On Friday we told you about Thursday evening's ugly spat between Mayor Darrell Bradley, City Administrator Candice Burke and Councilor Alifah Elrington-Hyde. According to our reports it ended when the mayor called for city constables to eject Elrington-Hyde from the building.
Today the mayor confirmed that what should have been a simple problem got very heated when councilor Elrington-Hyde started yelling at the city administrator.
And what was it all about? As we reported, it started with a ticket that the City's traffic Department put on the pickup truck used by the city's Special Constables. On Thursday afternoon, the pickup was parked in front of the Commercial Center when the traffic manager ordered his warden to give it a ticket. From there it became an issue between the City Administrator and Councilor with responsibility for traffic Alifah Elrington-Hyde.
Elrington-Hyde went to see the City Administrator in person, and that's when things got turned up! The City Admin's office is right next to the mayor's, who happened to be babysitting his infant child that day - the baby's nap ended when the shouting started. The mayor told us he heard a ruckus starting and went to see what it was about:...
Mayor Darrell Bradley
"A discussion turned into something which I thought was unhelpful because I could hear them from my office. I then got up from my office and went into the City Administrator's office and I inquired what was the difficulty and I thought that Councilor Elrington's approach in dealing with the city administrator was very unbecoming. I thought that it was unprofessional and I thought that she not ought to speak to the head of our City, the chief administrator officer of our city is that area and I demanded that she reduced her tone and if she did not reduce her tone she would be ejected from the building."
"I treat all of my staff with respect and I ensure that all of my councilors similarly treat my staff with respect and if I feel that anyone one of them disrespect any member of my staff especially in a way which is I think unbecoming and unwarranted then I will ask them to leave the building and if they do not want to leave the building then I will have them removed from the building."
"If the Mayor of Belize doesn't yell at you, I don't think that anybody else including a councilor should yell at you also and if you do that then you cannot be a part of our organization."
Jules Vasquez
"So then what's next? She yelled at the city administrator."
Mayor Darrell Bradley
"In terms of the situation, in terms of politics, having somebody yelled at somebody else is not an unusual circumstance and it's something that I wish we don't have in our organization. I think a lot of times we have very strong conversations but there is a line between being assertive and being very strong in your position and being disrespectful. I think she cross that line to being disrespectful. I have spoken with her since that conversation; I have expressed to her my serious displeasure in relation to how she treated the city administrator. I wish that she would apologize to the city administrator. Councilor Elrington is a very good councilor, she is very passionate about her office and doing a good job. I just think sometimes she is too passionate and she needs to scale that back and she needs to watch in relation to being disrespectful. I think that what I would see as being a good outcome is if she would "man up" and apologize to the city administrator and let us move forward."
Again today, we could not reach councilor Elrington-Hyde for comment. But, the mayor says the entire incident speaks to a bigger issue - which is really about management styles and conflict resolution. He says there is no way he or Councilor Elrington-Hyde should have been involved in a dispute about a parking ticket.
Mayor Darrell Bradley
"Why is it that our mayor needs to deal with a traffic ticket? That micro-management approach is not my style and I think that that is very destructive to the City Council. There is no reason why a councilor should quarrel with the city administrator about a traffic ticket, why because we have a traffic manager; know your role know your function. That is how an organization works effectively. Trust the people who are in this organization. That is a conversation that doesn't take common sense and it doesn't take the involvement of the Mayor and it doesn't take arguing and yelling after people."
"Why is it our managers can't talk and work that out? Why is it that that needs to occupy and hour of the mayor's time and an hour of the city administrator's time and an hour of Councilor Elrington's time? Councilor Elrington needs to realize that she must comport herself in a certain way including that she must be respectful to the people who hold offices in this building."
"One of the things that I hope Councilor will understand and appreciate is trust your staff. Trust your staff that your managers could work out a situation without your involvement and without you being engaged. This is not to say that she doesn't have a point you know, but the overarching issue is how do you deal with people."
It should be noted that Councilor Elrington-Hyde and the Mayor share a law practice. Later we'll have more from the mayor as he speaks about the demise of certain city streets after the recent deluge.
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