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One man who may know a thing or two about patronage politics is Mesopotamia Representative Michael Finnegan. After a pre-Christmas clinic in December, he boasted about servicing 764 constituents in one day!

And, apparently, he also knows a thing or two about municipal politics. Finnegan is an old student of the political game and today volunteered his opinion on what makes a good Mayor and why the new Belize city mayor would be wise to lose the necktie and go local:

Hon. Michael Finnegan - Minister of Housing
"What makes a good mayor in my view - you don't sit in the office perpetually. You move around the city, and by moving around the city, you could remedy this city on an incremental basis rather than having things get out of hand total."

Jules Vasquez
"But that might be an old model for micro-managing in the Paul Rodriguez days in the 70's when the city was small enough to do that.

Hon. Michael Finnegan
Well then, I would like somebody to call me Paul Rodriguez, because as far as I am concerned, Paul Rodriguez was the best mayor that this city saw. We might not have been seen together politically, but Paul was an excellent mayor of Belize City. I'll repeat it for you."

Jules Vasquez
"Do you think that our current and new mayor could learn from a man like Paul Rodriguez?"

Hon. Michael Finnegan
"He should go and talk to Paul, talk to other past mayors and take advice from them."

Jules Vasquez
"So, if you would have advice for the mayor, it would be a.) to seek council from these elder municipal statesmen, but also to take off the tie and get out in the field."

Hon. Michael Finnegan
"That would be my view. To me, we live in a Caribbean third-world country, and politics in these third-world countries is different the metropolitan countries. So you must adapt yourself to the local environment, and to quote Tip O'Neill, 'All politics is local.'"