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Matthew Preston - Deputy Mayor, SISE Town Council
"We have a niece who's a cashier, a son who is a procurement officer, a nephew who is operations manager, a brother who the aide technician, nephew and son [in the] maintenance department with little to no supervision father as a driver, nephew, as a vehicle inspector, brother-in-law, as maintenance."

Earl Trapp Jr. - Mayor, SISE Town Council
"I want to place on record that most of the people who they are talking about have been working here before I became ill. And if you go and look around us, most people here in Belize are living in a small country are related. I will tell you if the Back ho - if Mr. Dwight August is my family, then he might be related to my great ancestors. You know, if Mr. Fred Palacio, who is a field worker for construction, is my -is related again to my ancestors."

Matthew Preston
"Including the Mayor, with the above mentioned, the family gains per annum quarter- million Belize dollars, with a family entitlement of a monthly average of $4,000 overtime."

Earl Trapp Jr.
"When they are talking about family members making $4,000 per month overtime, Basically, we have so many people that work out there and you know what, when you employ people and give people the opportunity to work on weekends, those are the people that give their all. You want to employ people to come and do all the time, and when they come to work one or two hours and talk about wanting to sit down or go home. You employ or invite you to come that want to give their all."

Matthew Preston
"Whenever we, the counselors, push for transparency and accountability, the mayor and the UDP cry foul. The recent audit that was completed sometime in September 2021, the mayor has not brought up to us to the elected councilors. He has not brought it up to any of our council meetings for nine months."

Aaron Mai - Town Councillor, SISE Town Council
"The council also has the authority to approve auditors, and the last audit was approved by the mayor only, not by the council, and we have been refused to see the final management letter from the auditors."

Earl Trapp Jr.
"I personally delivered the first draft to the Deputy Mayor - I would say -at least two months ago and the final draft has been delivered to the former administrator, which I understand he has in his office, or it's in his office at the moment. I want to remind the councilors of their roles and responsibilities, which are to serve the council as an oversight committee, to make recommendations for the progress and development of the municipality."

Shirlene Neal - Town Councillor, SISE Town Council
"We're here for one reason only, today, and it is to try - well, we could try and put that stop to a one-man show, which is currently the thing in Santa Elena Town."

Earl Trapp Jr.
"Council as the Mayor, I have been very cooperative with them in offering support in employment, additional allowances, and other requests."

Shirlene Neal
"We are tired. We have been professional."

Earl Trapp Jr.
"If I gave 25% autonomy to my previous council members, I can tell you at this time I have been giving this new town council 75% in terms of autonomy, to work their portfolios. So where'd you get that from, I'm not sure. And I will tell you what as a responsible mayor, if I'm not careful in how we prudently manage our finances, we will find ourselves, like other municipalities, finding problems paying our workers at the end of the week."

As you heard, that pending audit of the municipality's finances features prominently in the complaints which the PUP councilors have brought against Mayor Trapp. They say that they have only been able to receive a preliminary draft of the report. Here are the comments from both sides on that audit:

Omar Rodriguez - Town Councillor, SISE Town Council
"We had the opportunity to see from 2017 to 2020, just the draft. It says the Town Council Trade Receivables and Trade Receivable Bad Debt Provision Balances are materially understated. It says we identify that more than 90% of the receivable balances were in arrears for more than 1 year. This is what the draft is telling us. This is not my words. In 2018, it says, material understatement of $185,230 for 2017, and $543,725 for 2018. These findings constitute a departure from international financial reporting standards for small and medium-sized entities and represent material financial misstatements. 2020, qualified opinion, as of March 2020, the Town Council Trade Receivable Bad Debt provisions reported at 2 million, 75 thousand, 370 [dollars]."

Matthew Preston - Deputy Mayor, SISE Town Council
"For checks and balances, how can we stop this nepotism, mismanagement of funds, micromanagement?"

Earl Trapp Jr. - Mayor, SISE Town Council
"It's totally false allegations, and for the record, it's universal for any municipality, especially here in the country of Belize. If we are in arrears per se [of] 2 million dollars, what about the Belize City Council? They're in arrears… 20 million."

Compol Comments On Poor Turnout At Police Assoc. Elections .

And while that is PUDP politics, we turn now to police politics….

Last week, we showed you the Police Association elections - which only 25% of the department turned out to participate in.

That's about 600 out of 2,400 officers. It begs the question why the other officers didn't take a few minutes to vote, seeing as though they are also affected by who wins the election. Today we asked the ComPol about how this low turnout was perceived.

Bernard Says Sayonara To Sports

And turning back now to yesterday's interview with the new minister of health, we asked him about the ministry he's leaving behind.

Ever the trooper, he says that while his plans for Youth, Sports, and E-governance may have been cut short he'll be better poised to be a partner to its new minister:

Hon. Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health
"I am telling you that while I may have lost sports. I can tell you thought that what we have put in place at the ministry of sports, and I as well met with the minister who now takes over sports, Minister Ferguson earlier today and he has committed to continue the work, and with the people that we put in place, I can only tell you with the same energy and passion that we brought it. Minister Ferguson, I am confident that Minister Ferguson will do the same because he has the people that will support him and support the initiative of sports in this country, and I will be here at the Ministry of Health to support the initiative of sports in this country, I think it's very critical. It builds around the Health and Wellness part of our athletes of our people, and so it ties it together and definitely I can tell you that while we lost that it's also a plus because we will be able to work together, hand in hand, in an effective manner."

CSCPA FIGHT CONTINUES

Turning now to news from the Sugar Industry… last night, we showed you the attempts from a small faction of the Corozal Sugar Cane Producers Association to usurp their own group.

Everaldo Uk, a cane farmer from Patchakan Village has been identified as one of the founders of the Association. He was once part of the leadership as well, but according to his colleagues, he had to leave his post because he wanted to pursue electoral politics. Well, he has returned with a group of supporters who conducted elections on Sunday in a Special General Meeting. According to the results of that process, which was overseen by the Sugar Industry Control Board and Chairman Marcos Osorio, Uk and several other farmers should form the new leadership administration.

But, we understand that the incumbents still hold office tonight because the challengers who would replace them are waiting for the governing bodies of the sugar industry to act on this weekend's election result.

But, if you ask the incumbents, the challengers have no chance because they are not even members of the association. So, why is there confusion about their connection to the CSCPA? Here's what Vladimir Puck had to say about that when we brought up the topic yesterday:

Informed observers agree that this dispute will most likely end up in court.

More Ventilators Donated By USA, We'll Need Them!

With the number of new COVID infections surging to record levels, it's only inevitable that hospitalizations will also increase.

And reassuring news tonight is that the U.S. The Embassy in Belmopan today donated 12 Hamilton-brand ventilators valued at $200,000.00 to the Ministry of Health and Wellness.