COOTAD Reform Could Force Cuenca to Cut ~400 Municipal Jobs

What's COOTAD and Why Should You Care?

If you've never heard of COOTAD, you're not alone — most expats haven't. It stands for Código Orgánico de Organización Territorial, Autonomía y Descentralización, and it's basically the national law that governs how municipalities like Cuenca organize themselves, spend their money, and deliver services.

A proposed reform to COOTAD would require municipalities across Ecuador to allocate 70% of their budgets to investment spending — meaning infrastructure projects, capital improvements, and development. That sounds reasonable on paper, but the flip side is that it squeezes the other 30% that covers operational costs — and that's where salaries live.

The Impact on Cuenca

Cuenca's Director of Human Talent (essentially the city's HR chief) has warned that complying with the new 70/30 rule could force the municipality to cut approximately 400 positions.

These aren't just paper-pushing bureaucrats. The positions at risk include workers in:

• Municipal education programs — Cuenca runs its own educational initiatives separate from the national system
• Culture and arts programs — the city's museums, libraries, cultural centers, and public events
• Social services — programs that serve vulnerable populations

According to municipal officials, these programs collectively benefit more than 40,000 people in the Cuenca canton. Cutting the staff who run them could mean reduced hours, scaled-back programming, or outright closure of some services.

Already Trimming

It's worth noting that Cuenca hasn't been ignoring efficiency. The municipality has already reduced its headcount by 102 positions over the past three years through attrition and restructuring. So this isn't a case of a bloated bureaucracy refusing to slim down — they've been doing it, and the COOTAD reform would demand much more.

Going from 102 cuts over three years to potentially 400 additional cuts is a dramatic escalation. The municipality's argument is that you can only cut operational staff so far before service quality collapses.

What This Means for Expats

You might think municipal budget rules don't affect you, but they do:

• Cultural events and public programming — Cuenca's vibrant cultural scene (free concerts in Parque Calderón, museum exhibitions, public festivals) is partly funded by municipal operational budgets. Fewer staff means fewer events
• City services quality — everything from park maintenance to market administration to tourist information relies on municipal employees
• Library and education programs — some expats participate in municipal Spanish classes, cultural workshops, and library programs
• The ripple effect — 400 lost jobs means 400 families with reduced income in a city where the municipality is one of the largest employers. That affects the local economy

The Political Angle

The COOTAD reform is a national-level debate, not a Cuenca-specific decision. It's being pushed as a way to force municipalities across Ecuador to invest more in infrastructure rather than building large bureaucracies. The argument has merit — some municipalities in Ecuador do have bloated payrolls.

But Cuenca's pushback is that a one-size-fits-all rule doesn't account for cities that already run lean and use their operational budgets to fund genuinely useful programs. A city of 600,000+ with active education, culture, and social service programs has different needs than a small canton with 20,000 residents.

The reform is still being debated in the National Assembly, so nothing is final yet. But Cuenca's municipal government is clearly signaling that this would hurt, and they want residents to understand what's at stake.

This is one to watch. If the reform passes as written, you may start seeing the effects in reduced city services, fewer cultural events, and a leaner (but less capable) municipal government.

Sources: El Mercurio, Crónica