There are less than two days to go before the polls open at the UDP City Council Convention. Here at Channel 7, our newsroom has been at the center of the fierce last minute campaigning and spin cycl-ing, and let us tell you, the stakes are inestimably high. In fact, the only time you usually see political battling this fierce is at a general election. And the reason is that this is about more than just Michael versus Moya, it is about whether the UDP’s institutional base can unseat a popular mayor, or, even if it means terminating her with extreme prejudice.
The latest attempt at a death-blow came yesterday when the 9 councilors met with the Ministry of Local Government and made a decision asking Moya to return $90,000 that they claim she overpaid herself. This morning City Administrator Englebert Perrera wrote to Mayor Zenaida Moya asking her to return the extra $3,000 she had been receiving as salary since March of 2006. Deputy Mayor Anthony Michael told us yesterday it was unauthorized and Moya needs return all of it. But not so fast according to Moya’s new attorney Michael Peyrefitte.
Peyrefitte brought to 7NEWS proof that, of all people, Deputy Mayor Michael knew the Mayor was receiving a salary of $1,500 every two weeks because he signed her check. He did so twice in April of this year when Moya was away and he was acting mayor. Peyrefitte says the evidence contradicts Anthony Michael’s statement.
Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney for Zenaida Moya
“What we are saying is that the Mayor is allowed a salary and a salary for her has been approved. We have checks, and the sample that I have given to you displays the salary list for April of 2008 in which the Deputy Mayor was given a check to be signed with a print out of all the individual amounts that totalled that check. And on that check from the 1st to the 16th of April 2008 is an amount for the Mayor in amount of $1,500. From the 16th of April to the 30th of April a similar check was signed by the Deputy Mayor for a total amount for salaries and on that list accompanying the check was also an additional $1,500 for the Mayor.
So we not only have the Mayor getting paid the salary of $3,000 a month but that salary was authorized and the check to pay that salary was signed by the Deputy Mayor himself. Now all of this now clearly shows to me or to anyone who wants to see that it was a malicious and vindictive accusation to say that the Mayor was not authorized a salary when you yourself signed that salary.
The question that you should have for him is if the Mayor was not authorized to receive that amount then why did he sign a check giving the Mayor that amount. We are saying it was approved, she was entitled to that salary, and he signed for the salary.”
Peyrefitte says he was hired by Moya to protect her interests since she has basically been accused of theft. He says that it is on his advice that she didn’t do the interview herself. Peyrefitte says the mayor is considering her legal options. In a written statement she challenged her opponents to take her case to the police or the DPP.
