Given an opportunity to air their views on how to address Chapala’s most urgent problems, contenders for the mayor’s seat inexplicably side stepped the local government’s financial crunch at a candidates’ forum held at the Instituto Tecnologico Superior (ITS) campus on Tuesday.
After taking turns at introducing themselves and outlining their respective political ideologies, six of the seven mayoral candidates were given five minutes to answer the question, “What problems do you identify in the municipality and how would you resolve them?”
Recurrent themes in their responses included beefing up public security, fine tuning city hall’s administrative tasks, improving public services, generating employment and enhancing the community’s education and health care services.
Not a single one made even passing mention of the city’s ominous financial difficulties.
The topic finally arose in the last segment when each candidate was given three minutes to answer written questions posed by members of the audience. The query for Juan Carlos Pelayo Pelayo of the National Action Party (PAN) asked, “Can Chapala’s financial crisis be solved during the next three-year term of office and what three concrete measures do you propose?”
“It’s possible to improve but not completely overcome the municipality’s financial problems in a three-year period,” he replied. “It will take around 20 years to pay off the current debt.” The three strategies he suggests to begin tackling the issue: austerity, payroll cutbacks and revenue generation.
Candidates participating on the panel were Moises Anaya Aguilar, Citizen’s Movement (MC); Javier Degollado Gonzalez, Institutional Revolutionary Party-Ecologist Green Party alliance (PRI-PVEM); Mario Ferrer Villafuentes, New Alliance (PANAL); Juan Carlos Pelayo Pelayo, National Action Party (PAN); Adriana Perez Ornelas, Labor Party (PT); and Alejandro Ramirez Perez, Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD). Jose de Jesus Hernandez Hernandez, National Regeneration Movement (Morena), did not appear.
The audience consisted of approximately 150 ITS students and professors, along with a small crowd of interested citizens and campaign supporters.
Overall, the forum was conducted in a spirit of civility, with all candidates appearing confident and comfortable they focused more on expressing their views and proposals rather than slinging barbs at their rivals.