Mayor and embattled councillors agree on salaries

On the other side of the political fence, the issue of the salary of the Mayor had become pretty contentious just before her re-election at the convention on October fifth. Mayor Moya would not speak on camera about the matter nor would the councilors, but late yesterday the Belize City Council sent out a cryptic press release hoping to put an end to the speculation about the salary increases. This follows earlier reports that the mayor and Councillors were preparing to give themselves a raise at a time when the Council has been crying that it has no money to pay its bills including for garbage collection. According to the release, the Council met and put its rubber stamp on the salary it had been receiving for some time.

It all goes back to the heat of the UDP convention when the Deputy Mayor Anthony Michael called into question Mayor Moya’s six thousand dollar a month salary based on minutes from a 2006 City Council meeting. What was not said was that the same minutes would have also called into question all of the councilors’ salaries which would have been six hundred less for the deputy and about five hundred less for councilors. So what has changed at the end of Friday’s meeting? Nothing. The Mayor, the deputy and the councilors’ salaries all remain the same.