Notes from Extraordinary Plenary Session of Bedar Town Hall, June 22, 2011

After the inaugural session held in early June where most of the current town councillors were sworn in, this was the first working session of the Bedar town council. It apparently replaced the ordinary session which should have taken place on the final Wednesday of June.

In attendance were all three Opposition councillors; four out of five of the PSOE ruling party councillors; the Mayor; and the town Secretary Juan Cintas. Eight people were in the audience, including several members of the Opposition support team; several PP councillors from Los Gallardos in support of Opposition No. 1 Ana Rubio García; and María Dolores Castro Benavides (Maloli) from the town hall.

(As per procedure, the Agenda of the meeting had been distributed several days in advance along with the notification of the session and the Minutes of the previous session. At an orientation session held for new PP-backed councillors held in Almeria, Ms. Rubio and No. 3 councillor Sr. Cristóbal Castaño, reviewed the points to be voted on at the 22 June session and were coached on points of debate and how the Opposition members would be voting. 

That information was shared at a pre-plenary meeting held on 22 June where the two afore-mentioned were joined by No. 2 councillor David Horton and translators. It was decided that as an “Urgent Matter”, a request would be made by the Opposition such that Mr. Horton be allowed to make arrangements for a translator so that he could understand plenary session proceedings and study town hall files related to matters to be voted upon.



Shortly before the start of the session, we were warned by our colleagues from Los Gallardos that as the session was an Extraordinary, no Urgent Matters could be raised by Opposition councillors. In the event, as seen below, the Mayor addressed the translation problem immediately).

The first order of business was the swearing in of Mr. Horton who had been unable to attend the inaugural session. Mr. Horton resisted taking the verbal oath saying that he could not swear to something which he did not understand. He requested the assistance of Ms. Castro which the Mayor denied. He stated that no one from the public could be allowed to translate, that Mr. Horton could only be helped by other councillors from the Opposition Party. He said that Mr. Horton should have considered this problem before deciding to run as a town councillor.
After several tense moments where it appeared that Mr. Horton might be denied his position, Mr. Horton finally took the oath and was allowed to take his seat. (The Opposition will be continuing its request for translation services for Mr. Horton, especially since the Mayor himself has the use of a translator, paid for by town hall funding, to assist him in matters related to the over 40% of Bédar residents for whom Spanish is a second language). 
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The rest of the session covered primarily procedural matters related to the commencement of the new municipal administration and its operations.

A motion relating to the frequency of plenary sessions (ordinaries only once every three months; extraordinaries at any time) was debated by the Opposition who requested more frequent sessions such that town hall proceedings could be more closely monitored. The motion as presented was passed, by five votes (all PSOE councillors in attendance) to three.

Once again, the Mayor used his discretion and refused to create Information Commissions, the primary means whereby Opposition councillors are able to find out in advance of the plenaries about administrative matters currently in progress and subject to vote at the plenary. The only commission to be created – that related to Accounts – is required by law.

All postings as representatives to the various collegiate organs and heads of local government sectors were made, as usual, to PSOE councillors. The Opposition councillors have no responsi-bilities under the current town hall administration. The Mayor also added a second deputy mayor.

One motion concerned the salaries of the Mayor and his full-time deputy mayor. The Mayor stated that he had not raised the salaries since the previous term and awarded himself 2000 euros net x 14 months as well as 875 euros net x 14 months for the deputy mayor. According to our records, the salaries during the 2007-2011 term were 1800 and 800 euros respectively.

The Opposition argued that given the current financial crisis and the impact it was having on so many people, the Mayor should lead by example and offer to take a cut in his salary. The Mayor countered by saying that his salary, compared to that of Mayors in other towns, was actually quite modest, especially considering the excellent management which he offered the town, primarily evidenced by the fact that Bedar is not in debt.

In the event, the motion was passed, again, five votes to three.

The final motion of importance relates to the retroactive creation of Ms. Castro’s position. In the 2007-2011 term, the then Opposition argued that Ms. Castro could not legally be both an employee in the town hall and a town councillor. The Opposition requested to know whether Ms. Castro’s position had ever been publicly advertised and open to all qualified applicants, as demanded by law, and what her qualifications were.

The Mayor replied only that Ms. Castro’s salary did not cost the Bedar Town Hall anything but refused to answer the other questions. Ms. Castro subsequently resigned as PSOE town councillor but retained her position at the town hall.

As Ms. Castro has frequently been the only person that non-Spanish speaking residents deal with at the Bedar town hall, her position and realm of authority has been a subject of much speculation through the years. It now appears that the position is as an “Advisor to Immigrants” whose duties include translation with a renumeration of 715 euros net x 14 months. The Mayor also mentioned that the job was filled by someone who was very trustworthy.

Confusion arises from the fact that the motion refers to the “Creation of a Future Work Position” when clearly the position has already been filled. The Opposition intends to pursue investigations in this matter, especially requesting that Ms. Castro be required to also attend to Mr. Horton’s translation needs.

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Given her inexperience, Ms. Rubio Garcia acquitted herself well as spokesperson for the Opposition. Whether or not the Mayor continues to ignore the Opposition’s requests for participation and transparency, it is still early days.

What is clear is that the Opposition needs to keep pressing on procedural matters to show that they are in fact well informed in matters of town hall administration. Further participation from the general public, especially at town hall plenary sessions, is crucial, both to show Opposition team members that they are supported in their endeavours and so that the Mayor realizes that citizens want to know what’s going on.