The Dominican press has been covering the plight of new mayor of Santo Domingo, Johnny Ventura, who regardless of the real problems he has as he sets about modernizing the Santo Domingo municipality, has to deal with the pressures of job-seekers from his own political party. TV newscasts have showed overeager PRD members at the city government headquarters loudly demanding they be appointed because of their affiliation and years of work for the party. Ventura inherits the municipality from a fellow PRD party member, Rafael Suberví Bonilla. He also inherits a payroll of almost 8,000 PRD members. PRD members from other factions of the party want to replace their fellow PRD members. "I have told those that are coming here to find jobs that there are no jobs available, because we do not have money to give away here," Ventura said recently. The municipality of Santo Domingo received RD$332.5 million pesos in 1997, which are deemed insufficient to accommodate the needs of the capital city. Ventura, the most popular merengue player of all times, has the support of most Dominicans, and so far the expressed cooperation of the PLD government towards which, contrary to other PRD members, he has stressed the importance of working together for the benefit of the city. The Listín Diario reported that former mayor Rafael Suberví Bonilla used the city hall to promote his candidacy to the Presidency. In an item in the Sunday newspaper, the RD$40 million Bulevar de las Estrellas on Winston Churchill Avenue and the RD$50 million remodeling of the Malecón were highlighted as constructions to project the image of the former Minister of Tourism. The newspaper presents photos of what it calls the "disastrous" state in which Ventura received the city hall, which the newspaper reports Suberví hardly visited given the state of abandon of the offices. Ventura told the Listín Diario that he does not need the municipality to make him famous, what he would like people to say was that his passing through the municipality "was worth it."
