Councillor participation advances in Torreón, but several committees are lagging behind.

While in Torreón, a City Council is consolidating its monthly sessions and improving the attendance of its council members, the participation of several city council committees has been put on hold.

Seven of the 19 committees did not hold any sessions during the last reporting period, which represents a setback compared to public expectations and a violation of municipal regulations.

The MX Laguna Council collective presented its semiannual report for the first half of 2025, which evaluates the performance of the City Councils of the municipalities of Torreón and Matamoros, Coahuila.

This social oversight exercise, which has been carried out for more than six years, seeks to strengthen accountability, transparency, and citizen participation in the municipal legislative sphere.

In Torreón, the report highlights that the requirement to hold at least one Council meeting per month was met. However, seven of the 19 city council committees did not hold meetings during the period evaluated, which represents a violation of municipal regulations. Despite this, progress was made in councilor attendance and in opening channels of communication with the public.

Karla Barrios, coordinator of the Regidor MX program, noted that it is necessary to strengthen the constant updating of transparency portals, as it has been detected that some City Council sessions that were broadcast live have been removed from digital platforms. She also emphasized the importance of integrating citizen participation mechanisms and promoting the holding of traveling City Council meetings.

In contrast, The municipality of Matamoros showed a significant lag, as 18 of the 19 commissions did not meet during the period evaluated. Although it was announced that the City Council sessions will soon begin broadcasting, specific dates have not yet been set.

During the report presentation, Marco Zamarripa, director of the CCI, emphasized that this evaluation allows for the identification of both progress and areas of opportunity in the work of the city councils. Barrios, for his part, affirmed that Regidor MX has established itself as a tool that reflects the commitment, or lack thereof, of council members to their roles as citizen representatives.

The analysis also revealed that effective participation in the Council is uneven. While some council members stand out for their contributions that enrich the debate, others limit themselves to reading documents without contributing value to the discussion or decision-making.

The report concludes that beyond being a compendium of data, it is a tool for continuous improvement. City councils have the opportunity to strengthen the effective participation of their members, ensure the digital availability of public information, and maintain committee meetings—key elements for efficient and transparent public management.

Representatives of the organizations that make up the MX Laguna Councilor Collective were present at the presentation, including Jesús Prado of Alzando Voces, Patricia Tobías of PC29, Aldo Valdés of Unión Allegro, and Armando Paredes of the Educational Observatory.

The full report can be found in the Regidor MX Laguna section of the official CCI Laguna website at https://ccilaguna.org.mx/regidormxlaguna .