Council meeting approves salaries and expenses for new legislature

Thursday 29th June 2023
Mike Smith

Xàbia Council met on Thursday morning in an extraordinary session to approve the operating procedures and salaries of the 21 councillors who will make up the corporation for the next four years.

One of the matters to be approved in favour by PP, CPJ and Vox has been the delegation of responsibilities proposed by mayor Rosa Cardona as well as the composition of the government board and the information commissions – Special Accounts / Town Planning, Works and Services / Economic Recovery / Culture, Education and Sports – on which the representation on each will be 4 x PSOE, 4 x PP, 1 x CPJ, 1 x Vox and 1 x Compromís. In addition, it was proposed that there would be no politicians sitting on the Contract Award Committee since, according to government spokesperson Enrique Escrivà, the local government doesn’t want to influence the decisions of the civil servants who make up the committee since it trusts them “one hundred percent”.

Salaries

With respect to the salaries of the mayor and councillors, the new government board will have four full-time positions: mayor Rosa Cardona (50,000€) and three councillors – Enrique Escrivà, Teresa Legay and Pere Sapena, 45,000€ each.

In addition, the following councillors will be paid a proportion of salary as follows: Mavi Pérez (80% – 36,000€), Juan Luis Cardona, Juanjo García, Juan Ortolá and José Marcos Pons (70% – 31,000€) and Fatima Jarjor (55% – 24.750€) whilst Antonio Molina will be paid based on attendance up to a maximum of 21,108€ per annum.

Councillors without responsibility will received a maximum of 979 euros per month whilst opposition spokespersons (José Chulvi and Carme Catalá) will receive 1,350 euros per month, payment dependent on attendance on the commissions and on the plenary sessions.

The motions were passed with the votes of the local government tripartite (PP-CPJ-Vox). Both the PSOE and Compromís abstained.

During the debate on the salaries of the councillors, PSOE spokesman José Chulvi claimed that “it is an amendment to the entire arguments that the government parties made in 2019. They have copied exactly those that we took for approval in that year,” adding that “we are not criticizing the salaries, we are criticizing the lack of consistency”.

The spokeswoman for Compromís, Carme Català, added that she did not want to assess wages and salaries but has commented “salaries will depend on the work that the government does and it will be when that work is seen that it can be valued”.

The local government spokesman, Enrique Escrivá, explained that there is a technical report that places the cost of the new government in the same terms as the previous one: “if we count the cost of councillors and positions of trust, the cost is the same.” He insisted that the dedication of the government “corresponds to the responsibility it has”, adding that “in the end the salaries are demonstrated by the work that is done and that is what the mayor has entrusted to the 11 government councilors to do, to work for Xàbia every day and every hour”.

Mayor Rosa Cardona also referred to the temporary staff, saying that they have been identified that essential for the functioning of the town hall and that “it has been a pity that in recent years, nothing has been done in term of personnel in this town hall”.