The filing of his complaint against the president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Gustavo Matos, has not been the only legal defeat that Alfredo Gómez, the councilor of the La Laguna City Council who became a defector in October after leaving Ciudadanos, has reaped this week. party with which he stood in the elections, and move to the non-attached group. In two sentences issued this Monday, the titular magistrate of the Contentious Court number 1 of the municipality has dismissed two appeals presented by the mayor against the corporation for an alleged violation of his fundamental rights in relation to access to information on files.
Specifically, Gómez had requested on November 18 access and a copy of the documentation on contracts signed by the City Council led by the socialist Luis Yeray Gutiérrez with the companies Impacto Comunicación Eventos y Seguridad and Segurmáximo. The administration did not issue an express resolution nor did it provide access to these files within the period enabled for these procedures, which is five days, so the former Citizens councilor decided to go to court and file an appeal in matters of protection of fundamental rights against the inactivity of the City Council.
Although with a delay on the deadlines, the mayor would finally end up having access to all this documentation on January 4 of this year, more than a month after having filed the appeal in court. In the procedure, the City Council defended that, “as soon as it became aware” of the existence of this legal action, it informed Gómez that he could dispose of those files. He did so in a resolution dated December 15, from what the administration’s lawyers understood that all the appellant’s claims had been satisfied extra-procedurally, a thesis shared by the judge.
The magistrate also admits that the procedure chosen by the turncoat councilor to appeal was not appropriate. Gómez based his claim on the violation of the right to participate in public affairs, enshrined in article 23 of the Spanish Constitution. However, both the legal advisers of the City Council of La Laguna and the Prosecutor’s Office recalled that, once the five-day period that the corporation had to expressly resolve the councilor’s request had elapsed, the figure of “positive administrative silence” was already operating and, consequently, “the recognition of the right of access to information” requested by the mayor, without it having been proven in this litigation that Gómez urged the execution of that administrative act.
The City Council also considered that the councilor’s appeal had been filed after the deadline, but this point has been rejected by the judge, who has recalled that the reiterated doctrine of the Constitutional Court stipulates that administrations cannot “hide or take advantage” of their own breaches when issuing express resolutions within the established times and facilitating the access of the interested parties to the documentation so that later, in court, they can claim that the “extemporaneity” of the appeal be declared.
The sentences, of practically identical content, reject the appeals filed by Alfredo Gómez, but do not impose the payment of the procedural costs on not appreciating “recklessness or bad faith” in his actions. The ruling can be appealed within a period of fifteen days before the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands.
These resolutions coincide in time with the file of the complaint filed by the councilor of La Laguna against Gustavo Matos for prevarication, bribery, interested management and embezzlement of public funds. Gómez argued that the president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands had hired a company to carry out some works in his home that, according to the mayor, supplies the catering for the Chamber.
However, the magistrate of the Investigating Court 3 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife concluded, based on the analyzed documentation, that neither this company had been awarded a catering contract with the Parliament of the Canary Islands nor was there evidence that the work in the house of the defendant were carried out by that company, so, given the lack of evidence of a criminal act, it decreed the provisional dismissal of the case.
Alfredo Gómez held this mandate the presidency of the Transparency, Good Governance and Public Information Commission of the La Laguna City Council, a position from which he was dismissed by the mayor, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, in July 2021, after the councilor headed, supported by the opposition of the Canarian Coalition and the Popular Party of the municipality, a complaint against the government group formed by PSOE, Avante and United Yes You Can for alleged irregularities in public contracts. That commission only met once during his presidency, on the date of its constitution.
