The PSOE spokesperson in Haría, Alfredo Villalba, has announced that he will file a lawsuit in the Courts against the mayor of the municipality, Marci Acuña, "for a total dereliction of his duties" with respect to the Cueva de los Verdes. The socialist accuses Acuña of having "hidden" from the City Council the "notification" of the TSJC ruling, which definitively condemned the Cabildo to abandon this tourist center and pay a millionaire compensation to the northern Consistory. In addition, Villalba has announced that he will request the "forced execution" of the ruling and that he will request "patrimonial responsibilities." "The only interest that moves Marci Acuña is to solve a problem of 18 million euros for Pedro San Ginés," considers the PSOE spokesperson.
Villalba maintains that the judicial ruling, which was issued in May of last year, was notified "on September 6" by the solicitors to the mayor, without giving it "entry registration" in the Consistory. In addition, he states that Marci Acuña turned a deaf ear until "February." "I don't know if the mayor thinks that the opposition councilors are fools or that people in Haría are naive," said the PSOE spokesperson in the northern City Council, who has thus accused Acuña of "hiding" said notification "simply and plainly to defend his party colleague, Pedro San Ginés."
"The solicitors notify, but they are not the ones who have to directly transfer it to the entry registry of the City Council. They get in touch with the person in charge, who is the mayor, and he is the one who will have to give the due explanations," the socialist warned, announcing that he will take this "total dereliction of duties" to "the ultimate consequences," denouncing the facts in the Courts. A complaint to which he has stated that the rest of the opposition will join, that is, the PIL councilor, Iván Rodríguez, and the councilors of the Haría Platform. "We are totally aligned," he assured.
"I already said some time ago that Mr. Marciano Acuña was a wolf in sheep's clothing who came exclusively to defend the interests of the Cabildo and Pedro San Ginés and not those of the municipality. We continue to maintain this and we are going to take this to the ultimate consequences," insisted Alfredo Villalba, who considers that the "dereliction of duties" by Marci Acuña "as the highest authority of the City Council" is "really serious" and that he understands that it may have "some type of consequence" from "the penal point of view."
Patrimonial responsibilities for the extrajudicial agreement
In addition, the PSOE spokesperson has announced that the "forced execution" of the sentence that definitively condemned the Cabildo will be requested and that they will request "patrimonial responsibilities" from all those who voted in plenary in favor of the extrajudicial agreement between both institutions. Villalba states that the agreement was approved "without the mandatory legal or intervention report." "It is not legal," considers the socialist, who also points out that this agreement "is totally unfulfilled."
"They have not done absolutely anything of the content of that agreement, where it was said that there should be a commission, that they were going to meet... There are no minutes of the formation of any agreement, there are no meetings in between and there are no works linked to that agreement. Therefore, the amount of irregularities with the approval of the highest authority, Marci Acuña, are many," said the PSOE spokesperson in Haría, who thus believes that the mayor should give explanations. "And he will not only have to give explanations in just under a year, when there are elections, but he will probably also have to give them from a judicial point of view," he added.
"We think it is a real joke what this gentleman is doing in the municipality, where he is not seen anywhere. It is a very serious fact, and what we do not understand at all is the position of Pérez Dorta in this journey," Villalba continued, criticizing the attitude also of the councilor of Somos Lanzarote and deputy mayor of Haría, who believes that he should have "slammed his fist on the table."
"If the opposition considers that I have committed a crime, let them report it"
"If the opposition considers that I have committed a crime, what they have to do is report it and I think it is their obligation. What I don't think fits are announcements, threats and issues of this type," responded the mayor of Haría, Marci Acuña, to the announcement of the PSOE spokesperson, whom he has accused of "lying." Acuña has denied that he had notification of the sentence in September, as Alfredo Villalba has stated.
"I have contacted the lawyer on several occasions, I think in November, in December, because we considered that it was taking too long and that it should already be notified, and the lawyer told me no, that there was nothing new in the case, that we did not have any notification, and therefore we stayed with that. In January, when we see that it is taking too long, we contact the solicitor of the case, and it is the solicitor who in February sends us that notification. And when it arrives is when we start making decisions and raising the issue again," said the mayor, who last Thursday convened the opposition to a meeting to transfer this issue to them. "And we will convene as many as necessary so that the opposition knows the latest developments," he added.
"The agreement was signed with a positive external report"
Acuña has also stated that it is "a lie" that the extrajudicial agreement was signed without reports. "Repeating lies can continue to unsuspected limits, but that agreement is signed with a positive external report for the signing of the same," said the mayor, insisting that the "agreement is valid" and that "in fact it is being executed," despite the fact that it is still awaiting validation by the Contentious-Administrative Court Number 5 of Las Palmas.
"What happens is that it is done at a time when there was no final judgment, when there was an appeal by the Cabildo and that appeal had not been resolved," explained Marci Acuña, stating that according to it the City Council entered in 2017 a total of "750,000 euros" from the first institution of the island, 250,000 "to give work to 20 people in an eight-month agreement." "And the other 500,000 are being executed in other projects in the bidding phase, such as the renovation of the changing rooms of the wrestling field, the municipal kennel, the realization of the teleclub of Ye, the acquisition of a truck for waste collection and the bidding of a bus for transport, in addition to the purchase of the priest's house, which is also in the process of acquisition by the Cabildo," he detailed.
Thus, although it is not yet known whether the Court of First Instance will validate said agreement, the mayor of Haría continues to bet "on the political path" and "negotiation" to solve the lawsuit of the Cueva de los Verdes against asking for the "forced execution of the sentence." "Because the forced execution of the sentence is also the return of the Cave to the City Council and that would mean breaking the unity of exploitation of the CACT and I think that at least all parties and all society agree that it would be a step backwards, a failure," he said in this regard.
Acuña continues to bet "on the political path" to solve the lawsuit
In addition, the northern mayor has pointed out that asking for the forced execution of the sentence would entail "up to four or five more years of litigation" with respect to the compensation that the Cabildo should pay to Haría. "Because the City Council would make an execution incident against the Cabildo, but the Cabildo would say that in order to have had those revenues, it has had to make investments and that it has also given during this time the benefits that have corresponded, which would also have to be subtracted. A process that would have an economic cost that would be validated by the Court, but that would take time, because it is not going to be resolved in the short term," he stated.
Thus, although he has assured that any decision that is going to be taken in this regard "will be taken to the plenary session," he wanted to make it clear that the government group "continues in the line of talking and negotiating to resolve it through the political path." Of course, although in its day the extrajudicial agreement was described as "historic," the mayor does not now rule out that it may be necessary to "modify it and make adaptations to carry it out with changes and improvements."
In any case, Marci Acuña has made a call for calm. "It will be the judge who validates and gives the final confirmation that this agreement is approved. We all have to be calm, because if I bring an agreement that is not coherent, it will be the judge who determines that it is not done, that it is harmful to the sentence that was issued and that it is not valid," he concluded.
