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So then is the 20 million dollar municipal bond in trouble? The mayor bristled at the suggestion when we spoke to him today:..

Jules Vasquez
"What went wrong with the Legacy Fund that caused them to send out this very adverse release?"

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"I don't think that anything went wrong. From the very beginning we've been using several financial advisors to advise us as it relates to the launch of the bond. We've been assisted tremendously by Legacy. They did a full forensic of our financial operations. They delivered on a lot of the works that they were supposed to give us in terms of putting us on the right footing meeting with potential investors. We also have benefitted from the insight direction of the Central Bank of Belize. We've also been advised by our internal persons. We have our auditors who are also assisting us. So we have a team of financial advisors who have complemented the internal persons from the city council who really are in charge of the release of this bond and our perspective and so it's not a problem for us to say that well at one point certain works to be delivered by a certain service supplier has been completed and we don't want to proceed with you going forward."

"There is nothing wrong with that and that does not derailed or threaten the launch of our bond nor does that derail and threaten the confidence that our potential investors have express in the bond program."

Jules Vasquez
"Who is ending the relationship? Is it Legacy or is it the city council? The way the press release reads is that Legacy is terminating its relationship with the city council."

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"I have not read the press release myself and so the situation is...."

Jules Vasquez
"You mean you haven't been sent the press release?"

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"No I have not read it."

Jules Vasquez
"Then that's an indication that something is wrong."

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"I spoke to Ervin this morning and I don't think that anything is wrong with the process. All persons who are dealing with this are supreme professionals. Legacy is a firm that is made up of professional persons and I am confident of that. The city council is made up of individuals who are professionals and we act in a professional manner. If you reach a certain point where you disengage from a person who is providing advice to you, that does not jeopardize the integrity of the program and that's what we are saying. We are saying that both Legacy and the city council continue to be committed to the program and we are supremely confident that we will be able to launch our bond in the very near future."

"Up until this week here I have had meetings with very large potential investors and they are very interested in purchasing the bond and in moving forward and so we don't think that this will be a stumbling block. Of course it would be remiss of me to say that it's something that i would wanted to avoid but I don't think that it would be any impediment force to launch the bond."

Jules Vasquez
"Where are we with the process?"

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"The process is we are finalizing our prospectus. One of the things you have to realize Jules is that this is the first ever bond that any municipality in the Caribbean has done; it's the first that any municipality in Belize has done and it's a learning curve for us as well. I am not any financial genius, I don't pretend to be. I am not somebody who knows a lot about these things. This is why we have multiple financial advisors and so any delay is only caused as a result of our intention to ensure that we get this thing right."

"I wouldn't say that anything is delayed or anything is been stalled. I would say though that it is a monumental process. It's a huge process and it involves a lot of players and we want to ensure that we get this right. We want to ensure that the advice we take is 100% accurate and that a lot of people are consulting and holding our hands so that we ensure that whatever we put out there and whatever we launched we can stand by it for this full life of the program which would be 8 years."

Jules Vasquez
"Might you in haste have underestimated the complexity of the bond? Might you in haste have underestimated the difficulty of paving 10 streets at once and having to do water works? Have you been moving? Nobody is criticizing you but sometimes speed kills."

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"There is certain urgency to what we are doing. Residents of Belize City are driving on streets. Kids are walking in water to access their schools or to access their homes and that is a situation where it's an urgency for us to change that, so I don't apologize for wanting to move in haste because residents of Belize City are telling me that they want their street to be fixed yesterday. This is something that we need to be aggressive about and this is something that we need to be fast about."

Jules Vasquez
"When you were talking about the prospectus in July and August, might you then have underestimated the complexity of launching a bond and how will you proceed now having not advisors?"

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"We do have advisors. I have indicated to you that we have been advised by many people. We don't have the benefit at this present moment of Legacy being our advisors. Jules, this is not a thing where we got up one day and we said let's do a bond. This is something which we were working on even before the election. It is something which is very complicated. I never indicated to any residents of Belize City that this would have been an easy process. If it was easy all our streets would have been paved."

Jules Vasquez
"But you don't have the expertise in house to dance - you don't have finance in house."

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"Yes we do, Jules, our ability to deliver on the commitments to residents is paramount. All the works that you have seen so far - 23 streets, 22 of them were being done with cement - all of that has been done through the expertise of our internal persons. Legacy did not advise us on that. When we are doing these works we are doing them because of our internal expertise. This program that we are doing is bigger than one company and one program or one individual and no one company is saying that they have disengaged or derail us."

Marion Ali, reporter
"Let me ask you this mayor. Is there a time for mending fences with Legacy and if so it would be on new terms, new conditions and if not then are you looking for replacement?"

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"As I said we don't feet that as this present moment it is a situation where we need or move forward with them particularly because as I said when we work with them we move in way of a stage. They were supposed to deliver certain services to us which they have delivered. The only thing that is remaining for us to do is to really launch the prospectus and to have people subscribe to the bond. We have already gotten the financial advice that we need. We have already done our forecasting for the next 8 years. We already have our audited financial report which as soon as we signed off I will make that report public so that you could go through it, you could scrutinized us, so everything really is at a point where we are ready to launched."

Jules Vasquez
"If the government were to use White Oaks or Ambassador Espat in its super bond re-negotiation that would be consequential the markets would shutter. We don't have markets here but we do have prospective investors. You have lost your advisor - you have lost your equivalent of your White Oaks."

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"I wouldn't say that Jules."

Jules Vasquez
"That's a matter of fact. A bond is a particular instrument sir."

Mayor Darrell Bradley
"The market is driven by investor confidents and one of the things which I have been pleased about is that we have been able through the works as I said that we have done with the resources of the city council. We have been able to show people what can be done in the city. We can have a city which moves on much faster pace and is much further along in terms of the quality of our infrastructure. The market does not depend on a financial investor or one or two people. It depends on the confidence of people in the market who are willing to take acceptable risk to invest in a project. We are telling people to invest in the municipal bond because you are investing in the city, you are investing in building the streets and drains that you drive on, that your children drive on and that your customers drive on and it has been receptive. We are receiving a lot of support. This street that we are on right now - we built this street, Puma Street, we were able to build this street not with Legacy or nor with anybody else. We were able to build this street because Puma approach us and they said that they want to do this street. They gave us the land, they gave us half the money and we tendered the project and we able to do it because of our commitment to deliver to residents of Belize City."

Bradley says the bond prospectus should be launched in the next two weeks. He says it was delayed for about a week by Legacy's departure.

So what caused the rift? Well, depends on who you speak to. Council insiders say Legacy wanted to increase their fees, and that there was a difference of opinion over who would pay the lawyer's fees, while those in Legacy's camp say there were fundamental differences on procedures with the Council leadership.