SANTA CRUZ

Since assuming office on June 30, 2022, Santa Cruz Municipal Mayor Marisa Red-Martinez has been conducting series of meetings with the key municipal departments providing frontline public services such as the Municipal Health Office and its Rural Health Units 1 & 2, the Municipal Agriculture Office, Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, the Municipal Engineering Office and the Social Welfare Development Office to align her administration’s executive agenda with ongoing as well as planned programs, projects, and activities of these units. 

Across these meetings, Mayor Red would stress the need to innovate program design, maximize the use of public funds to benefit the broader population while at the same provide special considerations to the vulnerable sectors in the municipality. 

Why these meetings are important 

Open dialogues between the local chief executive and personnel of the LGU’s departments are key to maintaining a unified direction in municipal service delivery. Through these meetings, Mayor Marisa Red is appraised of the status of work, as well as problems that prevent personnel from discharging their duties. In turn, through her insights based on experience and knowledge of comparable best practices drawn from study or encounters with other LGUs, Mayor Marisa Red is able to stimulate and open new strategies that can potentially enhance the local government’s services. Free and transparent communications between the Mayor and LGU staff also promote a culture of collaboration and accountability.