Back in August when Belize Maintenance Workers erupted in a defiant and ugly protest in front of City Hall - government had to get involved to patch things up - and part of the reconciliation deal was that the workers would be hired by City Hall when the BML contract is terminated.
But today the mayor confessed that the prospect of hiring 170 workers is keeping him up at night. He spoke candidly outside the courtroom.
Darrell Bradley, Mayor - Belize City
"One of the biggest things that is concerning me though is working very closely with the transition to the new regime after BML's contract is expired and I think that that is something that should cause members of the public some concern because its causing me some concern to find out how we will incorporate into our system 170 people. What kind of hot our budget will take by having to take on 170 people and not only talking about salaries, you talking about pension liabilities, you are talking about housing them in terms of an area, and you are 
talking about equipment. We recently got a report that as a result of just those 170 people we have to hire 4 more HR staff to process their tax payments, Social Security benefits sick thing, like all those kind of things - just to deal with that addition and that will grow the city council the compliment of our staff by 35%. So that I think is a bigger thing to deal with than having to settle Waste Control and BML which we have always done even before I am mayor and the 2 years previously and I expect that this year will be no different."
Jules Vasquez
"Sounds like you want to renege on your decision?"
Darrell Bradley, Mayor - Belize City
"I don't think that it's a difficulty in relation to me. I think that it's a difficulty in relation to the public, what the public has to consider. That really is a significant addition and a change to the city council. We are seeing the staff of the city council go from 240 and be added on to by 170 additional persons. Any employer, any business person, any person who manages a large organization whether it is public or private will appreciate the significance of having your staff grow by those kinds of numbers and the amount that that will represent in terms of your costing and how that's going to hit your budget."
As you heard in the interview, currently BML gets 78 thousand dollars per week. The mayor says he was thinking that if he could get citizens to cut the grass in front of their house, he could bring that bill down to thirty thousand dollars per week - but there's no way that figure can be achieved with 170 extra workers.
Email
Print