The mayor of Tinajo, Jesús Machín, responded this Wednesday to the criticisms launched by the PSOE, which accused the government group of making "irregular" payments to the councilors of the Canarian Coalition for attending the "unconstituted Board of Councilors." Machín has assured that all payments have been made "without objections and with favorable reports", although he has admitted that the new secretary-intervener did make a warning about the way this Board of Councilors was constituted.
For Machín, the PSOE's criticisms respond to "harassment" by this party against him. "As they cannot harm me in any other way, they try to accuse with falsehood and lies," he said. The mayor has assured that he can "demonstrate" that the last three municipal secretary-interveners had given the go-ahead to this Board of Councilors, which meets "three, four, five or six times a month, although only three are charged."
However, he has acknowledged that the new secretary-intervener did not agree "on how the Board of Councilors was created." After making this warning to the mayor, Machín decided "not to pay the councilors for five months, until the secretary-intervener said how it had to be done" and this body was "formally constituted".
The mayor believes that the PSOE "knows the substance of the matter" and all it wants is to "confuse the population." "The Board has always been paid without any objection or warnings. Before having an intervener, we had a lawyer and a secretary from another City Council who reported that everything was correct," he defended on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero.
The PSOE also assured that for these meetings, the City Council had paid "a total of 71,400 euros" to the CC councilors, although "there is no documentation to prove that these sessions of the Board of Councilors have been held." In this regard, Machín has assured that the minutes "have always existed." "There are minutes that certify that we meet. Every time a Board of Councilors is paid, there is a report that we have been meeting.
The mayor lowers his salary
On the other hand, he explained that he is one of the mayors who should lower his salary in the face of the new State Law on Rationalization and Sustainability of Local Administration, which establishes maximum limits on the salaries of the first mayors. Machín called the FECAM to find out how this Law affected him and this body assured him that "if the Budget Stability Law and several other parameters are met, this salary reduction does not have to be applied."
However, Machín has announced that on January 1, he already decided to lower his salary by "6,000 euros per year", although the opposition "is not interested in this matter." In addition, he has lashed out at the socialist councilor Belén Morales, for having charged "56,000 euros net per year, plus 8,000 euros in allowances" for being a parliamentarian in the Government of the Canary Islands. "Generally, they charge much more than they do," he criticized.
