7 News Belize

The History Of The Bhojawani Debacle
posted (March 10, 2016)
Yesterday we had an extended interview with Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley about the debacle with the Hans and Nandini Bhojwani Foundation. The foundation donated a pair of bandstands for the City - and when those were demolished - they said the city had to somehow compensate them. The city has agreed to do so by placing, or as the case may be "replacing" two signs on Marine Parade, calling it the Bhojwani Promenade. In part two of our interview with the Mayor, we went into our archives to find out more:..

Jules Vasquez reporting The BTL Bandstand and the Battlefield park bandstand - donated in the Zenaida Moya years at a cost of 140 thousand dollars total.

They were rubbished a few years later to make way for a new vision of a new park with new big money benefactors - except the mayor never told the old benefactors anything but how much of this has to do your leadership style insofar as when you rubbished the 6:04 two bandstands you were advised.

Jules Vasquez
"But how much of this has to do with your leadership style in so far as when you started, when you rubbished the two bandstands, you were advised. I'm saying you were appraised at the time. But at that time you were on "romperajo" timing - we are going ahead building this park and we will do that - we don't care, he donated that to Zenaida - that looks bad - we don't business - next."

Darrell Bradley - Mayor of Belize City
"At the time when we removed the bandstand, we received no communication from Mr. Bhojwani or his attorney - actually this came several months, if I'm not mistaken more than a year after the project was done."

But, the mayor has it all wrong; he did receive communication; in fact he admitted this to us in 2013, 9 months before the park was opened! Here's what he said at the time when we asked him about the Bhojwani complaint:

(April 25, 2013)
Jules Vasquez
"He said that he should have been written and should have been told as a courtesy. He thinks as a principle that his foundation should get back its money because they invested in that in good faith."

Darrell Bradley - Mayor of Belize City
"I'm admitting that that's been failing of this council and it is something that we want to get right."

"...In relation to Hans Bhojwani we are in dialogue with his representatives."

Jules Vasquez
"You are in dialogue with his attorneys over the promenade, but you all have rubbished his bandstand, the bandstand that his foundation donated. He wants a refund or compensation."

Darrell Bradley
"Well his attorneys and representatives did not indicate that that was his position."

That was 2013, and now three years later the Mayor contradicts his 2013 statement, and admits that Bhojwani did ask for compensation:

Darrell Bradley - Mayor of Belize City
"And when the attorney wrote to us, it was to say that this is something that has been raised by her client. They want to know how this City would addressed it. First of all why was it done? And in relation to what kind of if any restitution or so forth would have been given."

And even though the Bhowani attorney wrote him from at least 2013, and nothing was done, Bradley now says letters from attorneys are always treated as urgent:

Darrell Bradley - Mayor of Belize City
"And when somebody writes to the City Council, especially if they write as an attorney and they write in a certain way seemingly to make it a risk to the institution that that could go to litigation, we deal with that with a certain degree of urgency."

And now the urgency is to put up these signs - version 2.0 after a previous council removed the first version:

Jules Vasquez
"I recalled, because I have a some knowledge of the history of this that there was original Bhojwani Promenade sign which was removed and it was removed in the spirit that man, you can't buy our city, it's an affront. Do you recall this?"

Darrell Bradley - Mayor of Belize City
"I do not."

Jules Vasquez
"Because I recalled it happening under your city administration."

Darrell Bradley - Mayor of Belize City
"If that would have occurred under this city council, again, that would have been something that would have not gotten my attention."

But, now these new signs have gotten all our attention - and the principle behind it still confounds:

Jules Vasquez
"I'm no lawyer, but explained to me this principle: I'm going to donate this phone to you right now. I'm donating my phone. If I see you next week. Right now this is an old beat-up Samsung S4, it's not a model phone and if I see you next week with an IPhone 6S Plus, I will say but sir, I donated a phone to you and you will say boy, it's not a very good phone. I got a better one. So I threw that away. If I am donating it, am I within my right to then say well then you must compensate me for the phone I gave you or wear a shirt that says "Jules gave me my phone." Am I missing something here? Somehow that scenario doesn't seem to make sense."

Darrell Bradley - Mayor of Belize City
"If somebody gives me a phone in line with you example and I take that phone in the following week and I discard that phone. First of all I would say that I am a very ungrateful person. That's not the heart that the city has. So that when somebody gives to the city, even if it is for certain kinds of motives, that would be less than honorable. I'm not casting any kinds of aspersions on the motivations in this particular case. I would say that the city has to show its gratitude in some way."

One former councilor who opposed the promenade signs when they were first put up is Roger Espejo. He told us today, he still opposes it because he never saw any written agreement with the council.

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize