Administrator’s Contract a “Reward” for Management

Bernard Wagner

Of particular interest is that the expenses incurred by the Public Relations Department, as well as the office responsible for parks and playgrounds, kept mounting annually, with little or no measurable outcome.  The reward for the fleecing of the public purse, claims Mayor Wagner, was a four-year contract extension for City Administrator Candice Miller.

Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor

“What we found, and we continue again, is that the department increased expenditure with no positive results.  No results at all.  There was a culture of incurring expenditure with no commensurate results, and I go again.  Public relations, this is the PR Department for the council.  Parks and playgrounds together spent four hundred and spent four hundred and six thousand in 2014, six hundred and eighty thousand in 2015, five hundred and eighty-four thousand in 2016 and eight hundred and one thousand in 2017.  Just a continuous, continuous spiral upwards.  Upwards, upwards.  Is this the way we run our business?  Is this the way you would, as a C.E.O., say to the person in charge to task to run your business, I will grant you an extension contract for four more years because you have ran our business in a proper way.  We are pleased with the way you have ran our business, so we will reward you.  We will reward you with a four-year contract.  That is the message that was sent.”

We’ll have more from the mayor later in the newscast.