Former Treasury Secretary Juan Zaragoza, a member of the transition committee for the new Cataño municipal administration led by Mayor Hiram Torres Montalvo, said in an interview on Magic 97.3’s morning radio program Primer Round that the municipality’s finances will be under close review. He revealed the municipality holds a certificate of deposit of about $8 million.
One wants to identify as precisely as possible any bomb that is going to explode,
"At least there is cash here," Zaragoza said, explaining that one of his main worries was finding a municipality without enough available cash. He said the committee must now determine why that money is held in reserve, whether it relates to FEMA projects requiring matching funds and, in particular, whether essential services are going unmet.
The municipality operates on a budget of about $48 million. Zaragoza said the financial analysis begins Monday and that he requested information on how municipal revenues have behaved in recent years. He wants to know whether higher revenue, driven partly by inflation and the extraordinary influx of federal funds, led the municipality to raise recurring expenses, warning that the municipality must be ready to operate with fewer resources when revenues return to more normal levels.
The committee will also try to detect problems that could surprise the incoming administration. "One wants to identify as precisely as possible any bomb that is going to explode," he said. It will examine the operations of municipal departments and question their heads.
Zaragoza said Torres Montalvo has a plan for his first 90 days and that he sensed urgency in the incoming team. He acknowledged earlier political differences with the new mayor but, asked whether he would protect the administration, answered: "No, I’m not going to protect it."