Dirty Tricks or not?

So, as we approach the Municipal Elections on the 24th May, we are finding that this council are inaugurating projects which have lay in Limbo for months and in some cases a few years. The problem with this is that THIS Councillor, Jeff Wiszniewski, has not been informed or consulted on any of these projects. Despite the fact that many of these projects were initiated from our office.
One point in question, is the laying of the Tarmac on the roads of La Marina Urb.
This work commenced without this office, The Office of the Urbanizaciones, being informed. Yes, I knew that a grant had been given to San Fulgencio late last year, by the Diputacion in Alicante, but no one thought it relevant to let me know when the work was going to start. I travelled to my office one morning to find many of the roads blocked by road laying machinery.
The second point is, the Library. We had as part of our Manifesto in 2011, that we would push for a Library, here in La Marina Urb. We arranged to have a partition built in the Social Centre. We arranged to have the book cases bought. We arranged for the donation of books. We collected these books at our office and arranged to have them stored at the Social Centre. When we asked what was happening with the Library, we were informed that there was no one available to operate the Library and that they could not afford to employ anyone to run the library. It was suggested that we could organise volunteers to run the Library, but no encouragement was given. Today we discovered, that for the last few weeks, work has been going on, to erect the book shelves. A lady from the Village has been tasked to arrange and categorise the books. If it was not for a gentleman who dropped off his wife for a craft class, we still would not know.
It also looks as though the Oasis Project will get under way in the next few weeks. Again I find that this is close to the Elections. Although we still do not know who has won the contract, it seems that they are keeping this a secret as well. However I fully understand the annoyance of the residents of Oasis, who see new tarmac being laid on the Urbanisation, at no cost to the residents. One particular resident of Oasis is very angry that he has to pay approximately €8,000 as his contribution. I wonder why the contribution from Alicante, could not have been used to offset the cost to the residents of Oasis.
Our office has also put forward a project last October, for installing exercise machines in the park next to the Market Place. I wonder if that will also miraculously be started before the cut off date of 27th March. Also in the pipeline is the Men´s Shed Project, which may also be started before the cut off date.
Despite the fact that there is an agreement with the Partido Popular, they continue to forget or do not deem it necessary, to inform this office of what they are doing.
To me, this is neither of the above, this to me just shows the contempt that the PP shows for myself, our Party and the Extranjeros who reside on the Urbanisations. I am personally fed up that this Urbanisation and the residents are getting the scraps from the masters table.
The forthcoming election will afford the residents of this community, the opportunity to reverse this trend. We deserve better.

Fiesta of San Anton and the collection of the chickens

It has been pointed out to me,  that through several of the forums, there has been expressions of distate at the treatment of the chickens and rabbits at this fiesta. For the last few years I have declined to be part of this. My personal opinion is that it is cruel and unnecessary.  In fact, after last years fiesta, I suggested to the Mayor that it would be more humane to carry the animals in cages. This would not detract from the essence of the fiesta as currently the animals are collected and eventually placed in the back of a van with cages. Yes cages. Most, if not all survive the ordeal of being carried through the streets. So it would be simple to change.
Perhaps because there is an election this year, the ruling party does not wish to offend any of its voters. However they have failed to realise that more and more of the residents of La Marina, have become more politically aware and most of the extranjeros abhor animal cruelty

Municipal Rubbish tip.

It has come to my notice that as of today, the Councillor for Parks and Gardens, Paulino Herrero, has has organised  a new scheme for residents to be able to use the Municipal Green Waste Deposit. A card will be issued to home owners to allow them to dispose of garden waste at the Municipal tip on Calle Extremadura. This apparently has been brought about by the fact that outsiders are travelling to La Marina Urb. to dispose of their garden waste. Also companies are using this facility, instead of using dumps in their own area, which in some cases charge a fee.
The New Cards will be available from the offices of the Tourist Information Office. People requiring such cards will need to produce  some form of identification showing their address in San Fulgencio Municipality.

San Fulgencio Council.

In reply to the La Marina Info, I would like to point out some of the errors that have been put onto this "Blog".
While San Fulgencio Council works hard to reduce the overall debt of more than €9,000,000.00 that was left by the previous government, it also has had to dismiss several contracts which were implemented by the previous Government Team. If they had been allowed to continue, it is my belief the Town would have been bankrupt.
The costs of Electricity and Water are public utilities and are out with the control of local authorities.
The comment about the the Council voting to increase taxes is correct, in that in order to maintain the current levels of service and infrastructure, taxes had to be increased. The reason being that, as more than 3,000 persons are no longer on the Padron, there has been a reduction of approximately €660,000 from the yearly grants, supplied by Valencia and Alicante. The author of the "Blog" however fails to state that the Tax on motor vehicles will be reduced. Of course he would not know this, as at the last council meeting (Pleno), neither he nor the rest of the opposition Councillors turned up to discuss these proposals. By his own hand he has also explained on his "Blog" entry dated 12th June 2014 paragraph 2, the above reason to be true.
With regards the increase in salary for Samantha Hull ( Not Gallon ), there are many who have said that she deserves the increase. Including Mariano Marti Sanchez ( your boss ), who albeit was being sarcastic, suggested she deserved the combined salaries of those that left our employ.
As most will be aware, the other Assessors left our employ at the beginning of the year. The fourth member left at the end of September. This whole exercise has resulted in a net saving of approximately €105,000 over a year. The work load has not diminished any and this results in both myself and Samantha having to work longer hours and to take work home with us.
The writer also states on the "Blog", that none of the opposition councillors are invited to any of the Junta de Gobiernos, this is because by it¨s name it is a meeting of the Government Team. In all Town Councils in Spain and Spanish speaking countries, opposition members are not normally invited to be part of the Junta de Gobierno.
In relation to the remuneration received by myself, this is my salary, which is well documented, and in order to qualify for said salary, I have to attend these meetings of the Junta. If I am on holiday, I do not qualify, therefore these days have to be re scheduled. As opposition councillors, I am sure that if they wanted to, they could examine the total amounts paid to me over a year. As declared in my taxes. They would discover that since 2013, I am in fact as yet underpaid, by several thousand euros.
And for those that do not know, I attend my office most days from 09.00 hrs until 15.00 hrs. This does not count the extra hours put in on Civic duties as well as the hours taken up by working at home. Neither does it take into account the hours spent at meetings.

Feral Cats

It has come to my attention that some people who live in our Municipality are up in arms about the alleged cull of feral cats in Guardamar. They are obviously afraid that this Town Hall, may adopt a similar policy.
Let me assure everyone that we have no plans to instigate any such policy. I have spoken to members of the local charities and we do not have a problem with feral cats. Many of the feral cats in our area have been trapped and neutered. Volunteers do go out and feed them and in general terms, thanks to the charities and volunteers, our own feral cats are not a major problem. We must be vigilant though. We do not want people from outside our Municipality, dumping cats or dogs in our area. I would also like to urge the residents of our community to continue supporting the animal charities to ensure that we can continue to keep the situation at a manageable level.

August Fiesta La marina.

I regret to say that there has been a delay in getting information out to the public as to who will be performing at this years fiesta. Due to the cost involved it has to go before a committee ( Junta de Gobierno ) and a tender process is used to select the company that will put it on. The three main companies that submitted tenders failed to submit the correct paperwork and they had to re submit, twice.
Hopefully the paperwork is now in order and we will have a decision today. We cannot divulge who is performing until this final decision is made. On a previous occasion, when the information was released before the final stage was completed, the opposition parties tried to imply that the selection of the company used for the fiesta, was pre ordained.
We have the printers on hold as well as the preferred acts,
 so please be patient and hopefully all will be revealed next week.

Parking on yellow lines.

Last week a visitor to my office on Calle Madrid, parked there car opposite. There are yellow lines on both sides of the road. When he returned to his car he discovered that he had received a parking ticket. He returned to the office and enquired if the yellow lines were still in force. On checking, we discovered that they were, so please be aware, when visiting our office.