Another bad week at the office for Mayor Bosco
The past week was not a good one for Mayor Bosco Vallarino.
It started with the initiation of a suit by Rio Abajo councillor, Javier Ortega for abuse of authority and was accompanied with some caustic comments like:"How can you work with someone who is clumsy and makes blunders every day?"
The suit accuses the mayor of the politically tinged, unlawfully firing of 200 City Treasury Department staff.
The complaint is based on the Mayor’s internal rules, which Ortega says stipulate that only the city’s treasurer may hire and fire staff.
That was followed by the government creating an inter-agency committee to resolve the city’s escalating garbage collection problem.
That was something that President Ricardo Martinelli had earlier stressed was the mayor’s number one job.
The committee is made up of the Ministries of Public Works, Economy and Finance, and Health. They plan to find solutions to the problem of garbage collection as well as the settling of the debt owed to Dimaud (the collection authority) by the State.
The central government owes $29 million, while residential users have accumulated an estimated $43 million in late payments, making a delinquency total of $72 million.
Meanwhile the city is desperately short of garbage collection trucks.
The committee will also be charged with the task of improved processes for the handling, collection, and final disposing of waste in the districts of Panama and San Miguelito, home to about two million people.
Health authorities are concerned that if the problem is not resolved soon, the garbage collection crisis could unleash a health epidemic in f Panama and San Miguelito.
Finally he was hit by the news of the city authorization of the destruction of 181 trees in the Obarrio district and the launch of a government campaign against obesity.
With the government committee lifting the garbage load from the mayor’s shoulders, maybe next week will be better.