The Yaiza City Council Plenary has declared null and void a second agreement signed by the Council with businessman Juan Francisco Rosa in 2006, by which they gave him another 14,800 square meters of public land for free that should have been used for green areas. This land is in addition to the one occupied by Kikoland, whose transfer was also approved under the Mayoralty of José Francisco Reyes and was annulled by the Council five years ago, without the eviction having been carried out so far.
In the case of this second plot, which is also located in the Costa Papagayo Partial Plan, the City Council gave it free of charge to Juan Francisco Rosa for 25 years through the Salmepa entity, but he in turn transferred the supposed right of use to another businessman. And he did so by selling him a neighboring land, including in the operation the transfer of that public land. This second agreement is also being investigated in the criminal case opened for the occupation of public green areas with Kikoland, in which, among others, Rosa himself and José Francisco Reyes are accused.
During the investigation, the Court already requested information from the City Council about this second file, asking if it had adopted any measures. Finally, on Thursday of last week, the declaration of nullity was brought to the Plenary, although it was this Wednesday when the Council has reported on that agreement. "Our objective and obligation is to protect the municipal heritage protected by the law, whoever the actors are," defended the mayor, Óscar Noda.
In this regard, he explains that they have an opinion from the Canary Islands Advisory Council that concludes that the agreement was approved "without any procedural processing," stressing that "there are grounds for total nullity."
Rosa was allowed to transfer the use "to other third parties"
"The transfer of green areas was not only authorized free of charge, but also allows Salmepa SL to sell or transfer the use of public green areas to other third parties. In fact, the green areas in question are now occupied by recreational facilities of hotel complexes by virtue of a right of use granted by Salmepa to another company," the City Council points out.
Therefore, it has agreed to declare the nullity of both the agreement signed with Rosa and the agreement of the Municipal Government Board that authorized it. In addition, in the same Plenary held last week, it was agreed to reject the allegations presented by the companies that currently occupy that land, since "they do not distort the obvious and manifest grounds for nullity."
The main one, according to both municipal reports and the Advisory Council, is that it is not possible to authorize "the private use of public green areas lacking the essential requirements for their acquisition," nor can it "establish by agreement rights of a concessionaire contrary to the provisions of the Regulation of Assets of Local Entities."
"To the irregularity that means that a company can exploit and enrich itself economically with a green area of the municipality in conditions that are totally detrimental to the municipal public interest, is added the fact that once the 25-year exploitation period has ended, the private operating company would revert to the City Council the works and facilities with the contracted personnel, which the Local Corporation would take charge of, be it remuneration, seniority rights or other, which, as is obvious, also violates the basic rules of legislation on labor and contracting of Public Administrations," warns the municipal legal report. That clause that forced the City Council to take charge of the personnel expenses once the concession expired was also included in the Kikoland agreement, whose illegality has already been determined by the Courts in a final judgment.
As a result of this decision of the Council, the company can now file an appeal for reconsideration with the City Council or file a contentious-administrative appeal in the courts, which is what Rosa did - without success - with the first agreement that was annulled.
In that case, the transfer was of 31,000 square meters of public land, part of which was occupied by Kikoland. It was in December 2016 when the City Council declared that agreement null, but to this day the land is still occupied by this facility attached to the Princesa Yaiza hotel, intended for children's and sports activities for private use.
