ONLY less than two months in office, the administration of Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. is now adopting some cost-cutting measures in order to tide itself over with the meager budget left by the past city administration till the end of the year.

City Legal Oficer George Mejia explained the cost-cutting measure was ordered on Monday by City Administrator Alvin Fernandez after finding that city had already exceeded its budget for electricity for the year.

Mejia emphasized that this was not the doing of the Fernandez administration that assumed office only on July 1 this year but rather the past city administration.

“Malakas ang konsumo ng kuryente ( electric consumption is high). In fact, we have already exceeded our allocation for electricity,” said Mejia, a retired city court judge, without telling any figure.

The city administrator ordered thru a memorandum on Monday all offices at city hall to switch on their air-conditioners only at 9 a.m. and off at 12 noon and switch it on again from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

It was learned that Fernandez also ordered an investigation into the exceedingly high monthly water bills at the Malimgas Public Market, which is quite a surprise because it does not have enough stallholders.

This jibes with the observation expressed on Thursday by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez that Malimgas Public Market is not only not earning revenues but is also being operated at a very high cost, sacrificing other public services.

There was also a plan of the present city administration to pre-terminate the contract for security services that were entered into by the past city administration because the budget of the city is now getting thinner.

There were three security agencies contracted by the past administration to provide security services to the city-one for the Malimgas Market, the other for city hall and another for the city plaza.

Mejia said in this measure, the city is saving electricity on air-conditioning system for three hours daily, from Monday to Friday, which is already a big savings every month.