The mayor of Arona, José Julián Mena, will testify before the judge on May 24 as an investigator for an alleged crime of administrative prevarication, within the framework of the preliminary proceedings opened after the complaint filed by the councilors Luis García and Sebastián Roque and the mayor Dácil León. They accuse the alderman and the accidental municipal secretary (also investigated), Javier Hernández, of collusion by not informing the Plenary of Mena’s passage to the status of unassigned member, after his expulsion (failed, later) from the PSOE. The mayor’s defense requests the filing and dismissal of the proceedings.
In the ordinary plenary session held on November 26, 2020, at the Cabo Blanco Civic Center, the mayor withdrew item A 3.1 from the agenda, whose epigraph was “reporting the transition to non-attached member” of José Julián Mena. It was based on the “complementary report” issued that morning by the temporary secretary of the Corporation, who considered that the expulsion of the mayor as a PSOE militant -resolved on November 13, 2020 by the Socialist Party and communicated to the City Council four days later- Mena was not firm when appealing to her on November 25, the day before the plenary session was to be held.
This report contradicted the one prepared by the same accidental secretary two days before (23), prior to the filing of the appeal by the mayor. In it, he ratified the councilman’s non-attached status from the moment of receiving the communication issued by the PSOE expelling him as a socialist militant.
The complainants maintain that the mayor does not have the power to remove an item from the agenda, but article 70 of the Municipal Organic Regulation supports the performance of the alderman, according to his legal representation. The complainants also disagree with the municipal secretary’s opinion that Mena’s expulsion “is an administrative act” and defend that “it is a private act of a political organization within the legal framework of the norms enshrined in its statutes.” The prevalence of judicial protection is an argument of the defense based on the legal obligation to resolve the appeal against expulsion before informing the plenary session.
It is the third time that Judge Nelson Díaz, of the Investigating Court number 4 of Arona, summons Mena to take a statement. The complainants have already ratified their complaint: Luis García, expelled from the PSOE and today unassigned mayor; Dácil León and Sebastián Roque, councilors of the PSOE. The socialist mayors Yurena García (May 24), Elena Cabello (June 15) and Pura Martín (June 28) are also cited as witnesses. These preliminary proceedings were opened on February 25, 2021, seven months before the judge of the Court of Instruction number 1 of Arona ruled that José Julián Mena is not expelled from the PSOE.
