Almuñécar’s Vice Mayors

Seven Vice Mayors out of a total of 21 councillors, or in other words a third of them, are getting paid extra as vice mayors instead of standard councillors.

ALM New Councillor Set UpThe seven vice mayors are: Rafael Caballero Jiménez, María del Carmen Reinoso, Alberto García, Beatriz González, Javier García, Daniel Barbero and Francisco Miguel Rodríguez.

Now, this increment in the number of vice mayors is somewhat obscured (in the sense of a smoke screen) by an increase in departments, with councillors taking on previously in-existence departments. It sounds as if they’ve got more work on their plates but what has happened is that departments have been split into two; in other words, they would have exactly the same responsibilities.

So the vice mayors’s tasks are:

Rafael Caballero Jiménez: presidency, contracting and purchasing
Maria del Carmen Reinoso Herrero: Social Services, Equality, Health and Early Childhood Education
Alberto Manuel García Gilabert: Culture, Heritage, Festivals, Institutional Relations and Education
Beatriz González Orce: Treasury, Development and Employment;
Francisco Javier García Fernández: Urban Planning, Engineering, Infrastructure and Activities
Daniel Barbero: Tourism and First Councillor for La Herradura
Francisco Miguel Rodríguez Rodríguez: Public Works, Maintenance, Strategic Projects and Youth

Standard councllors are:

María Lucía González López: Environment, Beaches and Commerce;
María del Carmen Martín Orce: Human Resources & Administrative Organization and Citizen Participation
Luis Francisco Aragón Olivares: Sports, Rural Environment, Traffic and Transportation
Carlos Ferrón: Agriculture, Sustainability and Parks and Gardens.

Bear in mind that Sr. Aragón ran as an independent on the PP’s electoral list so he is not a PP councillor although he belongs to the local cabinet. Finally, the Mayor himself is not Councillor for Citizen Safety which has the Traffic Department detached and given to Luis Aragón

There was a similar situation in the City Hall of Granada in 2019 when just after the municipal elections the new administration announced that there would be seven vice-mayors. The basic salary for a normal councillor was 50,000 euros (gross) a year, whereas a vice-mayor (teniente alcalde) would receive 55,000 euros (gross) per year; a difference of 5,000 euros a year or just under 420 euros a month extra. Bear in mind that some pensioners don’t even get 420 euros a month.

The opposition in the City Hall said that this tactic of appointing extra vice mayors was an undercover form of increasing salaries.

Public salaries in Spain are a mystery. For example the Mayor of Madrid in 2019 earnt 108,517 euros (gross) where as the Prime Minister of Spain only received 90,010 euros by comparison.

We don’t know what the exact salaries are for Almuñécar councillors, despite cruising the Town Hall’s Transparency page where all should be revealed. It’s probably there but after looking for close to 40 minutes, we gave up.

Finally, the only extra function that a vice mayor has over a councillor is that they would stand in for the Mayor if he is not available. So, literally for the 7th Vice Mayor to be called to take his place it would be like the 7th in line for the throne of a monarchy being needed.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia – Photo: JM de Haro/Diario Sexitano)

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