Belize City Council Working on Skeleton Staff, Reduced Salaries

Bernard Wagner

Earlier you heard the San Ignacio Mayor saying he was cutting down expenditures by reducing staff due to the financial crunch.  At City Hall, except for sanitation workers, staff was sent home with half salary. Even as things begin to pick up at the council, Mayor Bernard Wagner says that they are still operating with a limited amount of staff and that a number of employees remain on reduced salaries.

Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor

“In respect to the staff, we are looking on how our cash flow is and certainly if our cash flow is a point where we could go back to full salary for this fifteenth of May, we would want to do that. Our staff has made great sacrifice; foregoing half of your pay is no joke. So for me, I haven’t received a salary from the last payday in March. That was it and the entire April, I have not received any kind of stipend, but I can live with it. I worry more and I believe our council worries more about ensuring that our staff alleviates some of their financial obligations as well. But certainly, May the fifteenth, we are looking at it on a day to day basis—I get reports on a day to day basis to see cash flow coming in and if we can make the full payment, we will make the full payment.  Not all our staff are back as yet. We want to be very cautious in our approach; we want to do it in a phased approach. So we’re still following the health guidelines and we’re still putting in place the necessary safety procedures.”