The U.S. Foundation Bloomberg Philanthropies has awarded the Guadalajara municipal government a donation of $US1 million to continue its crusade against corruption.
Guadalajara, headed by Mayor Enrique Alfaro, was one of four runners-up out of 290 cities from 19 countries participating in the Latin American and
Caribbean Mayors Challenge organized by the foundation led by former New York mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
This ideas competition encourages cities to generate innovative ideas that solve major challenges and improve city life. São Paulo, Brazil was awarded this year’s Grand Prize and will receive US$5 million for its proposal to connect struggling local farmers on the outskirts of the city to vibrant city markets and restaurants in need of organic products.
“The variety and ingenuity of the five winning ideas highlights the innovation happening in Latin American and Caribbean cities,” said Bloomberg,. “If these ambitious ideas take root, they have the potential to improve lives across the region and serve as a model for other cities around the world.”
Guadalajara’s entry consisted of developing a website to make the building permitting process highly transparent. It will publicly map business names, plans, licenses, and payments, giving private companies and communities much-needed predictability and by providing citizens visibility into the process. The aim is not only to reduce corruption, but also encourage the city to adhere to zoning regulations and bolster its historically weak urban planning.
Since taking office, the Alfaro administration says it has identified almost 200 real-estate projects that are in violation of local laws. City hall has been besieged by indignant residents complaining at developments they say they were not consulted about. Alfaro admits that many of them were granted permits under previous governments and he is therefore unable to shut them down.
Alfaro came into power vowing to tackle decades-old corruption in Mexico’s largest municipality, which boasts a population of more than 1.5 million. A no-nonsense politician, he immediately implemented one of his most vocal campaign promises: cleaning up the notoriously corrupt system of issuing licenses for street vendors and banishing hundreds of ambulant sellers from the city center.
He also cut the high salaries of senior public officials and introduced a measure that gives citizens more say in local government matters, including the right to vote on what some taxes can be spent on. And in another bold move, he rescinded the contract with the local firm that operated the city’s parking meter system, accusing them of ripping off city hall to the tune of 40 million pesos.
2017 will be a key year in Alfaro’s career. As long as he isn’t tainted by any major scandal, at some stage he will likely express his interest in running for governor of Jalisco in 2018. As yet, Alfaro has avoided taking publicly about the subject, although those close to him say he believes he can go one better than in 2015, when he came in a close second to current governor Aristoteles Sandoval of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
The other cities receiving US$1 million grants from Bloomberg Philanthropies were Bogota and Medellin, Colombia and Santiago, Chile. These cities, together with Guadalajara and Sao Paolo, will receive robust implementation support from Bloomberg Philanthropies to bring their proposals to life.