José Julián Mena appeared yesterday before the judge of the Court of Instruction number 4 of Arona to declare as a defendant for having withdrawn, from the agenda of the plenary session held on November 26, 2020, the accounting of his pass to the status of not attached. He responded to the magistrate’s questions but not to those formulated by the complainants’ lawyer, for whom the alderman does not have the power to make that decision without a prior vote of the Plenary.
Mena argued that article 70 of the Municipal Organic Regulation (ROM) enables him to act as he did and clarified that the same article determines the need to vote on the request to withdraw an item from the agenda only when raised by any other member of the Plenary.
What the regulation says
Article 70 of the Arona ROM states: «The mayor may withdraw an item from the agenda. Likewise, any councilor may request, during the debate, the withdrawal of any file included in the agenda, so that documents or reports are incorporated into it, and may also request that the file remain on the table, postponing its discussion for next session. In these two cases, the petition will be voted on, after finishing the debate and before proceeding to the vote on the substance of the matter. If the simple majority votes in favor of the petition, there will be no place to vote on the proposed agreement.
Nelson Díaz, dean judge of the Aronero judicial district, took a statement yesterday from the alderman for five minutes in 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 (who will appear before the judge on the 19th), of an alleged crime of administrative prevarication.
The facts
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.
Two days before this appeal, the same accidental secretary prepared a report in which he ratified the non-assigned condition of the alderman from the moment of receiving the communication issued by the PSOE of his expulsion as a socialist militant. Failed action because a court ruling recognizes Mena’s militancy in said political party.
The defense requests the file and dismissal of the proceedings and the statements of three witnesses (councilmen of the PSOE) proposed by the plaintiffs remain.
