Succotz Village Councilor Explains Political Divide

There’s drama brewing in Succotz, and it’s all about the village council. We told you earlier this week about the political divide that’s causing confusion in the community. Well, it’s now spilling over into Independence Day celebrations. Every year, Succotz hosts its traditional torch run and pageants, Miss Torch and Miss Independence Queen. But this year there will be two torch runs and two sets of queens on the same day. It all stems from tensions inside the council, which includes five P.U.P. councilors, one U.D.P. councilor, and U.D.P. Chairman Armando Ventura Cocom. Cocom says most councilors don’t recognize his authority as chairman and are making decisions without him. But today, one councilor is firing back, saying Cocom just doesn’t want to work with them. Here’s what Councilor Otto Puc had to say.

 

On the Phone: Otto Puc, Councilor, Succotz

“On the first meeting that we did, this was in July thirty-first, we presented a motion to create an events committee because we knew that the September celebrations were coming on. We invited the other councilor the UDP councilor to be part of this committee, and she said yes in the meeting and then did not show up when the committee met. Later on in a public meeting, the chairman admitted that he prohibited his, what he called his councilor to be part of that committee. So basically his claim that the committee was done without his knowledge is wrong. He was in that meeting. He abstained from voting, but because we have five, five council members who voted in favor of that motion, the committee was created. So for him to say that the committee is illegitimate or he has no knowledge, is flatly wrong. When we look at having two parties in the village, this is not a symptom, but this is a full manifestation of what the situation is going on. We created the committee. We programmed these events long before he did. So for him to say that we are not including, or basically he’s not being part of this is something he chose and I believe that he should be very honest about when he started his events, because we were never invited to his one. However, we did invite him to our ones. For me, then I think the villagers should be lucky that, they can choose which party to attend. So to me, there’s no division. There only exists options for where to party this September. “