And while the Belize City Council plans to finally put electric buses on our streets before the municipal elections, in Punta Gorda, a former CitCo councillor has put his name in to run for mayor.
Michael "Chips" Norales plans to take his experience as deputy mayor in the city to improve the little town he calls home. But the current town council has been going through its own issues following the councilors sounding the alarm about money mismanagement. This has caused a divide between them and the mayor only months away from the elections.
Today, we asked Norales about what he plans to do to fix the tensions boiling in the town council.
Michael "Chips" Norales, Aspirant, Mayor of Punta Gorda
"I did it at the last moment and I thought about it then I said no, then I said yes, then I said no, and eventually I said, if my name is not in, then they cannot consider me. So I would really appreciate if the party, because I'll be running on the PUP ticket, if the party would allow the people of Punta Gorda to decide who they want to be their mayor, instead of any kind of endorsement. Let's go for it, because they other gentlemen are good gentlemen as well, but I said, why not give it a shot, and I could see what I could do with the help of the community to improve Punta Gorda."
"One of my commitments will be to make sure we work with the other municipalities for sure. Mayor Bernard Wagner, if he will still be the candidate for Belize City, and the de facto mayor, we have a very good relationship. I've made friends, I've made connections while I was a councillor in Belize City and as deputy mayor and I think I could use that to help us, along with some members of the community in PG to improve their conditions, because seriously, our streets are number one, bad. Yes I agree that the UDP had 13 years of power and they didn't do anything and they expected the PUP to do it in a year or so. We need to find out where we are, where we want to go, and how we can get there."
Courtney Menzies:
"Do you feel like that there needs to be a whole reset of the council board?"
Michael "Chips" Norales, Aspirant, Mayor of Punta Gorda
"Of course. You see the councillors need to realize that are not responsible to the mayor you know, they are responsible to the citizens of Punta Gorda. You cannot keep on hiding from them because you'll have to come back and request and ask them to vote for you, so why hide? Come out and tell us what the real issues are so we could deal with it, instead of not attending meetings."
"That's why I'm hoping that… there's still a long way to go, because they have to vet us and somebody might come up with something that I don't know I did because sometimes your past catches up to you. And I've always told the guys here in Belize City, my name is more important to me, my reputation, so don't try to bribe or offer me money, I won't take it."
Courtney Menzies:
"What will you do to try to improve the transparency in the council?"
Michael "Chips" Norales, Aspirant, Mayor of Punta Gorda
"The first thing I would do, would be to open the books to the public, they need to know what is there. The public needs to know how much money you have, how much money you have pending coming in, what the subvention is like, what the salaries are like, because if the people don't know, you will always have a lot of skepticism. People, as soon as you start talking, what do they say? Oh he is stealing. Let the people know what's there."
The names of nominees have not yet been vetted by the party - which we gather has a bumper crop of high tide candidates.
