Jomarie Lanza had a closer look:

The exterior of the council hasn't been painted yet, but don't expect to see a nurse on a scaffold outside. Even though, Nurse Kelsey Gillett got the payment of 191 thousand dollars - Mayor Bernard Wagner says they did due diligence on an unnamed sub-contractor:

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City:
"I don't know the the particulars If it is, if it's a female on where she work, but we, we have the, the we did our due diligence on the on the person who, who is the actual contractor doing the work."

Which begs the question if the person receiving the payments was just a front. But, the one who got paid is the person named here - reportedly a special relation to one of his councillors - which the mayor also professed no knowledge of.

But even more curious is the nature of the transaction. The total disbursements are 193 thousand - a tidy sum but it seemed negligible to the mayor and not worthy of his direct oversight:

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City:
"to paint the city hall, you know, for maintenance of our assets. I am comfortable with the with the quality of the work that we are receiving."

"So you you're certain it's 100,000 for both, or could it be you could be a little bit over?"

"I, I, I don't have the figures at hand again, because it's not a, it's not a real it's not a contract. It's, it's a work order that you do X amount, you do the interior, you get paid, you do the exterior, you'll get paid. So it's not a contract, per se."

A work order, but he earlier said it is an invoice:

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City:
"There's no contract. It's a sort of what we call, an invoice. You know, you bring in an invoice, a cost estimate of what would cost the city, to get that done. And we facilitated that."

But while he may not have had a written contract - which would have had to be approved by the caucus of the council - even an oral agreement is a contract. Here's what attorney Brandon Usher said on Sunup on 7:

Brandon Usher, Sunup on 7 Host, Attorney:
"A contract, sir, does not always have to be written it can be an oral contract but according to him we never entered no contract she just you know put in an invoice and yes she was awarded she was given the incentive to go ahead and no bidding no tendering, no nothing like that she just presented an invoice. Was there any advertisement of this? No I don't think so 142k, and 45k right so in any case that is an offer. The offer is to paint my building please, I am offering you to paint my building. The consideration which forms a part of it is the 145k and the 142k and the 45k and then the acceptance is that well you get to paint it, you get to paint it. Three parts of a contract met, you have created a contract sir but the thing is when he started saying you know what this is a little bit of money I wouldn't even sign off on something like this 187k."

So, if there was a contract, that was not disclosed to the council caucus, and was not put out to tender:

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City:
"Was it put out to tender?"

"No, not not that small amount. If I would put out our contract for, for ten, 20,000 for painting a building or a 30 to 40,000, I'm not quite clear on what the question is alluding to. But the point is that for a small contract size."

"So how much was the contract? I would believe it's a little bit over, over 100,000, I would believe."

The mayor kept hedging, and of course, the figure we have seen on the record is almost twice that. And could all that money have been saved if it had just been done in house?:

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City:
"But couldn't the council works department have done this painting."

"The council work department is very stretched right? We are, we are stretched pretty, pretty thin. Our works team are always on the ground trying to facilitate potholes. All across the city. For painting the building. I don't see our, our staff getting this done with the very stretched resources that we have."

So, instead of stretching resources, the council stretched its finances - and in the end the mayor makes no apologies:

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City:
"Listen to me, this is the city hall. This is the city hall. The city hall requires it in the normal course of business to be kept in, a maintained on an annual basis."

We'll keep following the story.