By Cesar Neyoy | Bajo El Sol
The mayor and the candidate who hopes to unseat him are clashing over recent comments that question the value and effectiveness of the city’s recycling and animal control programs.
At a city council session this week, Mayor Martin Porchas publicly took Arturo Magana, Somerton’s vice mayor, to task for the comments he made in stories that appeared in Bajo El Sol and the Yuma Sun.
Porchas said Magana’s comments serve to give the city a negative image, but Magana said he was merely fulfilling his responsibility as an elected official to raise questions about the city’s use of public funds.
Porchas, seeking his second term as mayor, is opposed by Magana in the city’s March 12 primary election.
In recent stories in Bajo El Sol and Yuma Sun that profiled the two candidates, Magana cited the recycling and animal control programs as causes for dissatisfaction with city government.