The compulsory acquisition of 23 acres of developer Mike Feinstein's on Stake Bank island. It's one of government's most complex maneuvers. That portion of the island is being acquired to be vested in a private company to develop a cruise port, or possibly sell to a third party who'll develop that port.
Feinstein is challenging the acquisition in court - and government has given its undertaking to not complete the acquisition until the case is heard in December and a judgement issued in January.
But, did government try to pull a fast one by ignoring its own undertaking to the court and sneakily completing the acquisition earlier this month? And did the Minister of Natural Resources and the Attorney General possibly expose themselves to contempt charges by doing so? Here's our story:
Eamon Courtenay, Attorney - OPSA
October 17, 2024
"As I understand it, the situation is that the attorney general has given an undertaking that they will not proceed with the compulsory acquisition until this matter has been determined."
But, what if 5 days before this - the government had already completed the acquisition - and ignored its undertaking to the court. This is the second publication of the acquisition notice published in the Gazette of October 12th.
But 5 days later, the Attorney General's Minister was in court - with senior counsel appearing remotely from Trinidad - upholding and extending their undertaking until the matter can be argued in December.
So did they just not know?
Well, someone did know because 4 days later on October 21st, another publication in the gazette countermanded the October 12th publication and declared "that there shall be no publication, re-posting or further gazetting of the First Declaration…Any re-publication, re-post or further gazetting of the said above mentioned First Declaration…..dated after October 3, 2024 and before the conclusion of Claim No. 533 of 2024 is not authorized by the Government of Belize and is null and void and of no effect."
A risible retraction since it was published in the government's own gazette - but the question now is whether government was in contempt and whether the Feinstein group will press them for it in this high stakes - but still incomplete - acquisition.
So will Feinstein's attorneys move to have the DPM and the AG committed for contempt of court? We tried to reach them for a response but they did not return our calls and texts.
The CEO in the Ministry of Natural Resources did - and he told us the company which prints the gazette made a mistake when it did the printing of the second notice and it did so without any authority or directive from the Ministry.
