7 News Belize

Mayor & BWC At It Again
posted (December 20, 2013)
Two weeks ago, we told you all about the ugly dispute between Belize Waste Control and the Belize City Council where the council owed 15 weeks of arrears for the city's garbage collection, and Waste Control went on go slow to force the council to pay.

Well, since then the city has been trying to set off those arrears - but it also has other payments to make to Waste Control. Those arise from arrears accrued by past councils - which Waste Control got a court judgment to enforce.

The agreement with the court was that City Hall had to pay Waste Control 653 thousand dollars today as partial settlement of the arrears. That's a lot to cough up in a single payment, and today the mayor told us you can't get blood out of stone:...

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor
"What we have done is that we have paid this morning $300,000 and we intend to make the balance of the next $340,000 sometime next week."

Jules Vasquez
"Half isn't what you undertook to do."

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor
"Jules, you cannot make blood out of stone. I can tell you that when I look at 15 different things that I have to think about that judgment is not one that I lose sleep about. There are many different things that plaque this city that require urgent attention that we are looking at. They are being serviced."

"We would have paid them the full amount by the end of the year and they are still suing us again. That's utterly unacceptable and it is unreasonable and it reflects a certain manner in conducting business which is in total bad faith."

Jules Vasquez
"However, they can argue, in fact they have argued that in fact you are the one that have shown contempt for them and lack of good faith in so far as you have not broach a dialogue with them and not put forth a schedule on how you will settle your significant debts."

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor
"Jules, this is the problem that I have indicated to you that I inherited this at the City Council, the arrears situation. We are paying them off. It's not a matter of you and I sitting down and grinning teeth and talking about abstractions. We are performing as a council and we are paying you. You don't have to see me; you don't have to hear from me. What you want is a commitment that the person in the office is acting responsibly. We have a contract and we are honoring our contract. They were saying that you have to make commitments, you have to pay. We are paying it down."

Jules Vasquez
"We know that Waste Control had famously run out of patience with City Hall. Are you concern that in the next week they may take actions to enforce the judgment?"

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor
"I am at the point where I feel that they are entitled to what they are claiming, but whenever you have a situation where you have contracting parties, there has to be a consideration of reasonableness and what's fair. The reality is and I've said this repeatedly is that these two contracts bleed the City Council and it's not an understatement. We are paying 45 cents out of every dollar to these two sanitation companies."

"One of the things that really caught me off guard is we owe them 15 weeks up until a couple weeks ago. We have now brought that 10 weeks. We are making before the end of this year another double payment, so that will bring that to 9 weeks and we are going to equalize with them the early part of next year. I estimate by the end of February we should have with them a zero balance."

"We are trying to pay off the judgment. We have paid the $620,000 in June, We have paid $300,000 today, we are paying the $340,000 next week. We have brought the arrears down from 15 weeks to 10 weeks and before the end of the year we will bring them to 9 weeks and they are still bleeding us even more; they are suing us. That will put us again in court. They to my view are totally unreasonable."

Jules Vasquez
"You can argue that if they were unreasonable, at the point that it reached 4-5 weeks, they would have stop extending your credit and suspend service."

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor
"Exactly what we want; if they stop services, that's what we want; if they stop the service then we will do it. The City Council can do this service for 25% of what they are charging us. The other company similarly. These contracts are unreasonable, they are exorbitant, they bleed on our city. Every city that I go to I discuss with them what the cost is for sanitation services and no city that I have been to pay more than 20%. The range is between 12% and 15% to 20%. we pay 45% of our outlays on sanitation services."

"I have always said that that is unsustainable. Last year you were asking me these same exact questions. Next year you will be asking me these same exact questions and the following year when there is a new mayor sitting in this seat, you will ask that person him/her these same exact questions because the system is broken."

Reporter
"Can you speak as to the future with the company with regards to setting a schedule for payment?"

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor
"When you say setting a schedule for payment; we are paying them off."

Reporter
"I mean in terms of arrears do not grow as large as this."

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor
"Arrears have to grow as large because we are paying them tooth and nail."

Waste Control and its Attorney Fred Lumor told us this evening that at the end of business today, they had not gotten any cheque from the council, neither for the 314 thousand dollars the mayor spoke about or the 654 thousand that is fully due.

Lumor told us that because it is a Friday, he will give them some leeway until Monday.

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