Maldonado contradicts himself
When the City Council votes on any issue, I have been very careful with any criticisms because we put them there to represent us and vote their conscience and they have access to information that the average resident is not aware of. Just because we were hoping they would vote according to our desires, doesn’t give us the right to be disrespectful or hold it against them. They are doing their job.
With that being said, this comment is regarding my confusion over the Council President’s vote on the Home Rule Petition to allow Eileen Bernal become chief of staff. That happens to be one of the complaints presented by the Foundation for Transparency in Government on their affidavits for the recall of Mayor Dan Rivera. I said that I am confused because Mr. Maldonado agrees with the movement to recall the mayor yet, he voted in favor of the Home Rule Petition.
If he believes that hiring Ms. Bernal has been done outside of what the City Charter calls for thus become one of the complaints, why did he sanction the mayor’s actions voting for it?
I asked the council president and his response was that he has lots of respect for former councilor Bernal and didn’t want her to think this was against her. What? Are votes taken based on the rule of law and common sense or on friendship? I feel the same way about her but his vote contradicted his beliefs.
I wonder how much of that goes on!
Finance Committee failure
Back in July, Mayor Rivera requested a supplemental budget of $100,000 which was supposed to be handled by the Finance Committee. They had to meet and decide if the expenditures were justified and bring it back to the City Council for approval. Time went by and the law requires that these decisions are completed within 45 days. As a result of delays, the time expired and the supplemental budget was automatically approved due to lack of action from the City Council.
That’s in a nutshell what occurred although I see a more methodical plan. My first thought when I found out about it was that the money was to pay for Theodoro Rosario’s salary (the agronomist playing the role of city engineer) which was eliminated by a previous council vote in an effort to cancel his employment but the mayor persevered. Perhaps, if the Finance Committee approved the supplemental budget, it would have little chance of passing the city council approval. That’s why I thought that the delays and expiration of the 45 days were a carefully concocted trick to avoid the refusal while the mayor got his way.
I spoke to Kendrys Vasquez, chairman of the finance committee and he explained that the delays were caused by not being able to set up a meeting date, later complicated by Marc Laplante’s vacation. The other members of this committee are Laplante and Estela Reyes and I cannot understand why it became so difficult to schedule a brief meeting, make a decision and pass it on to the council within 45 days.
Kendrys suggested that perhaps Council President Modesto Maldonado was responsible in part for not getting after them for a timely response. I don’t know how the internal calendar of the city council functions but I doubt the president has to keep track of so many subcommittees on that board.
If as I suspect, this was a hoax, it was an insult perpetrated on all of us. Instead, if it was an oversight, it was a terrible mistake and they cannot be trusted.
You decide.
