The councilor of Estepona Blas Ruzafa admitted to the judge that the hiring and cessation of CPB as a charge of confidence of the session were ordered by Mayor José María García Urbano (PP), that the woman did not deliver a single working document in the month and a half that was hired and that, despite being attached to her area, she only saw her “circumstantially” once in the office of the councilor. When the magistrate questioned, surprised, about the lack of control in the City Council, Ruzafa shrugged: “We are not doing badly.”
CPB and their partner denounced a year and a half later to García Urbano for an alleged sexual harassment committed by them against them. That investigation was filed by the same court, understanding that there were no threats or coercion in relations. The complainants have resorted to the file.
In turn, the Court of Instruction 5 maintains open investigation for the embezzlement committed, allegedly when the mayor hired CPB as a confidence charge. The councilor is investigated in this cause. The woman has declared that she was “couple” by García Urbano for about two years. At this time, and for a month and a half (since mid -February at the end of March 2023), he was a charge of municipal trust, with the theoretical function of verifying that the street lamps, the streets or the pots of the municipality were in perfect state of magazine and be attentive to what was said in social networks.
CPB is nursing assistant and had no training or experience for this task. He didn’t even live in Estepona, but in Córdoba. She herself declared that she never went to work, nor explained her functions or did anything. In a month and a half it charged 5,276.92 euros.
The judge, to the councilor: “Is there any control?”
Blas Ruzafa appeared as a witness for the alleged embezzlement on February 20. It is the councilor that coordinates the external control area, responsible for monitoring compliance with municipal public services, almost all outsourced in Estepona: road cleaning, waste treatment, cleaning and beaches of beaches, gardening, parks maintenance, urban furniture, lighting, home help … The city pays more than 44 million euros a year for these services. To monitor these contracts, the town hall has a team of four technicians, three administrative and a beaches inspector. Ruzafa says that he was reinforced with CPB, a woman without experience whom he never met.
In his judicial statement, Ruzafa drew two lines of defense. He told the judge that the fact that a position of trust is hired and ceased thus, that there is no documentary record of his work, that he did not report to the responsible councilor (himself), that he did not have access to any key or municipal program or that the City Council never stepped on (except to sign its contract) is normal between the confidence positions of the town hall, which are signed and ceased by the councilor.
“I have never seen a written report of a trust position, they do not make files because it is not their task, nor are they in the manage program,” he said. The judge was very surprised. “So how do you control that? This is a bit of tailor drawer. There people with salaries are hired … quite acceptable, and there is no control, they have no obligation to present any documentation, accountability, reports? Is it simply verbal, from you to you, with the mayor? ”Asked the magistrate.
“It works well for us,” the mayor justified. “But there is no control,” the judge observed. “There is no control, as does not exist with the councilors,” confirmed the mayor. “We try to make them responsible people,” he said later. “We are not doing badly,” he insisted during the interrogation.
He Estepona City Council He counted in that term (2019-2023) with 14 positions of trust, the maximum that allows the law, to which he paid about two million euros in total. In July, he named 12 positions for this mandate, with salaries ranging between 41,150 and 63,900 euros per year.
The law, which gives a very broad margin to political positions to appoint and cease trusted personnel, does notice that “only performs expressly qualified as trust or special advice.” In July 2019 García Urbano proclaimed before the plenary that the positions of trust “are professionals and are not political positions”, and that they go to the City Council “to work, to help with the files and to provide services.”
“The trusted staff is designated by the mayor”
Ruzafa’s second line of defense was personal. Although he is not investigated, he is the councilor responsible for the area to which he was attached to CPB, but was unloaded with any responsibility in his hiring and cessation. So much, that he did not even know her and the mayor would only have presented her one day. “The trusted staff is designated by the mayor,” he said. “He does not ask me opinion, nor does he tell me when he appoints or ceases a position of trust.”
According to Ruzafa, at that time (February 2023, three months after the municipal elections) the councilor was concerned about the image of the city and the criticisms that were poured into social networks. And this, although he had achieved an overwhelming absolute majority in 2019, with 21 of 25 councilors. “We talked about the convenience of incorporating a person who was going to analyze social networks,” he explained: “He told me that he knew her, with common sense, loose, waspped, that she managed well on social networks …”. The councilman seemed good.
The councilor assumes that CPB would work on the street and from his home with his own computer, because “office did not have.” Nor mobile, or email. Not even keys to access the social networks that he had to monitor with the municipal public profile. The mayor assumes that the councilor would indicate his tasks and that he did not “follow up.”
By declaring as investigated, the mayor has already said that the tasks entrusted to CPB were “simple” but very important to him, and that there is no documentary record of his work because he received his reports verbally. Councilor Ruzafa enumerated those tasks thus: “Is it cleaned weekly? Are containers full of garbage? Does the cardboard or plastic leave out? Are the gardens full of bags? Are the flowers withered? Are the luminaires molten? Then, he clarified to the judge the relevance of those issues. “He [el alcalde José María García Urbano] Do not cut your hair to get attention for professional issues, “he added:” What is overwhelmed is a message from the mayor where he does not tell you or good morning and tells you: “This street is wrong, we do not take care of the details, so you cannot follow.”
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