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 banner of the PDeCAT (Catalan Workers' Party), is a veteran (and "enthusiastic," as some colleagues describe 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). A meeting is planned for this Friday with the top representatives of the administration, the Secretary of Local Governments, Xavier Amor, and the Director General of Local Administration, Fran Bellver, taking advantage of a visit by both to the region. There, they are to address the crisis in the council.

The mayor has asked the Generalitat for "creativity" in an attempt to resolve the conflict, even though the General Directorate of Local Administration does not have legally recognized capacity to intervene in the municipal administration. They have indeed offered Mollerussa to initiate mediation—which is voluntary and should be accepted by both parties. It's not a new initiative. The Generalitat has been working with the College of Auditors and Secretaries for some time to approve a joint protocol that would establish clear rules for resolving conflicts before they arise.

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 recourse. There is the possibility of opening disciplinary proceedings, but this does 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 contacted by this newspaper, Bellver 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 with these positions, except in the case of smaller municipalities.) According to Bellver, there is a widespread problem in Catalonia 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 determined to expedite the process of providing these personnel and has recently signed an agreement with the Ministry of the Presidency to take charge of the call for 218 positions for new civil servants who will be trained at the School of Public Administration of Catalonia.