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And that threat of another protest which will surely haemorrhage the City Council’s already severely diminished store of political capital brought both sides to the table this afternoon. Phillip Willoughby, along with council employee Joe Bradley sat on one side of the table while Lawrence Ellis, the beleaguered owner of BML sat on the other. The meeting started out with both sides appearing tense – but within an hour – the body language had loosened up – and in an hour and a half – they held a joint press conference, to announce that there was an interim truce.

Ellis accepted that he and a representative from Belize Waste Control will appear before a meeting of the entire council tomorrow afternoon – where Willoughby has assured them he will effectively underscore that paying the sanitation companies has to be the council’s uppermost priority.

Jules Vasquez,
“What is the expected outcome of that meeting?”

Phillip Willoughby, City Councillor
“A firm resolution to contain the situation and then after that would be short term to medium term and then long term to imminently rid the council of this burden one way or the other.”

Lawrence Ellis, BML
“To facilitate the process the council had asked me to postpone the demonstrate scheduled for tomorrow based on the meeting tomorrow and then we will decide. If the outcome is positive then we go back to work and if not.”

Jules Vasquez,
“What comprises a positive outcome?”

Lawrence Ellis,
“Like he mentioned, first we have to contain the situation and then we need to have a set plan as to how we will move forward. I know the council will can’t come up with all the money one lik but we need to have some type of commitment as to how we will move forward.”

Jules Vasquez,
“But by containing the situation you mean meeting the current debt or starting to service the arrears, the current debt meaning this week’s debt?”

Lawrence Ellis,
“Well I need to meet this week’s debt firstly but secondly and very important, we have monies owed to our employees and we have monies owed out that we need. So as much as I would appreciate a week’s payment, it simply is not enough. We would need to compromise on a figure. I would have to go not my office and sit and go over what would be a feasible amount of money that we would need to move forward.”

Jules Vasquez,
“How do you continue in good faith with a contract which you know this council is unable to satisfy?”

Lawrence Ellis,
“It is my opinion and from experience with the council that it is not much a fact that they cannot afford the contracts, it is a matter of how the council manages its affairs because when the contracts were reduced in 2006, this was the figure that the council sat with all the financial people, sat down and came up with and said this is what we can afford, we cannot afford anything more than this; take it or leave it and we chose to take it. So if the monies were working from 2006 to 2008, all of a sudden the money is not working out. I don’t see things that worse with the council revenue to that effect. So something must have taken place in between where the money were not being used to service the contracts.”

Jules Vasquez,
“Do you feel that something is under-deposited?”

Lawrence Ellis,
“Well I don’t want to comment on the under-deposit part because I don’t know to what extent or to what level that has been going on.”

Phillip Willoughby,
“Because of the stratosphere of the people employed with the sanitation companies, where they fit in socially, it is the poorest of the poor and I believe that my conviction would say that those are the persons who we would have to look at in terms of priority being paid, they are the masses, and at the end of the day for politicians they vote and you wouldn’t want to be beholden to them whilst any member of the council would be in any area and have those people hollering or heckling at you. I feel for those people first and foremost because of where they fit in the equation, socially and their financial position and so I believe that would be the key factor besides what the management team would additionally take to convince the council and myself to say that these should be priorities or one of our priorities.”

The monthly subvention is $120,000 which has very many commitments including the council’s payroll – so we’ll see how much the council will be able to allot to its sanitation indebtedness.