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Gabriela and Monica are friends; two smart, educated, attractive young Mexicanas
who work in adjacent offices at City Hall. Both work in brand-new jobs.
Both are helping to move Mazatlán into a new century. Gabriela de Diego
is Municipal Coordinator of Public Information Access, which locals call
“transparency,” a buzzword for the new ideal that the public sector should
be open to inspection, not work in secret. It’s a new wind in Mexico…and
a new broom. The Public Information office was created by the year-old,
pioneering, Sinaloa Public Information Law. This state’s reputation for
corruption, dirty politics and wild-west lawlessness may be revised, since
they led the country—even the Federal government—in this wave of reform.
Gabriela de Diego, a civil rights lawyer out of the University of Mazatlán,
was a natural choice for the prestigious position. Though young and energetic,
she has worked for the city government for over six years, representing
the city police and Election Board, then serving as the municipal Comptroller,
a post she worked full time while also getting the Access office off the
ground! She knows her way around the Palacio Municipal and has a reputation
for being smart, tough, persuasive…and a notorious work-aholic who regularly
puts in 12 hour days. The law grants access to public records, including
spending. Citizens can request information to help them deal with their
billing and legal troubles, and to see what the government is up to. The
law is a firewall against corruption, misuse of monies, and governmental
license. And Gabi’s office guards the law. When information is not forthcoming
Gabi has to force some departments to cough up, using her well-known toughness.
“This whole open, clean, culture is new here,” she says. “There are old-time
bureaucrats who are having trouble adjusting.” Until Srta. de Diego comes
in to lay down The Law. “It’s a huge responsibility,” Gabi says. “We are
breaking a trail here, and I have to be impartial. We don’t just deliver
information, we safeguard the spirit of open government against anyone who
might work to subvert it. An open access is a basic necessity for good government.”
Public scrutiny will hopefully prevent embarrassing financial scandals.Gabi
firmly believes that her office will help a safer, more workable, healthier
city to rise above the past reputation of corruption, waste, and dirty dealing.
So everybody—even foreigners who live or visit here—benefit from transparency.
As Gabriela de Diego puts it, “A city becomes more livable and attractive
when it’s well-run. When you improve government, you automatically improve
your life.” Next door in the office of CAE, the Center for Business Assistance,
Monica Cardenas works in another newly-created office, |
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one that has received less national attention but is of greater interest
to foreigners with dreams of starting businesses in Mazatlán. CAE exists
for the purpose of expediting applications. Anyone who has slogged through
the endless procession of lines, forms, and clerks that official applications
require would see the CAE as a dream come true. You come to Monica and tell
her what you want todo, she gets your information, sends it around to all
the offices and has it back in a day or two. You walk in and pick it up…and
you’re in business. One-stop shopping. The Center is another state project
that moved into Mazatlán, with a mixture of state and city funding. It represents
an effort by Governor Juan Millan’s team to make it easier and less intimidating
to invest and create jobs in Sinaloa. The next step is another pioneering
move for Sinaloa: standardizing business application procedures over the
entire state. Monica was tapped for the job because of her degrees in Administration
and Information Science, her years of work for foreign factories at the
border in Baja California, where she learned a thing or two about pounding
paper through bureaucracies, and her excellent English. In its first year,
CAE has taken 500 businesses to startup. “We handled Soriana when they opened,”
Monica says. “Also Sello Rojo milk, Sumitomo auto parts, and a Japanese
yogurt company. But so far there have been few Americans or Canadians. We
hope they will learn they can save time and frustration with us.” One American
who went to CAE last month raves about Monica’s action. “She took care of
everything,” he says, “no waiting, no ‘come back tomorrow with a stamp from
so-and-so’, she just handled it and handed me back my business license!”
CAE can’t expedite federal matters like immigration papers, but the happy
applicant reports that Monica drove him to Immigration in her own car and
he got his residency work papers in record time. Obviously this service
is immensely helpful to foreigners wishing to start a coffeehouse or bed
& breakfast, and it’s obvious that makes it easier to invest in the area,
generating more local income and a broader tax base. But Monica points out
that CAE also pays for itself by preventing wasted time when clerks deal
with people unfamiliar with the system or language. “When we send in paperwork
it goes to the right places, in the right form, to the right people,” she
says. “Everything goes smoothly and the city and state save time and money.”
So foreigners now have a powerful ally when dealing with local bureaucracies.
Another North American applicant said, “It’s even easier than getting licensed
back home!” Which is a point of pride for Mexicans like Gabriela and Monica
who are working to make Mexico more modern, efficient, and fun to live in.
To contact CAE, telephone: 982-2111 (Extension 1392 when recording answers) |
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