Mayor of San Pedro Town, His Lordship Mayor Daniel Guerrero, is perhaps the mayor that has communicated the most with the residents. His medium is the Reef TV Good Morning Show where he entertains questions, complaints, suggestions from the public. And very often he comments that he welcomes suggestions because it is the only way that he can know what the people want.
Recently, however, it has been suggested to the Mayor to cut down on unnecessary spending so that the council can have money to invest on security/policing so as to lower crime and vandalism. The area that callers have been suggesting is to cut down on fireworks spending which could amount to up to $80,000 per year. This, the Mayor says, will never happen because his people and tourists deserve colorful celebrations.
We believe that the suggestions to the Mayor do have their merit and deserve some more attention. At a public meeting the idea could be trashed out and a consensus may be reached as to which deserves more attention- fireworks or private security/policing. Eighty thousand dollars could easily pay, as one caller did the mathematics, for some five officers. These new officers would be needed only at night when the problem occurs, and the public will have other good suggestions.
And it is not only in the areas of fireworks/celebrations that the San Pedro Town Council can cut down on spending. There are many other areas in which the island’s administrators can cut down in order to allocate funding for other major issues. The island’s residents are screaming out that the island is being overrun by thugs and thieves who are taking away the island’s peace and tranquility.
I am sure that most of us will understand if we have one less fireworks display for the year (or a shorter, lest costly one). Yes it’s great to allocate money for our festivities and celebrations in order to attract visitors to San Pedro, but we must also be mindful of keeping our island safe in order to keep attracting visitors to a place that is safe a save heaven. There is no point in spending all that money in looking good when nobody wants to visit.
We believe our Mayor is a good communicator. He dialogues a lot with the people, and good communication is a two-way street – speaking and listening. If the Mayor can listen a bit more to the suggestions of the residents, he will then be the perfect communicator. Just a little bit of constructive criticism because we do think that Mayor Danny is doing a good job.
Sacrifice is giving up something good for something better; you have to sacrifice one thing for the other.
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