Mayor Bradley Comments On Not Addressing Disgruntled BML Employees

As we told you sanitation workers were at court this morning and there, a near-confrontation between angry BML workers and Mayor Darrell Bradley happened in front of Magistrate’s Court number one. Bradley dropped into the courtroom to deal with another matter just before eleven this morning. First the media found him, and then word filtered to the BML workers who quickly gathered around. Those workers want money and assurances from their Mayor – but all they got is an assurance that they will have to pay the five hundred dollar tickets handed to them by the City Council on Monday. Bradley also made it clear that confrontation is not his thing, and that’s why he didn’t speak to workers on then, and he won’t speak to them today.

Darrell Bradley, Mayor, Belize City

Darrell Bradley

“As you can see this morning, that’s something that I would not have done, because more than likely, because of where the crowd was yesterday, my presence out there would have inflamed the situation further. It would have exacerbated what had happened, which is what you can see is happening right now. So that you are saying that I could have gone out there and spoken to the persons that would have been the worst thing to do.”

Reporter

“Will you speak to them now, since they are behind you?”

Darrell Bradley

“No. That’s the worst thing that could be done.”

Reporter

“Will you strike off the tickets for littering? Will you continue to fine them five hundred dollars each?”

Darrell Bradley

“As a matter of policy and politics, what is done…and I put a policy in relation to this, that what we are doing…you’ve asked me in terms of the ticket…I have made a policy at the City Council that when a person is issued a ticket, that’s a ticket that is issued by our staff for an infraction. No political person gets involved in that. When we have parking tickets which are issued, no political person can get involved in that. When we have parking tickets which are issued, no councillor can get involved in that. Just like how the Police process is there…that’s an administrative function. If a person has been ticketed…I see the reels in terms of the trash that was laid out there, those tickets have been issued…there’s a certain process that deals with that, and if they think that that ticket was unfairly issued, they should deal with that.”