Mayor Zenaida Moya may have won a landslide at the UDP City Council convention on Sunday, and while the laurels of victory still crown the undisputed political champion, there one bothersome little fact that just won’t go away: City Council is broke, dead broke. And while the Mayor avoided around the issue in the run- up to the election, central government made it clear in an unusual release today. It says that the government today made two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars available to the council to allow it to meet, “urgent expenses related to payroll and the purchase of sanitation services.” The release goes on to say that the Prime Minister and the Financial Secretary will meet with the council next week to discuss the chronic liquidity problems.
Now, the timing of the release might raise the question as to whether this is a public swipe against Mayor Moya by central government who recently overpowered the UDP’s political base at the convention. And while that will attract speculation, the fact is, CITCO is broke, and has been running in the red for a long time. We understand that in the past 8 months – government has had to come up with close to a million dollars in bailout funds for City Hall. That’s in addition to the monthly subvention, which at this time has been paid forward up to December.
So while the Mayor may view it as a hostile move to – so to speak - put the council’s business out in the streets – that same mayor has become very reliant on central government to cover essentials such as payroll and sanitation contracts. With that, we’ll see what tone will prevail at next week’s meeting.
