This morning, news spread like wildfire that 6 employees were terminated from City Hall in Belize City.
Among them was City Administrator Candice Miller, who faced a hearing last week Thursday before a Council Caucus led by Mayor Bernard Wagner.
Others who got termination letters today include Whitney Waight, the Parks and Playgrounds Coordinator; Lisbeth Butler, the Manager in the Office of the Mayor; Cecil Jenkins Sr., the Coordinator of the Sanitation Department; and other technical staff members including Wayne Samuels, brother of the former Councillor Dean Samuels; and Shana Whyte, a supervisor in the Parks and Playgrounds Department.
From all the letters we've seen - and with the notable exception of the city administrator, there are no details about why exactly they're being terminated, no justification, and no complaint against them about misbehavior in office or dereliction of duty.
There is simply a generic line which reads, quote, "You are hereby being given notice that your services… will no longer be required." End quote.
That element, above everything else, is what has UDP's all over crying foul that the new PUP administration is simply purging the Belize City Council of all UDP supporters on staff.
We approached 5 out of the 6 former employees for comment, but none of them were willing speak on it today. Cecil Jenkins Sr. did take us up on our offer this afternoon, and we had a sit-down interview with him to discuss the fact that he suddenly has no job.
He told us that he showed up for work to carry out his duties as per normal, and he got a call from the Director of Administration. Here's how he described it:
Cecil Jenkins Sr., Terminated from City Hall
"While on Reggae Street I got a call sometime about 11:15am this morning from the human resource director Miss Shirlene Rudon, who said that she would want to see me in the office. I immediately went to the office and I knock at her office door and I went in and I said "I am here Miss Rudon." She said Mr. Jenkins this is the hard part of my job, but I have here a letter for you of termination. I then asked her for what reason I am being terminated. She then mentioned to me that she want to be honest and she didn't have a reason, but this is not from her, but it's from higher up."
"After looking through my letter, I flipped the page and I start to look for my calculation of my severance and my entitlement. After going through the letter I noticed that for the time that I have been working with the council, which is 12 years I haven't received any gratuity. So I ask her about the gratuity. She said under that section I am not entitle for gratuity."
"To be honest I do not have anything at present to fall back on, but I will have to try turn a new leaf and see what best I can do. I will try to seek some professional advice. I may try to go see a lawyer. I have contacted a couple of them and they are willing to take up my case and I will let them look into it, because I have children just as they say. I have 4 sons and for not to be able to provide for your kids is something else. They came on a platform that they are here for the people."
And Jenkins is not happy with the way he was dismissed from his job of 12 years. He said that from his perspective, the mayor went back on his word, when he promised that there would not be any political victimization of City Halls employees.
Here's what he had to say when we asked him if he think that the terminations are politically motivated:
Cecil Jenkins Sr., Terminated from City Hall
"I could recall when the mayor, Mayor Bernard Wagner, spoke with us at a gathering - gather all the employees. He mentioned to us that he is here not to do anything in regards to hurt any employee at the council. Regardless who you are. You could be PUP or UDP or NIP or NAP or not in P. The fact remain that he had mentioned to us that he will extend his hand with an olive leaf. That means he wants peace. All we have to so is to leave politics out the door."
"I am a professional. I work at the council for 12 years and I serve this city and this community with no problem. You could ask anybody about Cecil Anthony Jenkins Sr. Anybody would readily attest to me that I am a fair minded person and I deal with people professional. I don't look at politics. I serve everybody. When you serve this country or you serve this city - you are not only serving PUP, you are not only serving UDP, you are serving everybody. So why look at me or look at anybody as a political affiliation. I believe I have been victimized, because they know that I have been affiliated with the United Democratic Party. They know that Cecil Anthony Jenkins Sr. had once put up his name to run for Lake Independence in the next upcoming election."
Reporter
"Do you think that its a political purge?"
Cecil Jenkins Sr., Terminated from City Hall
"Yes, it is a purge. They have a long list of affiliated UDP that they want to extract from out the city council. The mayor said it straight forward that has the whole barbarians waiting at the gate. So what they want to do, they will purge us because. We are the technical people."
You'll remember that back in December 2014, all 9 sitting mayors at the time signed on to the Municipal Workers Regulations. This was the brainchild of former Mayor Darrell Bradley, and it touted as a big change to give security of tenure to all persons employed with the 9 municipalities countrywide. It was designed to prevent this type of termination without just cause.
Well, informed persons tell us that after the regulations were signed, they were never gazetted. If this is true, it means that they are not law, and therefore, the Bernard Wagner Administration is not obliged to follow them.
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