The receptionist at the Turre medical centre is off for a couple of months, and so a substitute must be found. This happens to be the responsibility of the council.
So Mayor Martin was somewhat surprised to discover – after a plenary meeting in which the subject wasn’t raised – that instead of normal procedures being followed, the name of the ex-Mayor of Turre Jose Navarro had been put forward as a “done deal”. In fact, I understand he discovered this only because he came across the paperwork.
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Now, Navarro is a man who controls (or at least, controlled) a lot of votes in Turre. He’s been Mayor twice (see here for the list). He split off from the main PSOE party years ago and charted his own course. This splitting of the PSOE vote meant Arturo Grima got in for the first time. Navarro’s independent lot eventually came to an agreement with the PSOE lot to merge again – Navarro got kicked upstairs to a cushy job as Special Advisor on Climate Change at the county council for a salary of €2,900, and his team worked with the PSOE under Francisco Ortega, who I’m told is now working at in Germany. The combined team won a vote of no confidence against Grima and took over.
Incidentally, Navarro got me charged with Civil disobedience, invasion and illegal occupation of a public edifice, refusing to obey the commands of an office of duly constituted civil authority and blocking the free passage of vehicles on a public road. 500 smackers and a day in Almeria Court Number 1 that cost me, but if I ever meet Tejero I can shake his hand as a fellow revolutionary. No hard feelings, eh?
Now, quite why Navarro needs a job as a medical centre receptionist I’m not sure. Possibly he runs his own finances in the same way he ran the town’s – he was the person who started the slippery slope of ruin which now sees the council owing over 10 million euros (although his successors of all colours helped, of course). He lost his cushy job along with all the other political appointees of the PSOE when the PP gained control of the county council and applied Austerity to it during the start of the recession. The PSOE said he was as worthy as anyone else in the town, was used to responsibility and had the same needs as any other person.
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Nor am I sure why the Councillor for Employment (who is from the PSOE side of the coalition) thought it necessary to give the job directly to Navarro, thus laying themselves open to all sorts of accusations, instead of following correct procedure, which is ringing up the unemployment agency SAE and getting them to send the next qualified person in the job queue along.
Mayor Martin has now ripped up Navarro’s contract and got another Turrero via the SAE to fill in the position until the usual chap returns to work. Nothing against Navarro per se, but both Somos Turre councillors agree that in all such hirings correct procedures must be followed without exception, instead of hiring “a dedo“.