Following legal action by the opposition Partido Popular, the Mayor of Calasparra and his three paid councillors must devolve 170,000 euros paid in salaries and expenses since July last year.
The three members of PP, Miguel Martínez, María Marín and Asunción Escavy, brought the action because, they claim, the ruling PSOE party did not inform them of the details of salaries and expenses before the full Town Hall Council meeting on July 1 last year, when said payments were approved.
The PP boycotted the meeting and started legal proceedings.
The Mayor of Calasparra, Jose Velez, has always maintained that this was a simple, adminstrative error, and the first action by the PP was dismissed by the judge. An emergency Full Town Hall Meeting was called for June 16 and the salaries and expenses were approved once again, after all the requisites had been satisfied.
However, the PP appealed and last week the appeal was granted, which effectively means all the monies should be repaid.
The PSOE have appealed the decision but the ruling remains in vigor.
The salaries and expenses, subject to the judgement, are 40.642 euros a year for the Mayor; 22.750 euros for Ricardo Garcia, IU-Ganar Calasparra and 18.550 euros for the two other paid councillors of the PSOE. The expenses for attending the Full Town Hall Council meetings were agreed at 80.50 euros per councillor in the ruling party and 73,50 euros for the others.
Notwithstanding this, the councillors of Calasparra Viva and Ciudadanos and the three PP representaatives, who have taken this legal action, have not claimed any remuneration since the claim was lodged.
Granting the appeal, the judge has confirmed the legitimacy of the PP´s claim and agreed with their reasoning. The tribunal has advised the Mayor that he infringed the rights of participation that the law recognises for public representatives, by not providing the information, which was repeatedly requested.
