A June municipal evaluation attributed to Rubrum placed Puerto Vallarta’s government 100th out of 104 city administrations. The result adds a national marker to months of complaints over trash collection, sewer failures, road damage, and basic services.
The June municipal evaluation placed Mayor Luis Ernesto Munguía’s administration near the bottom of the table. Puerto Vallarta was also listed at No. 102 for public services, No. 97 for closeness to the public, and No. 91 for security perception.
Rubrum’s public description of its 104-municipality survey says it evaluates four areas. They are the mayor’s work, municipal public services, closeness to the population, and public perception of safety. The firm says its methodology uses 600 automated phone interviews in each municipality, with a stated margin of error of ±3.8 percentage points.
In Puerto Vallarta, garbage has piled up during collection disruptions. Sewer repairs have forced closures on key roads. Potholes, flooding, and drainage complaints are returning to public view as the rainy season begins.
Public services are the center of the problem
The lowest score was tied to public services. It is the part of the city government that most people judge because it is part of daily life.
Garbage collection has been one of the clearest flashpoints. The current administration opened with a public push to clear backlogged waste in October 2024. At the time, city officials said collection would take about 15 days to normalize. The issue did not disappear. In March, Puerto Vallarta took over garbage pickup after disputes with Red Ambiental. In May, garbage workers briefly halted service, adding another strain to a service already under scrutiny.
The sewer system has produced its own visible warnings. SEAPAL said this week it had stabilized a collapse in the Centro-Norte collector near Avenida México and the entrance to El Capricho. The agency then began a repair expected to take about two weeks. SEAPAL said the collector is part of the “columna vertebral” of Puerto Vallarta’s sanitary system and said the “drenaje opera actualmente con normalidad” while work continues.
That is the official line. The workload tells the other half of the story. SEAPAL said it repaired 305 leaks and broken pipes in the first half of May across water and drainage networks. The same report listed 35 clogged drains, 35 desilting jobs in manholes, and 24 septic tank cleanouts.
A ranking that reflects wider frustration
The evaluation does not prove that every service complaint began with this administration. Much of Puerto Vallarta’s infrastructure is old, heavily used, and under pressure from growth. The legal responsibility is still local. Mexico’s Article 115 places services such as water, drainage, waste collection, streets, parks, and public security under municipal authority.
That is why the ranking is politically damaging. It gives a national shape to local frustration that already had plenty of photos, street complaints, and neighborhood WhatsApp messages behind it.
City Hall has continued to announce repairs, cleanups, and service changes. The problem is that the latest evaluation suggests many people are not judging the government by its announcements. They are judging it by collection routes, sewer odors, flooded corners, and whether the street outside their home looks better than it did last month.
Trash collection and poor infrastructure are not unique to Puerto Vallarta; they are experiences shared nationwide in Mexico. PVDN has been reporting on the same issues in Puerto Vallarta for 15 years. The problems have plagued many city administrations.