A new broom sweeps well, I hope!

Long before the vacuum cleaner was invented, man relied upon the ordinary broom for house cleaning and sweeping the yard. It was a very useful tool to reach out and get the dust on seemingly inaccessible corners. Like most of our street cleaners, we, at home, still use the broom more than we do the vacuum cleaner. In the process, we avoid the latter's noisy and piercing sound and more importantly, we minimize cost.

More often, we take for granted the importance of the broom. It took my visiting sister Efleda, to remind me the role of such simple tool and more. One day, I bought a dozen brooms from a maker in Barangay Binaliw and gave a few to Manang Fleda. It was such an insignificant thing that I did not anticipate any lesson from it. But, after saying few oblivious words of thanks, my sister exclaimed "a new broom sweeps well" and then proceeded to mention a name as the purported author of the statement. She also mumbled related significant prose. Really, I could not remember who the author was neither did I know that there was such a quote.

The quotation assumed a wider perspective recently.

We are now midstream in the second term of the administration of His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Michael L. Rama. The recent movements of his key personnel indicated his struggle to do house cleaning of sort. Technical people do not use my sister's favored quote on brooms for they rather prefer a more corporate lingo "to streamline operations." But, as always is the case, the revamp of any administration is not different to house cleaning.  Its desired end cannot however be achieved with a single stroke. The revamp to be really effective must be the mayor's series of moves trying to fit key and trusted men in different places.

The mayor seems to follow that tack now. Following the first flag raising ceremony of the year, he announced the appointment of a new city administrator in Engr. Eugene Elizalde. The announcement surprised me because by mid-year last year, I heard him saying that Atty. Jose Marie Poblete, was doing well as his administrator. The mayor then expressed satisfaction although he also mentioned that he wanted to improve on it and perhaps, along that line of his search for improvement, he thought Engr. Elizalde was it.

Yet, before a month of sitting on the city administrator's chair ended, the new city administrator was quoted as planning to refuse the offer politely. Sources from city hall whispered that Engr. Elizalde, in fact, requested that an item in a council agenda where the protocol confirmation by the city council was included, be withdrawn. Meaning, he did not want the confirmation from the council because apparently he, without having warmed the seat of the little mayor, wanted out.

It was therefore not totally unexpected that when the mayor returned home from a foreign sojourn, he announced a shift. There was still a new city administrator to be appointed, a new broom, so to speak. We must consider that a city administrator is a little mayor of sort.  He is the hub of the city's activities. Nothing significant happens in the city without the administrator's knowing it.  In that context, a multifaceted personality is best to handle the job.

But, what surprised many, not excluding me, was the name of the person to administer the city - Dr. Lucille Mercado. To me, she is a virtual neophyte although, let me hasten to add that personally, I do not have any idea how experienced is Dr Mercado in manning a snake pit like that of the office of the city administrator.

In the midstream of Mayor Rama's administration, he should know who should step into what office to streamline operations. Using this assumption, I should like to think that the mayor knows Dr. Mercado, very well.  Against the pronounced reservations of insignificant people like me, I certainly hope that this new broom must be better than Atty. Poblete.