| The mayor was a lot more circumspect when speaking on the subject of municipal autonomy. We know that this is mostly an illusion in municipal governance - because ultimately Cabinet calls the shots.
And so it has been for successive PUDP Belize City mayors who have toyed with the idea of introducing a residential garbage fee to help offset the 3.3 million dollars they struggle to pay Belize Waste Control annually.
The current mayor has been a strong proponent of such a fee - but every time he floats the idea, Belmopan torpedoes it. They always say that, politically, the timing isn't right.
We asked him if the timing may finally be right after next week's General election and a fresh mandate:
Jules Vasquez
"Will the government in this next term of office, if a PUP government is elected a friendly government, will they finally allow you to implement the garbage tax?"
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"Boy, that's a good question, Jules. That's a very good question."
"A lot of things has to align for that to occur, but from my vantage point, I have been the voice crying in the wilderness for some years that the garbage fee is not something bad, if you do it in a kind of tiered system approach, similarly to what we're trying to do with the trade license."
"So it's a phased approach, but you can't have close to 800 plus streets being served by a city to pick up garbage, which costs $65,000 a week. Imagine you have to find out per week, Jules, along with $300,000 plus every two weeks for salaries."
"Imagine that. You can't sleep."
Jules Vasquez
"You have to watch your bank account. You can't sleep."
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"You can't sleep. And so it's not asking a lot. It has to go to our local government and then into the cabinet to get it approved."
"But all the other municipalities have the right to charge a fee."
Jules Vasquez
"Mayor, if we had true autonomy, you could do this."
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"That's what we've been agitating for for so long."
Jules Vasquez
"We don't have true autonomy."
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"Local government needs greater autonomy, greater decentralization."
"It's a cry in the region, in the Caribbean. It's a cry in the Commonwealth. Greater decentralization."
Jules Vasquez
"You have amended. The people of the city elected you. If you say, I will increase it, the cabinet should not have a veto over your decision, over your council's decision."
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"But we do."
Jules Vasquez
"That's how it is setup."
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"It is."
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