There is already intrigue in City Hall tonight after a cactus vote today - which did not go in the Mayor's favor.
This morning, the newly elected councillors of the Belize City Council voted for their deputy mayor.
Though the mayor publicly rooted for a woman - particularly Kaya Cattouse - to take the position, she was outvoted for the third time in a row by now three time deputy, Allan Pollard.
Courtney Menzies spoke with Pollard today and has this story.
Three time councillor Allan Pollard has so far been deputy mayor for two of his terms. Briefly during his second term, the post was held by former councillor Micah Goodin.
This time around, Mayor Bernard Wagner said he hoped for a woman to rise to the rank.
posted (March 15, 2024)
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize
"It's the councillors that really appoint through vote, through the city council act, we're empowered by the city council act. The first caucus meeting really, it's there the councillors will vote for a deputy. I believe given the, we've always been promoting and trying to empower women, women inclusion, sustainable development, and being in women's month I think it would be symbolic for this city council which has always been male heavy from 2018 in respect to deputy mayor, it would be a good start for us to have a female deputy mayor this time around."
And since the council only has two women on its slate, it was clear that the mayor was referring to Kaya Cattouse, who received the second highest number of votes at the polls on March 6th.
Cattouse contested the position twice before, and she did so again today. However, despite the mayor's wishes, she only received 3 votes, while Pollard got 7. And so for the third time in row, he will hold the post of deputy mayor.
Allan Pollard,Deputy Mayor, Belize CitCo
"It feels good that after today, seeing that all your colleagues have that confidence in your leadership after so long and wanting to see me in that role, it's always a humbling feeling but it's also a very rewarding feeling knowing you have that support at the end of the day."
"For me, any role at the council or in the political sphere in general to serve the people in any capacity is to me a privilege of course and it feels good at the end of the day, making sure that whenever the mayor's not in, you assume that responsibility and having him have that confidence as well that everything is all well once he's not in country the City Hall is in good hands, for me, that's the major part of it."
But unconfirmed reports stated that Pollard expected to go uncontested since he was asked - and agreed - to step aside as an aspiring mayoral candidate and to support Wagner.
Pollard denied these reports.
Allan Pollard, Deputy Mayor, Belize CitCo
"Well we had a voting today as you notice, if that was the case then we wouldn't have to go to a vote, but we went to a vote, the councillors decided and they could have went any way and they decided they wanted me to be the deputy mayor and I can't take that away from them, I have to give credit to them for that."
But after two terms as deputy, we asked Pollard if it would be better to give someone else a chance.
He said it's not up to him.
Allan Pollard, Deputy Mayor, Belize CitCo
"I agree if somebody else want to contest, they can contest, we didn't stop anybody from contesting as we clearly saw only one other contestant for it was there and that was Kaya. Unfortunately the caucus went a different direction and that's the usual order of the day in terms of this specific item."
Courtney Menzies:
"Did you not agree with the mayor when he said he would have preferred a female to be deputy mayor this time around?"
Allan Pollard, Deputy Mayor, Belize CitCo
"I think the mayor has his preference and I think ideally what he imagines it to be, I could see that but again, I'm not the person responsible with selecting who's the deputy mayor so again the councillors have to make that decision and they did at the end of the day so he has his preference and that's to be acknowledged."
