Mayor Denies Tension in Council and Says He Has Not Abandoned Sugar City

Since commencing his campaign a few weeks ago, Mayor Bernard has been soundly criticized for his decision to run for standard bearer for Orange Walk East.  This is considering the fact that he was only just re-elected as mayor for a third consecutive term on March seventh.

On the Phone: Kevin Bernard, Orange Walk Mayor

“It could have been now or it could have been later on, we would have still been in the council and I think that however, as I mentioned earlier, the work of the council never stops.  And as a responsible mayor, myself, I ensure that I continue to provide the service to my people, I continue to be available to my people, I continue to ensure that my management team gets the job done and I have a capable deputy mayor also, who works side by side with me to ensure that if I am not there at a certain time, he has taken up that slack.  But believe you me, I am at my work everyday and I make sure that I visit my office, see my people that want to see me, address issues and my management team and I have direct communication.  Every Monday morning we have management meeting where we discuss the plans for the week.  We have an operations manager who provides a work plan for every week to all our council members, so everybody is aware of what the council is doing, what we are engaged in and the service to the people will never stop.  Being a candidate or wanting to represent as a candidate in a division and it’s like I said, the town part of the east is the biggest section of the division, makes it even better because we are going to be pushing our efforts, not from the council but our efforts in engaging our people.”

Oscar Mira

In other political news, retired Belize Defense Force Major Oscar Mira launched his candidacy for standard bearer of the People’s United Party in Belmopan earlier today.  The formal announcement was made this morning during a press conference.