MOYAlists vs. the Z-7

Seven dissident members of the Belize City Council called a press conference at the Belize City Center conference room yesterday morning. They claimed that it was so they could apologize for not attending Tuesday night’s scheduled Belize City Council monthly public meeting, because of what transpired at their earlier closed door caucus meeting.

The group, dubbed the “Z-Seven” by Vaughan Gill on Vibes Radio Morning Buzz Show when he broke the news of the conference, said that because they are not robots, but were elected individually, they are calling on Mayor Zenaida Moya to respect the law.

They issued a statement in which they accuse the Mayor of illegally crowding the agenda with last minute items, and of illegally ending Tuesday’s meeting when they tried to bring a resolution up for vote.

They said that the Mayor and the councilors who support her, walked out of Tuesday’s caucus while their group of seven stayed and passed a resolution calling for new elections for the Deputy Mayor’s position.

They also accused the Mayor of signing contracts and entering into agreements without their knowledge, and in some cases even going against their majority vote.

The dissident councilors are former Deputy Mayor Dion Leslie, two-term councilors Laura Esquivel and Leila Peyrefitte, and first time councilors Eric Chang, Roger Espejo, Kevin Singh and Andrew Faber, all of whom were present at this morning’s conference.

Tuesday night only new Deputy Mayor Philip Willoughby, former Deputy Mayor Wayne Usher and Dean Samuels attended the Council’s regularly scheduled monthly public meeting which was broadcast live on a television station.

It should be noted that those three councilors and the Mayor are all serving their second term, and last night all four remarked on the absence of the dissidents.

The apparent bone of contention would seem to be the February 16^th election of Phillip Willoughby to be the deputy mayor, with the then deputy mayor Dion Leslie and councilors Roger Espejo and Eric Chang out of the country. (The trio had gone to Taiwan to attend Chang’s wedding.)

Philloughby reportedly received four votes in an election at the meeting, with councilors Wayne Usher, Andrew Faber and Kevin Singh voting for him along with his vote for himself, while rival Leila Peyrefitte got her own and councilor Laura Esquivel’s votes. Dean Samuels, who apparently also had ambitions for the post, ended up abstaining.

In an interview broadcast on television last night, a defiant Mayor Zenaida Moya-Flowers stopped just short of telling the dissident seven to go to hell while Philloughby seemed resigned to the a fate of being replaced shortly.

The Z-7 for their part has indicated that they have the backing of central government, the Ministry of Local Government and the executive of the UDP.

Of course we all know that this is simply a bunch of crooked politicians fighting over the “spoils” at City Hall and at this point, having bankrupted the coffers, it hardly matters who is in charge over there.

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