Yolanda Schakron Says Mayor Bradley is Incompetent

Yolanda Schakron

The Belize City Council has received financial assistance from Central Government, to the tune of millions of dollars to bail out city hall for B.M.L. workers, for streets and other infrastructural projects. That’s certainly no closely-held state secret. Mayoral aspirant, Yolanda Schakron, says that it’s a sign of Bradley’s incompetence, because without that money, the council would be bankrupt. Of course, Mayor Bradley’s spin was markedly different when he responded to the assertions earlier in the morning by Schakron. 

Yolanda Schakron, P.U.P. Mayoral Candidate

“If left to Mayor Bradley’s skills at raising and managing the Council’s own resources, we could see that the Council would have been bankrupt from 2012, from the time Mayor Bradley got into office the Central Government has been bailing out Mayor Darrell Bradley. Quite frankly, he is the only Mayor in history that has the Council acting like a full government department rather than a body in charge of its own taxes and fees and management of the city. So why should we be paying taxes? Where are our taxes going to? This Council…it’s the government fixing up everything for them.”

Darrell Bradley

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor

“To say that the City Council as a municipal entity depends on the Central Government for cash advances and for projects is to say absolutely nothing. Chetumal which is our sister city gets eighty-six percent of their funding from the federal government in Mexico. Whenever I go to another municipality, I always ask what the relationship between the finances of the municipality and the Central Government is. That is a fact and a reality for many municipalities throughout the region. So to say that we are dependent on Central Government for finances belies the truth of the circumstances, but we do depend heavily on the Central Government like every other municipality in the world. So for them to say that, for them to say that is just another red herring and it doesn’t advance anything. Bring to me some argument, bring to me some project, bring to me some idea which you will say okay if I am elected Mayor this is what I want to do to immediately develop and advance Belize City. Don’t attack the person who is there trying to work hard.”