Rama appoints 2 more City Hall consultants

A landscape architect engaged in environment conservation and a mechanical engineer joined the ranks of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama’s consultants.
Socorro Atega and engineer Vicente Vosotros were tapped to help develop Cebu City’s South Road Properties (SRP).

But the need for more experts was questioned by Councilor Margot Osmeña and her husband.

Councilor Osmeña acknowledged Atega’s credentials as a landscape artist.

“But you don’t need a consultant for landscaping,” she told Cebu Daily News.

Atega got her master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge.

Atega will provide input on the SRP’s planting design, particularly the SRP Park Development Plan. Her six-month contract at P18,000 a month runs from January to June this year.

Vosotros will share his expertise on mechanical engineering, industrial systems and environmental concerns.

His contract runs from November 2011 to April 2012 at P15,000 a month.

Rep. Tomas Osmeña chided Mayor Rama for adding two consultants to the 40 advisers already employed under his office.

“You have your resources but you have to spend this as wisely as possible so that basic service would be provided as cheaply as possible, as efficiently as possible and as timely as possible,” he said.

Osmeña, Rama’s predecessor, said he had more than 20 consultants during his time.

But he assigned most of them were to councilors whom he assigned to specific executive functions.
He said not all consultants perform the work they were hired to do.

“Consultants don’t really work. They only show up (at city hall) when they want to,” Osmeña said.

He said the exception was former Cebu City mayor Florentino Solon, who served as a nutrition consultant during his tenure. Solon was transferred to his wife’s office.

Instead of hiring more consultants, Osmeña recalled how he formed a Mayor’s Management Team (MMT) of young, college graduates to improve the systems in Cebu City Hall.

Rama disbanded the team, a sore point for Osmeña.

The mayor defended the number of consultants assigned to his office, saying they help him run City Hall more effectively.

“Let’s clarify, some of them work only for a few months,” Rama said.