Earlier you heard the mayor go into all kinds of explanations about why the city is so flood prone.
And, similarly, he was kind of all over the place when we asked him to discuss his opponent in the upcoming mayoral race, Dr Nelma Mortis.
She may not be a seasoned politician, but neither was he when he first won in 2018. And while he had a career as a banker, she comes as an educational leader and social researcher.
So, what does Wagner think of Mortis? Here's what he said:
Bernard Wagner, Mayor
"Nelma again is an educator, I know her teaching at the Grace primary school and based on the interview I saw with her on Uncut, she has that social background characteristic prodigy to go along with it but at the end of the day municipality is a different ball game and municipality the administration of a municipality is not narrow it is wide. There are varying issues facing you as a leader in a municipality, you need fi always be cognizant of your financial, the finances, you move as best as how your finances are able to push you and so you could have the best plan and you do all the budget processing every year, you do your budgeting. And I always tell people the budget is a paper, it's a paper entry. If you don't collect the revenues that are on the budget then you can't spend. And so that is the intricate part of running any municipality especially Belize city. You have to be able to ensure that you pay your workers, you have to be able to ensure that you pay your operational expenses, you have to ensure that you are able to pay your garbage fee and once you are able to get past that, then you now have to be able to look at how do I as a municipality be able to put in a position to take on capital projects cause you can't fund capital projects out of operational funds unless you run yourself in trouble."
Reporter
"And is it something that you feel Dr Nelma May not be qualified considering she comes from an education background to properly manage."
Bernard Wagner, Mayor
"She is qualified as a doctorate but I'm telling you here that, at the end of the day your paper in the day to day managing is not really the thing that will get you through it has to be more of that it has to be about leadership."
Municipal elections will be held on March 6th, 2024.
