New O.W. Council seeks redress against old

When we last spoke to the new Mayor of Orange Walk, Ravei Gonzalez, he and his council had just entered office … and while they had found a few things out of order, nothing serious had popped up. Today however, the new council is singing a different tune, alleging that thousands of taxpayers? dollars have been misappropriated by former Mayor Henry Castillo and his team.

Ravei Gonzalez, Mayor of Orange Walk
?Since the last time we spoke, I informed the public that we?re doing a financial auditing. And what we have found so far is that the council had decided to pay themselves thirty percent severance pay. Now what we have gotten is the black and white to it; the amounts that they were paid and it has amounted so far to approximately seventy thousand dollars that were paid out to the Mayor, the previous mayor and councillors and now we are finding legal help. And if it does end up being illegal, which we believe it is, then we definitely will take this to court.?

Carlos Perrera, Orange Walk Councillor
?The individual numbers for each councillor that we had reviewed was in respect to Mr. Carballo. Mr. Froylan Carballo collected eight thousand five hundred dollars the three years that he was there. Netty Johnson collected nine thousand four hundred in respect to the three years that she was there. Alex Palacio collected five thousand four hundred dollars in respect three years he was there. Abel Jimenez collected three thousand six hundred dollars when he was there. Selene Donis collected five thousand two hundred and fifty dollars in severance when she was there, and the Mayor himself collected twenty four thousand nine hundred dollars in severance within the three years that he was basically there.?

Janelle Chanona
?This is in addition to their salaries??

Carlos Perrera
?This is besides the salaries that they received, the allowances they received, totally separate.?

Janelle Chanona
?What?s the motivation for pursuing legal action against your predecessors??

Ravei Gonzalez
?It?s nothing personal. It?s nothing that we want to victimise. It?s simply that the money is not ours and the town council is in a financial mess. We need monies to buy garbage truck, we need monies to pay the workers, and the people want to know where their money is, and we now know where it is now. Now it is time to get it back for them, and make sure it is used for proper use.?

Janelle Chanona
?What kind of money we are talking about??

Ravei Gonzalez
?In total, so far in only severance we have about as I said seventy thousand, approximately seventy thousand and then we have more under questionable donations. Apparently the practice was that donations were paid out from the councillors and the mayor and then it was reimbursed without any form of receipt or signature of the person who received the donation, so that is questionable and in all sense of the word, irregular accounting practices because then there?s no verifications that the monies were donated. … So it?s not that I am diverting all my efforts into chasing these people or getting the money back. It is a balance of getting back some money from them, while still maintaining the operations of the town council.?

Mayor Gonzalez admits that his council has yet to officially inform the former Mayor and councillors of their investigation and projected course of legal action. But today when we spoke with Henry Castillo he asserted that the decision of his council to take severance pay was with the approval of Albert Roches from the Ministry of Local Government. Castillo says rather than remove a lump sum at the end of their term, the council thought it best to take small amounts over the period of their employment. As to the legal action, Castillo says if the severance payments are deemed illegal, he and his former councillors would reimburse Town Hall for the money. When questioned on the donations, Castillo maintains that only in very few instances did councillors get money to hand over for charity as most of the council’s contributions were done through the town cashier where recipients signed and collected the money themselves. Overall, Castillo says he ?left the Orange Walk town hall a little bit better than he found it.?