12 days ago, we told you about how Justice Courtney Abel ruled against Belize City Mayor Bernard Wagner and the Belize City Council. The judge has found that the Council wrongfully terminated Candice Miller, the former City Administrator. And so, the Council and the Mayor are now staring down an award of almost 400 thousand dollars which the Council must pay Miller in compensation for that wrongful dismissal.
As viewers will remember, Miller was brought into City Hall as the administrator, and her six-figure contract was renewed several months before the 2018 municipal elections. Questioning that renewal became a platform of good governance for the PUP going into those elections.
But, once they were elected into office, Mayor Wagner's Administration couldn't simply send her home because they would have to pay off a huge sum of money to satisfy Miller's substantial contract. So, as the judge puts it, the Mayor sidelined her instead, and a few months later, in May 2018, his council fired her for "gross dereliction of duty".
Miller disagreed with the dismissal, and in her lawsuit, she and her attorney, Magali Perdomo, successfully convinced the judge that there was no dereliction of duty, and that the Council had mishandled her termination.
So, the Mayor and the Council have a few more days to decide whether they will appeal the Supreme Court judgment. There is a 21-day deadline that they have to meet in order to trigger the appeal process. So, when the press caught up to Mayor Wagner at another event today, he was asked if the Council will appeal, or if it will pay off Miller, as they were ordered to do. Here's how that conversation went:
Reporter
"Are we going to see a challenge to this? What's going on?"
Bernard Wagner - Mayor, Belize City Council
"Well again, our attorneys are ensuring, dotting the I's and crossing the t's to ensure that if we do go that route, that we do have a winnable case. And so, we have, I believe, 21 days to file that appeal. We'll take our time in ensuring that we make the right decision. But at the end of the day, any decision that is made will be, again, about the people."
Reporter
"If the decision made is to take the route to actually compensate Miss Miller, where is the Council in terms of its finances to be able to pay close to half-a-million dollars."
Bernard Wagner
"Again, that's a long way from here, my good friend. It's a long way. I have not even contemplated that area there."
Reporter
"The judge was clear. A contract is a contract, is a contract, is a contract."
Bernard Wagner
"I can't discuss the case. I can't discuss the case."
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