BELIZE CITY MAYOR RESPONDES TO COMMENTS MADE BY TOURISM DIRECTOR

August 24, 2006

Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya has responded to comments we aired yesterday by Director of Tourism Tracy Panton. Moya said while she does not want to get into a back and forth it is important to set the record straight. 

Zenaida Moya: Belize City Mayor

“This council fron day one has been requesting a portion of the head tax to assist with the sanitation services and up keep of the city. And I have it in black and white and this is furtherance of meetings we had with the BTB and correspondence sent to the Ministry of Finance. I have here a letter dated April 24 which was sent to the CEO in the ministry of Finance copied to the BTB sent by Councilor Quilter and this letter was sent after a meeting we had with Miss Panton as it pertained to a request for head tax and she said no you need to go to the Ministry of Finance. And in that letter we specifically stated that the Belize City Council supports the proposes that the Ministry of Finance designate a one and fifty cents per cruise tourist head tax collected to put towards improvement of garbage collection and street and drain cleaning program. With this in force that Belize City Council will be able to pay for the cleaning services provided by the three private sanitation companies and it includes other things but again all of it has to do with the council who currently holds contracts to carry out duties of garbage collection street cleaning and so forth and we requested monies for that. Again I said that was sent to the Ministry of Finance copied to the BTB and it was done after a meeting held with the BTB whereby they told us that it is not us that can assist you with any head tax to assist with any sanitation services it is the Ministry of Finance so we sent it to the Ministry of Finance and we copied it to them. When we got a letter from the Ministry of Finance and they said it is not us  it’s the BTB Councilor Quilter again sent another letter again to the BTB another meeting was held and it was to discuss that same matter as it pertains to the head tax and the assistance to help the sanitation services. A letter we got from the BTB dated June 20 and this is proof here this is a letter from the Belize Tourism Board dated June 20 2006 signed by the Director of Tourism and it clearly states, “Dear Councilor Quilter the Directors of the BTB met on Wednesday June 7 2006 to discuss among other matters the proposals submitted by the Belize City Council requesting one dollar fifty US dollars for cruise ships passengers be designated to the City Council to offset the cost of garbage collection, street maintenance and drain and general upkeep. So clearly I have here in black and white whereby they responded in terms of us asking them for monies to be directed to the sanitation services here the cleaning of the city.”  

Mayor Moya said they attended a number of meetings including meeting with the Prime Minister. She said after further discussions they sent further letters to the Belize Tourism Board. 

Zenaida Moya: Belize City Mayor

“I sent a replicate of a letter sent by the former Mayor Fonseca dated September 1 2005 to Miss Panton signed by him, all I did was change the name and put mine and changed the date to August 10 2006. Again it that it speaks about maintaining a clean city and that Belize City being the gateway for most tourism activities, the Belize City Council had incurred expenses the monies collected are insufficient to fund projects to restore popular streets and to fix functioning drains and culverts and to obtained garbage bins, but this time here instead of getting a response as to what the response was to the former Mayor where by that response specifically was that yes the BTB board met and this was dated September 15 it was sent to David Fonseca and the response to your letter dated September 1the board has agreed to facilitate this request and enclose please find Scotia Bank cheque number 33541 in the amount of sixty nine thousand one hundred forty dollars and forty eight sense which initializes the board commitment instead of receiving such a response what we got was that no that letter will not do you need to sent a letter stating about specific projects which I had problem with because I said “if you could have responded to the former Mayor wit such a response then why not do the same to me?” It was reiterated that no you have to send a letter regarding specific projects and they said you need to do that or else they wont consider it but if you do that they will consider it and that’s what I did. Under protest I went ahead and sent the letter in the letter again I stated about the head tax the amount the former Mayor quoted in the minutes of the regular monthly meeting dated July 26 2006 of the council whereby he stated that US one dollar was given to them by BTB and when I included that the Director called my Secretary stating again no that letter will not do the Mayor needs to take out the amount that speaks of head tax. Again I had a problem because I said you know what we want a portion of the head tax but they said no they will not review it the board will not review it unless I take out that thing and I had a huge problem with that. But time was pressing you had the workers not being paid and they said if you take that out they will support. So again under protest I took out that portion and that was what I sent but clearly what was there in the letter and it is here for public consumption. It says the Belize City Council hereby writes a follow up to its correspondence to the BTB dated August 10 2006 requesting assistance so clearly even in that letter whereby she states we say nothing about asking for monies toward that this letter says it is a follow up to that correspondence.” 

Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya.

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