Sore bum - empty tum!

Went into the Town Hall early this morning, 1015am. to do a bit of work and await the Pleno meeting at midday. What a marathon session it was today. The Pleno lasted until 4.15pm! I think it was a record. I appreciate that due to all the circumstances of the past few months that we had a lot to get through.

Kiko was back in the chair and is back as Mayor from last Wednesday.

Amongst the 13, mostly bureaucratic, motions  to be discussed were things such as the naming of the new secretary, the approval of the budget for 2012, the finalisation of outstanding financial issues, inventory of public owned buildings, the agreement for opening administrative activities and the minor modifications of statutes of the Mancommunidad.  We also agreed the dates for the fiestas for 2014 as 16th July and 30th August. Almost every motion was argued against by the opposition which was partly the reason for then lengthy meeting. PSOE proposed a commission to monitor and manage the progress regarding our management of the money which we are to receive from the Junta and pay back over the next few years. This led to a long discussion which concluded with the Secretary agreeing to ascertain whether this is needed. For the first time we voted against PP and PSOE on a motion. I had been warned by Candido about it beforehand. The motion proposed by PP was for all the salaried councillors to forego their Xmas bonus in order that the workers could get their bonus (apparently at Xmas all Town Hall workers receive a bonus of an extra months salary). Candido argued that he would willingly give up his bonus but did not want it made a political football, where it appeared that PP were forcing him to do so, when he was going to willingly give up his. So as a Party although we were given a free vote we voted against it whereas PSOE voted with PP, thereby carrying the motion. We also discussed the actions we have taken regarding the landslide in Zurgena. We have commissioned a geological survey and have submitted requests to various offices to ascertain who would help or carry out the necessary work.

Under other matters PSOE had a long list of questions and points and then Noelia questioned them about entries on their Facebook page which she took issue with as they were, in her opinion, wrong.

So with the meeting ending as late as it did, I ended up missing an entire meal (probably not a bad thing you may say) and having a sore backside. The chairs in Pleno room are bare wood with no cushions!