Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council allocates nearly 500 euros to compensate each councilor attending the various sessions of the Municipal Corporation’s collegiate bodies, without exclusive or partial dedication. The amounts range from 248 euros for plenary sessions to 221 euros for control commissions, governing boards, or governing councils. Meanwhile, for the district tagorores, the attendance fee is 153 euros.
However, these per diem compensations, agreed upon in the plenary session of June 30, 2023, do not include members of the Corporation with exclusive dedication. According to the Councilor for the Treasury, José Alberto Díaz Estébanez, the only budget modification made for 2024 is to harmonize the salary of full-time councilors with that of service heads.
The City Council comprises 27 councilors, with 14 forming the current municipal government team (nine from CC and five from the PP), and the rest consisting of ten councilors from the PSOE and three from Vox.
In 2023, the Municipal Corporation held a total of 21 plenary sessions, including one extraordinary session. So far in 2024, two plenary sessions have been convened, one of which was extraordinary for approving the current year’s budgets. In terms of control commissions, nine were held last year, while this year, only two have been convened to date. Furthermore, 53 government meetings were conducted in 2023, and in 2024, nine have already taken place, with one held every school Monday.
To monitor these extraordinary attendance compensations for collegiate bodies’ sessions, each member must provide certification from the corresponding body’s secretary, detailing the session’s location, date, start, and end time. As per the Corporation’s organic regulations, compensation for attending the sessions of the Municipal Economic-Administrative Court is set at 360 euros for the president and 153 euros for the members.
Regarding travel, subsistence, and accommodation, service commission members entitled to compensation from the Mayor’s Office can claim expenses after providing justification. For other Corporation members and governing body heads, the national compensation system applies, with accommodation ranging from 102 to 48 euros, living expenses from 53 to 28 euros, and a complete diet from 155 to 77 euros.
Salaries
During the extraordinary plenary session on January 31, 2024, it was decided to set the gross annual remuneration at 77,611 euros for the councilor, José Manuel Bermúdez, and 65,930 euros for the first deputy mayor, Carlos Tarife. The remaining councilors earn 64,062 euros gross annually, following the salary equalization with service heads. Also, they are entitled to two double payments in June and November.
Opposition group spokespersons now earn the same salary as government group councilors, following a change in plenary regulations. Thus, the spokespersons for the PSOE and Vox, Andrés Martín and Alejandro Gómez, respectively, now receive 62,634 gross euros annually for exclusive dedication. Part-time opposition councilors have a 50% reduction in their salaries.
In 2024, the only modification to the 2023 remuneration agreement relates to the dedication regime of some councilors, not their remuneration as Corporation members. Additionally, a change in this year’s budgets aligns the gross annual salaries for full-time councilors with those of service heads at 4,495 euros per month for the delegate councilor and 4,549 euros per month for the head of service.
Dedication
It was stated that it seems appropriate to equalize both remunerations, linking potential future modifications in said remunerations. Effective January 1, 2024, a monthly allocation of 2,850 euros per municipal group, to which 285 euros are added for each council department, is also included to cover ordinary expenses, albeit not for personnel remuneration or acquisition of goods for patrimonial assets.
The Santa Cruz City Council does not provide compensation to senior officials, heads of government bodies, higher bodies, or managers for leaving their positions, except when their employment relationship is based on a senior management employment contract. No municipal member has received compensation for this reason since 2021.
The remuneration received by management personnel, totaling around 1.5 million euros, includes public employees’ salaries. Temporary staff, equating to 27 positions, each corresponding to a councilor in the City Council, receive annual figures ranging from 57,499 euros for the Mayor’s chief of staff to 30,833 euros for the secretaries of the political groups, resulting in a total sum of 1,010,285 euros.
