Collapse in Mollerussa: Why is the mayor asking the regional government to intervene?

BarcelonaThe Mollerussa town council is in a critical situation. Bills are not being paid on time, hiring problems, and civil servants are seeing their salaries go unpaid due to a lack of technical approval. And all this is due, according to the mayor, Marc Solsona, to the blockage that has developed within the council due to the inaction of the inspecting official. He has even had to remove items from the agenda due to the impossibility of voting on them due to a lack of administrative procedures. The mayor's office has issued several warnings, but the reports requested to move the procedures forward have still not arrived. And, faced with this situation, the mayor has said enough and has issued an SOS to the Generalitat: that the town council intervene to unblock a situation that affects the daily life of the town, with more than 15,000 inhabitants.

The mayor of Mollerussa, who ran under the local PDeCAT banner, is a veteran (and "enthusiastic," as some colleagues define him) of the local government: "If I'm asking for help, it's because the blockage is total and absolute," he explains to ARA. Solsona made this situation public a week ago, after previously communicating the situation to the General Directorate of Local Administration of the Generalitat (DGAL). This Friday, a meeting was held with its top representatives, the Secretary of Local Governments, Xavier Amor, and the Director General of Local Administration, Fran Belver, taking advantage of a visit by both to the region. There, they addressed the crisis in the council. "The Generalitat will respond to the SOS made by the Mollerussa City Council by enabling the necessary tools to accompany and help," Amor explained, according to a statement from the council.

The mayor had asked the Generalitat (Catalan government) for "creativity" in trying to resolve the conflict, even though the Directorate General of Local Government does not have the legal authority to intervene in municipal administration. However, the government has agreed to study the documentation provided by the mayor and send a technician to review the processes, not to "point the finger" but to understand "what's going on."

One of the options on the table is to offer them mediation—which is voluntary and should be accepted by both parties. The Generalitat has been working for some time with the College of Auditors and Secretaries to approve a joint protocol that would establish clear rules for resolving conflicts before they arise. "If it's appropriate to participate in any mediation process, we're open to it, but above all, what we've asked is that whatever is done can have an effective impact," concluded the mayor, who praised the Generalitat's "willingness" to roll up its sleeves to resolve matters.

Lack of resources?

Sources familiar with the conflict point out that the Mollerussa case is not a case of overcrowding or a lack of human resources in the auditing body. The auditors, civil servants with state authorization, are charged with advising municipal government teams so that their initiatives comply with the law. The law allows mayors to approve actions with negative reports from the auditor, assuming their responsibility, but the problem arises when these reports are delayed or do not arrive. Solsona proposes, for example, that if the document has not been submitted within a few months, it can still be dismissed by law so that the city council is not left "out in the cold," without any avenue for action. There is the possibility of opening disciplinary proceedings, but this would not resolve the day-to-day paralysis. ARA has attempted to obtain the Mollerussa auditor's statement through the professional association in Lleida, without success.

Beyond the disagreements with the affected party, for the mayor, the case highlights the "helplessness" of elected officials before civil servants when things don't work out. He also complains that when bureaucracy gets bogged down, it's he and his team who must face the public when what they were voted to do isn't delivered. "It results in a lack of credibility, because neither I nor the councilors can make a payment commitment. That's why I say we're facing a democratic emergency," he explains. And he believes that, given this, the Generalitat should roll up its sleeves and find a solution if it truly wants to stand by the mayors. When asked by this newspaper, Belver takes ownership of the situation, which is not "simple," but reminds us that the Generalitat must respect "local autonomy." "As a principle, we cannot send a Generalitat civil servant to do the job," he emphasizes.

The Generalitat does support small municipalities when they are unable to apply for grants, for example. So, it's possible for territorial services to lend a hand. Auditors and secretaries play a key role in the machinery of local administration and are irreplaceable. (A city council can decide to dispense with a lawyer or legal advisor, but not these positions, except in the case of smaller municipalities.) According to Belver, in Catalonia there is a widespread problem with the availability of these profiles: there is a shortage of more than 900. This means that, in many municipalities, those performing these functions are either temporary workers—who cannot be employed for more than three years—or temporary staff. For this reason, the Ministry of the Presidency is focused on streamlining the process of providing these personnel and has recently signed an agreement with the Ministry of the Presidency to take over the call for 218 positions for new civil servants who will be trained at the School of Public Administration of Catalonia.