The general secretary of the Arrecife City Council has issued a forceful legal report concluding that the mayor of the capital, Yonathan de León (PP), violated the legal duty of abstention by signing the decree that allowed the temporary promotion of his brother as an officer of the Local Police. The opinion, dated October 23, warns that this legal infraction "may lead to the invalidity of the act" and that the council must initiate an ex officio review procedure to determine if the resolution is null and void or voidable.
The legal pronouncement responds to the request made retrospectively by the mayor himself on October 17 — five months after signing the promotion — in which he asked the General Secretariat to clarify whether he should have recused himself from the procedure and if his intervention invalidated the seven service commissions assigned. This query occurred just a few days after the island's PP party dismissed Ángel Vázquez from the Tourist Centers after it became known that he participated in the selection process that awarded a position to his son.
In the document, the secretary states: "There was a violated duty of abstention." He bases the resolution on Article 76 of the Law Regulating the Bases of Local Government and Article 23 of the Law on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector, provisions that oblige authorities to abstain in proceedings affecting relatives within the second degree of consanguinity, as is the case with a brother.
Beyond the family conflict of interest, the secretary highlights another administrative irregularity that he describes as a "deep concern." The report reveals that Human Resources competencies were formally delegated to a councilwoman from the governing group since October 2025. In fact, it was this councilwoman who issued two previous resolutions in this same file in February and May 2026.
Despite this, De León directly signed decree 2026-5726 on May 14 to resolve the appointments. In the opinion of the municipal secretary, this means that "not only is there a violation of the duty of abstention but also of the established delegation regime, taking over without adherence to the legally established procedure." In other words, the mayor de facto assumed a competence that had been delegated to him without complying with the regulatory procedures to recover it.
Path Open for Nullity and Reproach for Requesting the Report Retrospectively
Regarding the legal consequences, the report emphasizes that the breach of abstention "may lead to the invalidity of the act, without prejudice to other liabilities that may arise". To resolve the scope of this irregularity concerning the mayor's brother and the other six agents who obtained the temporary position, the municipal lawyer points out that the corporation must necessarily resort to the channels of Law 39/2015: the review ex officio for cases of radical nullity or the declaration of harmfulness if it is a vice of voidability.
The Secretary General concludes his opinion with a direct reprimand to the mayor regarding the timing and use of the Secretariat. He reminds him that the function of legal advice consists of issuing reports prior to agreements and not opinions a posteriori: "It cannot go unnoticed that a report is requested from the General Secretariat afterwards and not beforehand," the official concludes, recalling that "it is not the function of the Secretariat to issue a report to review an administrative act that is already producing effects."
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