PUP CitCo Team READY!!

PUP Belize City Council Team. Back: Erwin X, Alberto Vellos, Robert “Bobby” Cadle, Lennox “DJ Tambran” Young, Edward Young, Patrick Thompson, Peter Lacey Jr. (Front) Mayoral Candidate Karen Bodden, Dorla Vaughan, Swamy Babani & Gary Ayuso

Belize City, November 10, 2011

The People’s United Party Mayoral Candidate, Karen Bodden, today fervently called for an immediate audit of the Belize City Council’s finances in order for city residents to no longer be kept in the dark regarding the true financial state of the municipal government.

Bodden and her team of ten Councillor Candidates were unveiled to the public at a press conference held today, Thursday, November 10th 2011, following an upbeat and energetic delegate convention held by the PUP on Saturday, November 5, 2011 at St. Mary’s Hall.

The team includes Councillor Candidates: Gary Ayuso, Swamy Babani, Robert “Bobby” Cadle, Peter Lacey Jr., Patrick Thompson, Dorla Vaughn, Alberto Vellos, Erwin X, Edward Young and Lennox “Dj Tambran” Young.

Mrs. Bodden comes with an impressive public service/administrative background. She has served as an educator at various institutions including Wesley College, the University College of Belize, and Sadie Vernon (where she currently works as a Counselor), as well as worked as a Counselor at the Family Court and Executive Director at the National Drug Abuse Control Council, and currently a Rehabilitation and Education Programme Director at the Kolbe Foundation Correctional Facility.

Mrs. Bodden explained that throughout her years of service (for which she was bestowed last year with the distinguished Public Officer of the Year Award), she has recognised that there is an urgent need for people-centred development in the city and in the country.

She said she has been exposed to reality: to the cycle of young males fielded in as new inmates at the Kolbe Correctional facility, the myriad social issues affecting students which impede proper learning, and the rapid deterioration of families and communities.

“It is for those reasons I am getting involved. To make the change that is needed, happen,” remarked Mrs. Bodden.

Mrs. Bodden’s team is comprised of a dynamic group of young and experienced community and business-oriented candidates, who compliment her vision of a new Belize City.

At today’s conference, PUP Leader and Freetown Area Representative, Hon. Francis Fonseca expressed his firm support for Mrs. Bodden. Hon. Fonseca added that he is convinced that the team members have great value and service to offer to the city and he believes the PUP Team is the answer to the growing problems of the municipality.

In her address, Mrs. Bodden described the conditions of the country as “teetering on the brink of destruction…like the 1950s, with deteriorating infrastructure; high rate of poverty, high rate of unemployment; lack of opportunities and leadership that fail to put people at the center”.

But hope, like jobs and security in our country, is fading rapidly. The UDP Belize City Council has managed the affairs of the commercial capital with utter disgrace for six years. The Council has plunged deeper into financial ruin becoming more indebted, while the basic services of repairing streets and maintaining drains have been neglected. Garbage collection is used as a tool for political bullying and coercion and not seen as a service to city residents. Tax collection is at its lowest, simply because city residents no longer see how their tax dollars are used to improve the city. But the Mayor and Councillors live lavishly, collecting huge salaries and stipends they increased three times during their term.

More disturbingly, the Council sits idly by while the business community is in crisis, while violent crime is on the increase and neighbourhoods are ravaged by degradation.

Mrs. Karen Bodden

Mrs. Bodden said she is committed to finding meaningful ways of revitalising the city. “I stand before you this morning to say that the present status quo of city management or, as we have come to know it, city mismanagement, is not acceptable. I am here to say no to the conditions that currently exist but, most importantly, I am here to say that hope is alive and blazing in the resilient spirit of every resident of this city. Yes, I am proud to say that there are still a few Belizeans who have the audacity to hope. We recognize that to lose hope is to give up on life. Today, you have before you eleven such persons who believe that all is not lost.”

Mrs. Bodden and her team said they will hit the ground running and begin to meet, share ideas, and hear the views of city residents. “Every resident must have the right to participate in what will become a new direction for Belize City”, said Mrs. Bodden.

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