Cataño Transition Committee Uncovers $540,000 Contract the Comptroller Ties to Political Campaigning

The transition committee of Cataño's new municipal administration has put under scrutiny a $540,000 advertising contract that, according to findings from Puerto Rico's Comptroller's Office, was used to produce material resembling political campaign propaganda for the late mayor Julio Alicea Vasallo, rather than official municipal government communication ¹. The finding comes just days after new mayor Hiram Torres Montalvo took office following a tightly contested special election, and puts front and center a debate over how Puerto Rico's municipalities spend public money on public-relations and design firms.

Context

Alicea Vasallo died on August 13, 2026 while serving as mayor, forcing a special election to replace him ³. On September 27, Torres Montalvo, then secretary of the Department of Consumer Affairs (DACO) and a New Progressive Party (PNP) candidate, won by a narrow margin of 241 votes over Bethzaida Rodríguez Torres, the late mayor's widow, in a race marked by vote-buying allegations that the PNP's party commission denied ³. Days after taking office, Torres Montalvo presented a transition committee led by former prosecutor Ana Quintero, with former Family Secretary Carmen Ana González Magaz, attorney Francisco J. González Magaz, and, in the key fiscal role, former Comptroller and former Treasury Secretary Manuel Díaz Saldaña alongside fellow former Treasury Secretary Juan Zaragoza Gómez ². The committee's mandate includes reviewing municipal accounts, contracts, public works, services, federal funds, and procurement processes ². At its first public hearing, held October 6 at Cataño's Miguel Santiago Ocasio Convention Center, the committee presented its findings on the advertising contract ¹².

The numbers

According to the Comptroller's Office, the firm Publicidad Tere Suárez billed the municipality of Cataño approximately $540,000 in contracts from 2023 through the present ¹. Among the specific findings: graphic design pieces matching political campaign material; municipal billing for items related to campaign activities; political propaganda, voter lists, and campaign-branded photos found on municipally owned computers; and a documented episode on October 16, 2024, in which a municipal sound truck was used, with the then-mayor wearing campaign apparel, to make political announcements ¹. Díaz Saldaña, who leads the committee's finance and audit area, formally recommended evaluating whether to continue the contract with the firm, opening administrative investigations into the municipal personnel involved, and pursuing recovery of the misused funds ¹. The committee itself sent referrals to the relevant authorities to evaluate possible legal violations ¹. The election that put Torres Montalvo in office was decided by just 241 votes, 1,725 to 1,484, a margin that underscores how sensitive public trust is in this San Juan Bay municipality's administration right now ³.

What it means for you

If you live in Cataño, this finding is not a bookkeeping technicality: every dollar spent on propaganda disguised as official communication is a dollar not invested in the services the municipality owes you, from trash collection to road maintenance. And if you live in any other Puerto Rico municipality, this case is a window into a pattern that is not exclusive to Cataño: town halls that hire design and PR firms with public funds, without it always being clear where official communication ends and a sitting mayor's personal or partisan promotion begins. Puerto Rico's Government Ethics Law bars the use of public resources, personnel, and property for political-partisan purposes, and municipal contracts — including advertising contracts — are public records that any resident can request.

How to act / Checklist

1. Request copies of your municipality's advertising and public-relations contracts directly from the municipal Finance Office or through a written public-records request.
2. Check the Puerto Rico Comptroller's Office portal (ocpr.gov.pr) to see whether your municipality has recent audits or reports published.
3. If you suspect misuse of public funds for political-partisan purposes, you can file a complaint with the Office of Government Ethics (OEG) or directly with the Comptroller's Office.
4. Attend or follow the livestream of your municipality's transition-committee hearings whenever there is a change in administration; in Cataño these are broadcast live from the Miguel Santiago Ocasio Convention Center.
5. Ask your municipal legislature to put the continuation or cancellation of questioned contracts on the public agenda before automatically renewing them.

What's next

Cataño's transition committee, with Díaz Saldaña leading the fiscal review, must decide in the coming weeks whether to recommend formally canceling the contract with Publicidad Tere Suárez, in addition to completing the administrative investigations into the municipal personnel named ¹. The referrals sent to the authorities could lead to proceedings before the Office of Government Ethics or the Department of Justice if ethics-law violations are confirmed, though no outside agency has yet announced its own formal investigation. The committee, which has a mandate to review the entirety of the municipality's contracts, public works, and services, is expected to present additional findings in upcoming public hearings before Torres Montalvo completes his first quarter as mayor.