Remember the Z-7? They burned across the national headlines for a few hot minutes – but like stars dying at the edge of night, they flickered brilliantly but briefly. And it seems, also in vain, because we haven’t heard anything else about the resolution they made to eject Councillor Phillip Willoughby as Deputy Mayor. And the man we call Philloughby is keeping a firm grasp on that post – and this week he is the acting mayor is the sitting Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers is attending a conference in Colombia. Today we asked the acting mayor if he really is mayor.
Phillip Willoughby, Acting Mayor
“I believed that we’ve moved beyond that and we all sat in a meeting and we moved forward accepting that my colleagues accept my nomination as their Deputy Mayor.”
Jules Vasquez,
“So even the group called the Z-7, all seven of them have accepted your rightful election as the Deputy Mayor?”
Phillip Willoughby,
“As far as the council goes, respectfully, and at the end of the day we all belong to one party, we are one council.”
Jules Vasquez,
“So then the resolution which they passed and signed has been quashed?”
Phillip Willoughby,
“As I said eleven of us were elected and the council accepted my nomination to serve as their deputy mayor for one year.”
Jules Vasquez,
“Acting Mayor I asked you a specific question you either say yes or no. Has the resolution which says the election has to be set aside, has that been eliminated, removed, quashed, discarded?”
Phillip Willoughby,
“I would like to leave it where it all started and where it is now.”
Jules Vasquez,
“But all the technicalities aside, the emotion of it, it feels nice, it has to feel nice to be in that office in the Mayor’s chair?”
Phillip Willoughby,
“Exactly right where you saw me came and where I am is right here. The office is just what it is, an office. If I had a empty crate box to sit on and deal with the constituencies that make up the city then that is where the office lies. We know that the streets are terrible, we won’t shy away from that. We have to admit to what the reality is. Immediately we have garbage situation to deal with, we have streets and drains to deal with, we have all the services that we need to provide to the city. Right now that is key, that is priority.”
Willoughby says their priority right now is the cleaning and upgrading of streets in the Lake Independence area.
