Councillor calls for mayor’s resignation

Uneasy is the head that wears the crown. And Mayor Zenaida Moya has been in the hot seat since she assumed office. From the onset there was a threat of mass resignations, a string of accusations and counter allegations, and open distension among the ranks, which have now escalated to a public call for the resignation of the mayor. It came from an unsuspecting corner of the ring, not only because he has had his own share of adversity and run-ins with the law, but because the deck is now clearly stocked against the Belize City Mayor. It was not short of drama, and the allegations made this morning by a Belize City Councillor could have the same effect as a weapon of mass destruction against a mayor who is facing revolt from within. Here is what Councillor Mark King had to say.

Mark King, City Councillor
“I am not going to be negative today. I will be factual and I will be to the point, telling the Belizean people the truth. Just as the Mayor said she tells the truth, then I will tell the other side of the truth. The Belizean people deserves to know the truth. Today you will get the raw uncut truth about what really happens in City Hall.”

With the picture of the Mayor and his fellow councillors behind him, this morning councillor responsible for crime and security, Mark King, came out smoking against this boss, Zenaida Moya.

Mark King
“I want two things from Mayor Moya. I want Mayor Moya to resign immediately before the next election and I want Mayor Moya to apologise to the Belizean citizens for stealing tax payer’s money unauthorised by the Belize City Council. When Belizeans voted us in, they voted us in to ensure that we made sure that what happened in City Hall over seventeen years never again happened in City Hall.”

According to King, those things have been happening at City Hall since the municipal election two and a half years ago and he’s remained silent long enough.

Mark King
“We make decision by quorum and whenever we make those decisions, we have always had a hard time—an extremely hard time—with Mayor Moya acknowledging our decisions. She agrees with us in front of our face, we have a quorum decision, it is minuted and after that she goes back to the council and reverses the board’s decisions. The City Council’s money is being spent without the City Council authorizing it and it clearly tells you under the City Council’s act that any monies that are being spent from the City Council should be spent in accordance with a quorum decision by the council, not by the mayor. The Belize City Council, unauthorized by the mayor again, was paying the Lik Road talk show monies for airing stuff that the mayor would put on the show. The City Council found out that this money was being paid to Lik Road, that we did not authorise it and ordered a stop letter. The City Council is limited with equipments; trucks, tractor, man power, and when the government won honourable Boots Martinez came to the City Council and seh “look man mek I help unnu out”. He said I am going to give you trucks, I’ll give you tractors, I’ll give you manpower; all you have to do is provide the diesel and the food. Mayor Moya saw things differently. She wanted to pay a certain person fifteen thousand dollars each time they needed equipment to take care of the city. Two hundred and seventy dollars, over quarter million dollars Belize, was given to the mayor’s brother’s trucking company. We approached the Mayor and she said to us in a caucus that her brothers have to eat. We said Mayor Moya, this is tax payer’s money, we did not approve it and we want it to stop. The Deputy Mayor went down to the finance officer instructed that no more payments are to be made to that company.”

King says there are documents to prove his allegations … at the City Hall.

Mark King
“Well, with the documentation, I am able to access those documentation. However, as you know Mayor Moya again runs City Hall and I will have to go over there and see how best possible I can acquire them. But I am definitely sure that first we can verify these information with my councillors and I said if I am lying, I will be liable.”

The councillor says he decided to speak out today, unbeknownst to the eight other councillors and with the risk of repercussions, because Belizeans deserve the truth.

Mark King
“When you go and place that ballot October fifth and your hands are shaking, depending on which box you’re gonna put it in, you would have had the information, you would have known that the next city council that will win, will bring out this information. I don’t want it to be something whereby if the other councillors that are in the City Council are a part of this and they are supporting me for it, I believe because we have breached the code of the United Democratic Party, we may all go down and I decide that it’s better for me to go down on my own and for the good people, the deputy mayor and the other eight councillors to continue to run this city for the people of Belize. That is what I want. When I leave here, I can be sanctioned and banned from the United Democratic Party, I can be liable in the courts of Belize if I am lying by Zenaida Moya and I will forever, in the eyes of the Belizean public and my fellow councillors and deputy mayor, be left aside as a person who lied blatantly to the Belizean public. I would like to ask you the question, do you think I would sit here and put all of that on the line?”

Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.