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.