There has been a compromise and tomorrow - the city's cruise traffic should flow across the city as usual. That's the result of a late evening meeting between the Opposition Leader and his Mayor. Earlier on, the Mayor had laid down the hard line; that central government must get the sense and by any means necessary.
Well, Barrow went into a meeting with her at 5:00 pm, and that lasted until about 6:30 - after which he met with the council. They agreed to compromise for now - on working with the existing MOU. And yes, that's the same MOU whose terms the council had rejected just hours earlier. But Barrow said he had a talk with tour operators today, and then with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Tourism. He says it's the operators who convinced him that something must be worked out and that's what he set out to do. Here are excerpts of interviews conducted just 15 minutes ago at City Hall.
Keith Swift,
You said you were against this MOU because you don't want to be taking orders from any BTB Director. What has changed between 1:30 and now, being 6:30?
Zenaida Moya, Mayor of Belize City
"Keith in terms of that MOU, what we stated was that 1) they were directing what we should spend this money. At the end of the day we do not want the situation to continue, that we have to continue be getting money from BTB. That stands, that is why we stated that this does not prejudice us from going full speed ahead in terms of getting our US$1 passed into law."
Keith Swift,
You were very militant this afternoon, was the council reigned in by the party leader?
Zenaida Moya,
"No, clearly that was not done and I know the party leader is right here and I am sure he can attest to that."
Hon. Dean Barrow, UDP Leader
"Well I was approached by the tour operators who had in fact met with the mayor in the morning. And I was extremely impressed by their willingness to go on record as stating that they support the council in its demand for the US$1 share of the head tax. They made it clear though that the actions that were scheduled for tomorrow would disrupt the industry tomorrow. In fact if those actions were to go ahead, they would have diverted the ships and it would mean that people would lose the day's revenue and if in fact that happened, it might have been viewed unfavorably by certainly those involved in the industry and by the general public.
So basically all that is happening is that, as I understand it, the Mayor and council are signaling their willingness to give peace a chance but if it turns out that there is any bad faith or if genuinely there has been some misunderstanding which results in the council not getting the money that had already been committed, then we resort to all the options that we had first threatened."
The agreement to work with the MOU lasts only until the end of the fiscal year, which is March 31st. According to Barrow, the council is supposed to get $824,000 between now and March. And that's when Barrow will take a bill to the House to try and get a provision included into the law including the city council in the head tax. If that bill is defeated, well that will bring us right back to where we are now.
