U.D.P. councils/town boards move into new offices
As for municipal developments in Belize City, this morning the U.D.P. city council participated in meetings with party leadership and later prepared to move into their new home. News Five’s Janelle Chanona reports from City Hall.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
This afternoon, Mayor Zenaida Moya and Belize City?s councillors visited their new offices on North Front Street to meet with employees and hold their inaugural meeting.
Staff members included City Administrator Colwin Flowers, who would lead the council on a tour through the cramped confines of City Hall.
Councillor Laura Esquivel topped national polls with a whopping twelve thousand nine hundred and fifty-one votes. Today, Esquivel says her accomplishment speaks volumes for women in politics.
Laura Esquivel, Belize City Councillor
?I hope that it encourages more women to get involved in politics. I think it gives a boost to all the people who have traditionally been working behind the scenes?the women that have been traditionally behind the scenes, it gives them a boost to say that a woman can do it and give them the encouragement to enter politics themselves.?
Janelle Chanona
?Juggling political life and any other sort of life is a very tough thing to do, I?m sure your dad has told you that. Where do you see yourself playing in this city council team??
Laura Esquivel
?Well first of all, we have to have a first meeting to decide who will take on what portfolio. But certainly I will play whatever vital role Zenaida as the Mayor would like me to hold. Of course, I want to make sure there?s good governance. I know some people have been saying that I was riding on my father?s coattail, but in this point I would like to carry on his tradition of proving that you can?that there can be good people in politics. And that will be my role, to prove to the electorate that there are good politicians out there like my dad and I hope to follow in his footsteps in that way.?
Janelle Chanona
?Laura, as far as looking at the issues happening around the city at the minute, for you what will be your personal agenda that you want to accomplish first??
Laura Esquivel
?Wow. Well my personal agenda is for people to be proud of Belize City. It?s a huge, huge task; we have to take on a way that we can make sure the city is so beautiful and people are so courteous to each other, the laws are being abided by … it?s all encompassing, it?s not something so small that you can say. But I would like at the end of the day for people to say, ?I am proud to be a resident of Belize City.?
Tonight News Five understands that the new council must hold two separate meetings before being officially sworn in. That ceremony is expected to take place sometime next week.
Janelle Chanona for News Five.
Belize City candidates are surely not the only ones on a familiarisation tour as city council and town board teams take on their new roles. The line up countrywide is as follows:
In Corozal, Hilberto Campos is Mayor, while Aaron Babb,
Luis Brooks, Joselle Willie Cruz, Abigail Gomez, Rosalee Price Williams, and Nonita Ramirez are councillors.
The new Orange Walk Mayor, Ravell Gonzalez, is joined by councillors Raul Alcoser, Philip De La Fuente, Jamil Matar, Rosario Melendez, Enid Urbina Morales, and Carlos Perera.
In the capital city Belmopan, Simeon Lopez is Mayor with his council comprised of: Tita Balona, Eugene Michael Brown, Celso Carcamo, Pedro Pete Carillo, Olga Meyers, and Victor Perdomo.
The twin towns of San Ignacio and Santa Elena have elected John August Jr. as Mayor with Eduardo Cano, Bernadette Fernandez, George Luis Herrera, Iliana Moreno, Vanessa Neal, and Earl Trapp Jr. as his councillors.
Further west in Benque Viejo Del Carmen, Gerardo Marconi Sosa finds himself in familiar territory as Mayor. Sosa will lead one of two spilt councils as P.U.P. candidate Armando Chulin will join councillors Adrian “Chejo” Guerra Jr., Mirna Araceli Escalante, Elmer Guerra, Salvador Jorge Iglesias, and Nicholasito Russel Ruiz.
Down south, Mayor Frank “Pawpa” Mena and councillors Alden Jack Chavez, Grace Fairweather, Russel “Chiste” Garcia, Aaron Jake Gongora, Barbara “Bubie” Norales, and Harry Henry Sabal will oversee affairs in Dangriga.
In Punta Gorda, the other spilt council is led by P.U.P. Mayor Carlos Galvez who will now work with fellow P.U.P. candidate Leonardo Chavarria and five U.D.P. councillors. They are Wilfredo Galvez, Anthony Lambey, Floyd Lino, Rene Arthur Pennell, and Leeroy Ned Supaul.
On the island town of San Pedro, Elsa Paz has been re-elected as Mayor and is flanked by councillors Juan Alamilla, Joseph Elijio, Nesto Romel Gomez, Justiniano Guerrero, Severo Guerrero Sr., and Pablo Ico.
And in the old capital, Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya is joined in city hall by Laura Esquivel, Mark King, Hyacinth Latchman, Anthony Michael, Gilroy Middleton, Leila Peyrefitte, Calvert Quilter, Dean Samuels, Wayne Usher, and Philip Willoughby.
