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This morning, before he got broadsided by the BML workers, Councilor Roger Espejo told us the Council timing is mere coincidence. But what is not coincidence is that he is the third politician in a week to go on air about the same few hundred feet of road! Here's what he had to say:..

Roger Espejo, City Councilor
"The area behind me is on Princess Margaret Drive for some time now. Anybody that traverses this area when it rains knows that it really has become a water catchment area, so for the past year the area has been deteriorating slowly, and we were waiting for the right time for the sun to be out to upgrade the area."

"The area had to be lifted and so a lot of materials were put on the street to lift the entire area. It was compacted, and we are happy to say that we have already surface-dressed this portion of Princess Margaret Drive."

Marion Ali, Love FM
"Now you mention it is the right time being the sun is out, but a lot of people and your opponents will tell you that 'listen, the right time is because it's two months away from elections because the whole city had been tearing and ripping up for what? Two, three years, maybe longer?"

Roger Espejo, City Councillor
"Well, actually I could tell you that that's not the case because this is tax season for the City Council, and this is when the City Council collects taxes, but I would go further to tell you that this is a collaboration with the Ministry of Works, and they have always been collaborating with the Belize City Council, and so that's really not the case. That's nonsense."

"If so be the case then we would have been electioneering for the past three years because there are several projects the City Council has done; Mercy Lane, to be precise, was one that we paved two years ago when we first got in. Were we electioneering then?"

Marion Ali, Love FM
"But still there are many streets that have been deteriorating."

Roger Espejo, City Councillor
"We agree, and it has been because of the revenues and because of our budget, but slowly and surely again we are coming into the tax season when the City Council collects property taxes and trade licenses, and so more work will be happening this time around."

Monica Bodden
"I am sure that there were other tax seasons. Why wait until now to get the streets fixed?"

Roger Espejo, City Councillor
"Every year around this time we do major projects actually. We have collaborated with the Ministry of Works recently to do Dunn Street. We did St. James Street, St. Edward Street and Mercy Lane. Up in the Caribbean Shores Urban Avenue was paved and a couple others in that area, so you're right. Work was supposed to be happening then, and it did happen then."

Marion Ali, Love FM
"The works that are ongoing, it's a Ministry of Works thing that's happening. This is not Belize City Council."

Roger Espejo, City Councillor
"Again we collaborate with the Ministry of Works to do these infrastructural works. You have to understand that the Belize City Council in terms of the budget that we manage is a rather small budget compared to the Ministry of Works, so there are times when, yes, we have to ask the government for help. The taxes, again, that the city collects because of the economic state of Belize City sometimes doesn't fulfill our entire mandate, and so we do have to seek government's help. Who is to say that the taxes that we collect are befitting of all the work that needs to get done."

"A study on that has to be done really to see if the taxes that we collect and the work that we need to do commensurate with one another."

Espejo says the overall project on Princess Margaret Drive will amount to 45 thousand dollars.