While Mayor Jhonny Fernández points out that in this first year of management he has managed to put the house in order and have the technical and financial capacity to reach the neighbors, analysts and opposition councilors assure that the management of the Santa Cruz mayor does not finish taking off. They mention that the great problems of the city are still pending, such as the reorganization of transport, markets and garbage.
In the balance they also point out that these 12 months of management were marked by public scandals starring municipal officials who somehow tarnished the image of the city’s mayor.
In his management report, Fernández recalled that he received an indebted Mayor’s Office with irregularities, so the savings was key to reversing this situation. He assured that it allowed Bs 2,100 million in income, Bs 1,600 million to go to public investment and Bs 500 million to expenses.
The mayor acknowledged that it was a very difficult year due to the financial and administrative disorder that he found upon taking office. municipal chair. “There were supernumeraries, debts to 78 companies, medium and short-term debts, corruption complaints. We dedicate ourselves to tidying up the house,” said Fernández in an interview with EL DEBER.
However, he assured that he is already in the final phase of this rearrangement and that, with the adjustments he has made, he has been able comply with the school bonus, with the delivery of computers and, in addition, program large works, such as the viaducts in different areas.
pending issues
According to the political scientist José Orlando Peralta, Fernández’s management “does not finish taking off.” In addition, the mayor’s image has been tarnished by complaints of aggression, abuse of power and nepotism in people around him.
But, what worries him the most is that the big problems of the city, such as the reorganization of transport, trade informal and garbage collection are still not part of the immediate agenda of municipal management. “There are no indications that these problems will have a structural solution, for example, in the case of transportation there is no plan to reorganize public transportation routes,” he says.
Councilor Juan Carlos Medrano, from the opposition alliance Autonomous Community (CA), questions the lack of planning to solve the problems of the city. He assures Fernández’s management has been marked by promises. In addition, he believes that there is a distance with the neighbours’ needs.
The councilor for Democrats, Manuel Saavedra, agrees that municipal management has been marked by announcements, as has seen in the road aspects, where it has been announced the construction of viaducts, but no progress has been made in ordering public transport.
For his part, Councilman José Alberti, also from CA, made an evaluation of Jhonny’s government plan for the five years of management and concluded that, of the 99 electoral promises, between projects and programs, so far only 1% has been fulfilled. Meanwhile, 27% is in programming and the remaining 72% is not on the mayor’s immediate agenda.
public scandals
Peralta and the opponents assure that the public scandals carried out by municipal officials of different ranks have played against the image of the mayor. The last the case was the one involving the municipal secretary of Human Development, Teresa Góngora, who is allegedly accused of allowing her son to make decisions within their offices, without being a public official.