What is your assessment of the management of this local government?
I’m going to tell you what people tell me: lousy. Neighbors have gone from outrage to discouragement. There are no real policies in the social, environmental, cultural … They practice the flight forward and a continuous drain the bulk. The town of Güímar does not deserve this. I understand that the pandemic has turned everything upside down, but using it as an excuse for everything does not work either and people are not stupid. There has been tremendous chaos and disorganization on all levels. I feel that the work to be done in recovery will require a lot of effort, mainly to rescue the citizen from disenchantment with local politics.
She was accused of leaving a millionaire debt and difficult to regularize.
It was not a surprise. This is called lack of experience. They spent more than a year saying that everything was wrong, that there was no money, that the City Council had to be reorganized just as my team left it (laughs). A show of artifice to have the pretext and to announce again and again to the citizens that nothing could be done. They found a healthy City Hall, with zero debt in the banks and a surplus of almost 8 million, which has almost been spent. Remember that with me, then, the current mayor governed in the PP-CC pact. It is curious that he was blind to the millionaire debt then and, suddenly, he regains his vision and realizes the reality.
Despite the ruling, is everything still the same in the case of aggregates?
Of course. When the PSOE is in opposition, it tends to be proactive, combative and I must admit that, at times, it is an entrepreneur. But when he governs, which is where they have no experience, they accommodate themselves and go into inaction. The Cabildo still does not remove the mining area and time continues to prove us right to those of us who said that it was very difficult to execute the sentence. I have always opted to regenerate by providing progress for the people. The government group has not even denounced, as announced.
How do you think this matter will end?
I believe in justice and reparation, even if I’m late. I hope that everything will be resolved soon and what I fear does not happen, that the Cabildo wants to restore by continuing to extract. For this reason, the soil is still mining.
On Tuesday there is an extraordinary plenary session. One point is the statement of the alleged breach of the covid measures after the act of labeling the Carla Antonelli street. They suspect that the process is unclear. What happened?
They hide information. And this is very serious. There is a report on a complaint from a neighbor because those gathered there exceeded the authorized number. But not all those who were there were identified and there are some who have paid the fine, but others have not. Who is the instructor of this file? Why haven’t all the fines been processed? Two days ago we learned that the Security Councilor, who also failed to comply, lies to Health and denounces the neighbor who denounced. It’s crazy!
Will they go to court?
Make no mistake about it. For this reason, we have requested all the files and the necessary information to clarify what happened. By the way, in the convocation of the plenary session, the secretary herself warns that a report from the Police is missing clarifying which public positions did not comply with the covid regulations that day. If the plenary session does not clarify what happened, of course we will report it.
Another point is the extra cost of the work on the Las Bajas slope, which quadruples its budget. What happened there?
They deceived the neighbors, promising that they would return to their homes when the works were finished. At the same time, the City Council asked Costas to initiate files and to make whatever requirements it deems appropriate to recover the public domain in this coastal area.
It is striking that the City Council pays for a work in a space that does not concern it.
So you can see how ruined I left the City Council in the previous term. I referred the same to the former mayor last year, when they proposed a credit modification of almost 400,000 euros urgently without having a geotechnical study or a project to know what should be done there, as I did in Santa Lucia. They decreed an imminent danger and an emergency without falling any rocks and, now, they stop the work and there is no urgency or emergency to finish it. Curious, to say the least.
Will it also end up in court?
Do not hesitate, on the part of the neighbors, the winning company and us. We will not hesitate to bring the work of Las Bajas to court.
Does Las Bajas have the hours counted by the intervention of Costas?
Costas is not to blame. It was the City Council that required Costas to intervene in this area by initiating files and recovering the public domain. They want to close the road. And that cannot be allowed. It is of transit and of service.
And meanwhile, the neighbors have been out of their homes since May and with the threat of eviction for non-payment of the rent of the flats in which they are. Who breaches? Do you know if there is a solution?
The solution is to remove the team that leads the government of the current City Council. It is an absolute misrule. I hope that the courts will stop the eviction from their homes, as it happened in Santa Lucía. Whoever told the neighbors to get out of their houses is in breach and the one who ordered to follow the contracted company with the extra cost of said work is in breach. For that we have requested all the information in plenary session. The solution is to let the neighbors go home and finish this supposed emergency work.
Why do you want to know if there is an increase in assets by the former mayor and today the first deputy mayor, Airam Puerta, during this term?
It is a legal obligation that all public offices have. I have declared my electoral campaigns and my assets. To give you an example, during the previous term, my colleagues even declared a loan or the purchase of a car or any other property. You have to be transparent.
El Puertito is upside down with works to make eleven streets accessible. A nonsense?
Another one. This one is hard to tackle and understand. A new lack of management and a lack of coordination make proposals arrive hastily and without reflection. Let me explain: the money from that work was to separate the rainwater from the sanitation of Beltrán de Liz and Poeta Arístides Hernández Mora street (Cooperation Plan 2017), because every time it rains they mix and it is chaos. The government group decides that it is more necessary to use it to widen the sidewalks in a part of El Puertito, even removing Canary Island palm trees. They have been like this for months, with chaos for neighbors and businesses due to lack of organization.
The garbage service remains bogged down with little prospect of improvement. What is the problem?
That was the great workhorse of the PSOE, when it was in the opposition, and CC with the small mouth, although it had the council until the last year and a half of my mandate. They, who had so many solutions, where are they? Why is there less cleaning without parties and is the service more expensive? Why does it cost us more to keep Güímar clean by spending more money in the company that already charges for it? The problem is the preparation of the specifications, if you start to modify things and put more
Víctor González, municipal coordinator of his party, has become the scourge of the local government from social networks. Does the PP support this work?
I correct you, if you allow me, the party’s campaign coordinator and as a member of this formation in the PP of Güímar, you have freedom of opinion and have its logical repercussion. When the PP has to criticize the management and supervise we do it.
Did the PSOE and / or Puerta seek the support of the PP not to cede the Mayor’s Office to Gustavo Pérez?
Yessss! CC knew that, so this is the result, a two-headed misrule. Sometimes I wonder if the mask does not let them think.
Has the PP tried to guarantee CC external support if it leaves the PSOE?
Given what is happening, if he asks us, we would be willing to reach an agreement, as long as it is beneficial for Güímar. The güimareros see in the CC leader a man with a lust for power, who did not obtain the Mayor’s Office by votes, who lacking his previous pacts with us and who, achieving an extreme and hasty solution with the PSOE, grabbed the Mayor’s Office.
She has just been reelected president of the local committee of the Popular Party. Will you repeat as a candidate?
My party has proposed me again to continue leading the PP in Güímar, the affiliates and supporters also want to. All to the point of yes. If you will allow me, I present myself with more enthusiasm than ever and more prepared than before.
