Council to challenge Rama on consultants

With their feud over the Mahiga Creek demolitions  still hanging, another showdown looms between Mayor Michael Rama and the Cebu City Council over the appointment of consultants.

Vice Mayor  Joy Augustus  Young said the council disagrees with  the  opinion of the City Legal Office that  the mayor is authorized to sign all consultancy contracts in City Hall, including those of the legislative department.

He said he will ask the committee on laws of Councilor Edgar Labella to review the opinion.

“We will not even allow him to interview our consultants.  It’s up to him to hire his consultants,” said Young. City Hall has 43 consultants, most of them hired during the past administration of mayor Tomas Osmeña.

Young said most of the consultants are  assigned to the legislative department, working with the councilors and their committees.

Only four to five  consultants are under the mayor’s office.

Young said the mayor signing the contracts of consultants for the legislative department violates the separation of powers of the executive and legislative branches.

(A similar conflict in the Provincial Capitol pushed the late vice governor Gregorio Sanchez Jr. to file charges of usurpation against Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, the subject of an ongoing administrative inquiry.)

Young said Mayor Rama should recall that that he had been signing  contracts of legal department consultants when he was vice mayor for three terms.

“Until the Commission on Audit (COA) says so, I will continue to sign consultancy contracts for the City Council,” Young  said.

For now, Young said he could only wish that the disagreements between Rama and the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK),  whose members dominate the council, will not escalate.

“But if he starts giving us trouble, that would already be a different story.  We will see what will happen until June 30,” he said.

Young said he and the 18 BO-PK councilors who attended a dinner hosted by  Rama last Wednesday, waited for the mayor to clarify some concerns, especially his decision to leave BO-PK.

“But he didn’t explain so we’ll wait until he carries out his threats.  By then, we will not take it lying down,” Young said.