The tension between the Government team of the Santa Cruz City Council and the opposition continues to increase on account of the bodyguards of Councilor Evelyn Alonso, who yesterday found that she maintains the protection service of authorities because the report prepared at the time that so determined. At least this was Alonso’s response during the extraordinary plenary session requested by Cs, UP and PSOE to address the annual expenditure of 500,000 euros that the socialists maintain that the specific service costs both for Alonso and for the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez. An answer that the mayor of Security gave from his office, since he did not physically attend the plenary session. At the moment, and according to the response given by Human Resources to the PSOE, that expense amounted, as of October 31, to 370,000 euros.
Former mayor Patricia Hernández questioned a report that is signed “by the bodyguard who has been paid the most overtime working with you. A report that does not meet the minimum legal requirements to accept it as good ”. Hernández accused Alonso of “spending public money”, so “we will ask for explanations where appropriate. We are not going to allow a single euro of public money to be given away to a service that should not be provided ”.
Faced with the avalanche of criticism, Evelyn Alonso limited herself to answering that among the opposition “there is no security expert, so we are facing a debate of opinions.” “You do not decide if I should take an escort or not, and as long as that is the case, no matter how much they kick, I will continue to have an escort if the person in charge decides so.”
Emmasa
The other major issue addressed in plenary session was the state of the Santa Cruz City Council’s claim to Emmasa so that it in turn requests its parent company, Sacyr, the return of the more than 33 million euros that has come charging in concept of the 59 million canon that he paid when the company was privatized. The Councilor for Public Services, Guillermo Díaz Guerra, explained that, after several requests to Emmasa to initiate this claim for the money, they are currently waiting for the aforementioned company to receive the legal report it has commissioned to know how to comply with the mandate.
In addition, he pointed out that a new investment plan is being negotiated (there are already five as recalled by the PSOE councilor José Ángel Martín), as well as that the financial imbalance report presented by Emmasa will be answered shortly.
Díaz Guerra acknowledged that with respect to the original privatization contract, expectations have not been met either by one side or the other. “The agreement stated that Sacyr would invest 165 million euros in Santa Cruz in 25 years, and that in return it would obtain a profit of 225 million. The reality is that it has invested 63.3 million until December 2020 and the benefit it has obtained is two million ”.
