Amandala that she and others in the community have been frustrated with the nightspots in the neighborhood, listing Thirsty Thursday and the MJ’s Grand parties as reasons why she and other area residents find it so hard to sleep at nights.
She also expressed concern over the multi-story building being erected in front of the BTL Park, and says that while there are rumors that it will be another casino on the Princess Margaret Drive block, no one wants to go on record to tell her exactly what is going on there.
“We have no notion what’s going on there. Nobody is telling us anything. No matter who you ask, they don’t know. They said to us it is a hotel, not a casino,” said Arguelles.
When their petition before the Liquor Licensing Board failed, she said, they decided to take the matter to Local Government, after being advised that that ministry has the power to rescind liquor licenses based on community petitions.
“Maybe we can teach people on Euphrates and other places how to do things, because they don’t know,” she said, pointing to a scenario around the King Street area where there are Chinese grocers that sell liquor right around the block.
Defending his investment, Berges insists that he has followed due process in seeking his documentation, and he is confused over the subsequent turn of events. He told our newspaper that he has undertaken to fight the Ministry of Local Government’s decision on the matter of principle, and he was neither expecting nor demanding any favors from the party he still allies himself with, and of which he was a major player.
As to the hearing next week Wednesday, Berges says he is “uncomfortable.” He had planned to open his business lounge this Sovereign’s Day weekend, but does not yet know whether he should proceed.
He said that he still wants to put the matter to judicial review, but will yield to the advice of his attorney, Michael Peyrefitte. Because Peyrefitte is out of the country, said Berges, Hubert Elrington would initiate the process if he will proceed.
For her part, Arguelles tells Amandala that she does intend to attend that hearing: “My mother once told me, once you put your foot in the saddle, you have to take all the gallops…”
She said she hopes community residents don’t get intimated and not show up. “We’re gonna continue fighting.”
In their petition to the liquor licensing board, the petitioners agreed that there are three schools and a church in the vicinity that are a concern, and even as the matter brews, four small establishments are already licensed to sell liquor nearby, aside from the Princess and the MJ’s Club (which they claim would be reopened soon), and activities at BTL Park, which sometimes involve drinking.
For his part, Berges said that while there is a bar area at his establishment, it is designed for people who want a place to conduct business meeting and conferences in a relaxing environment.
“Liquor is not my main thing,” said Berges.
Berges’s license is reinstated effective Tuesday, but only pending the outcome of the hearing on Wednesday, May 26.