The Dysfunctional Town Hall: Pollensa

The bickering between the current administration in Pollensa and the grouping formed by ex-mayor Tomeu Cifre Ochogovia, Tots per Pollença, appears to have no limit. Cifre, who has had some legitimate reasons to take the administration (Junts Avançam and the UMP, Unió Mollera Pollencina) to task, such as with the beach services, seems intent on keeping up a barrage of complaint and criticism. The latest, related to the cost of maintenance for a municipal sea rescue vessel, has led mayor Miquel Angel March to demand that Cifre withdraw "serious accusations of misappropriation of funds".

March seems to have good grounds for making this demand. The amount involved is in any event small - 6,800 euros - on repairing a vessel that is over ten years old, and it corresponds to two years' worth of such repair, according to the town hall. The spending is apparently in line with that which the ex-mayor, when still a Partido Popular politician, would have authorised. The lifeboat service as a whole costs the town hall around a quarter of a million euros per annum: the maintenance of a vessel is, as March points out, pretty important.

Given the apparent pettiness of this, what does it tell us about Pollensa's politics? They have long been fraught at a town hall that has become a byword for dysfunctionalism, but there are at present some specifics. Cifre, more than just opposing, which he is of course entitled to do and should do, seems to have an agenda to challenge the administration on everything. Perhaps it is because he cannot accept that he is no longer (or not at the moment) mayor, which he has been on two occasions. Or does it have to do with his cousin, the councillor for urban planning with a very similar name?

It has been said to me that there is some disquiet where March is concerned in that he doesn't show strong leadership. The suggestion is that the real power at the town hall is Tomeu Cifre Bennasàr, the cousin of Tomeu Cifre Ochogovia. He, Bennasàr, has been involved with town hall politics for some years; he's been around the block. The same cannot be said for March. As former spokesperson for the environmentalists GOB, he was selected as mayor as an independent, though his politics would closely align themselves with the eco-nationalism of Bennasàr and Més. With GOB, March would have been well used to the politics of confrontation: this is, after all, what GOB engages in. But running a town hall is a very different proposition to heading an environmentalist pressure group, even for the son of a one-time Pollensa mayor, which March is.

It would be stretching things to say that the fighting is all due to some form of family feud, but it might be recalled that the ground rules were laid at the very first council meeting after the municipal election last year. Ochogovia challenged Bennasàr's compatibility for his responsibility for urban planning. An architect by profession, it was claimed that there could (would) be a conflict of interests. March, in so many words, told Ochogovia to stop trying to stir the shit.

Against this background, we have the suspicion that a plot for a vote of no confidence in the Junts was being hatched. The Alternativa per Pollença, not officially part of the administration but crucial to its existence as it lent support to allow it to govern, alleged recently that the UMP councillor, Andres Nevado, was talking with Cifre Ochogovia and others (the PP and El Pi opposition councillors) about such a no-confidence vote. Nevado denied this, pointing out that a meal which involved some business people and opposition leaders was one to which he had invited various friends, such as Cifre Ochogovia.

There may indeed have been nothing more to the meal gathering, but votes of no confidence do happen and do lead to changes of administration. There was one in Manacor not long after the municipal election in 2015. There has been another in Maria de la Salut. If nothing else, the mere suspicion raises a question as to how strong the Junts-UMP alliance really is, given that the UMP is politically well to the right of most of the Junts make-up.

The confidence word has, since the Alternativa raised its suspicions, been voiced in another context, and also by the Alternativa. It is seeking to have its confidence in the administration restored, as it is not standing by agreements that facilitated the Alternativa's support and so selection of March as mayor. These specifically have to do with what the Alternativa argues is a failure to comply with demands for transparency and participation: both pillars of the Alternativa's philosophy since it was created.

The overall impression, therefore, is that of an administration which is shaky. There again, one could say the same of the previous administration, the one before that, and ... . Dysfunctional. That's Pollensa.

MALLORCA TODAY - Call for Pollensa audit to be made public

The Alternativa party has registered a motion that calls on Pollensa town hall administration to make public the whole content of the audit conducted by the consultants Deloitte into contracts and payments during the last administration. Pointing out that the audit cost 20,000 euros of public money to be performed, the party argues that the town's citizens have a right to access information that they in effect have paid for. Some of the audit's findings were made public, and they indicated some potential irregularities. The Alternativa wants to know if any possible illegality was involved.

MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa's satirical Sant Antoni bonfire

The Alternativa has been up to its usual tricks. Taking the chance of having a pop at the dysfunctional town hall administration in Pollensa, its own Sant Antoni bonfire shows the splits in the coalition between mayor Tomeu Cifre and ex-La Lliga's Malena Estrany plus the splits between the former members of La Lliga, presided over, on the purple pine of the El Pi party, by Jaume Font and Josep Melia, the leaders of the merged El Pi.

MALLORCA TODAY - Alternativa slams tourism councillor over "tour operator" for dogs on Pollensa beaches

The Alternativa per Pollença has attacked the Pollensa town hall's tourism councillor, Maria Buades, over the press release that was issued some time ago in which reference was made to contacts having been made between the town hall and a so-called tour operator for dog-friendly holidays. This was all part of the town hall's tentative plan to permit dogs (and indeed other pets) to be taken onto beaches during the summer (two beaches in fact: Llenaire in Puerto Pollensa and Cala Carbó in Cala San Vicente). The Alternativa has criticised Sra. Buades for having confused this "tour operator" with what it really is; no more than a group of friends who lobby for less restrictions on dogs on beaches. The Alternativa has looked into this "tour operator", Guide4Dogs.com, has verified that it has no legal status as a tour operator and has suggested that Sra. Buades takes greater care in understanding who or what it is she is actually in contact with. The party goes on to say that the "group of friends" has laudable intentions, so is not criticising it, just the councillor, and reiterates its call for there to be a pilot project for dogs on beaches, using Can Cullerasa beach outside of Puerto Pollensa, a call that was rejected by Sra. Buades.

MALLORCA TODAY - The Three Kings of Pollensa

The Alternativa per Pollença has issued a message for Three Kings. As the Kings are also the Magi, the party reckons that magic will be required in Pollensa in order to meet obligations for various projects. The card shows Malena Estrany, the deputy mayor (formerly of La Lliga), the mayor Tomeu Cifre, and Martí Roca of La Lliga and in charge of council services with whom Estrany has fallen out over his support for the new El Pi party. The three councillors are shown to favour cuts and piles of euros.

MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa street-cleaning report still not published

The Alternativa party has condemned the Pollensa councillor with responsibility for public services, Martí Roca, for not ensuring that annual reports related to the work of Llabres-Amer Adrover, the company that was contracted in 2010 to provide street-cleaning services (at a cost of 750,000 euros a year), are published. The first report was due to have been published and made available via the town hall website two years ago, yet still nothing has been made public.

MALLORCA TODAY - Concern over delay to Puerto Pollensa pool tender

The Alternativa per Pollença party has expressed its concern over the apparent delay in initiating the tender process for a new contract to operate the covered swimming-pool in Puerto Pollensa. The party supports a new tender but has pointed out that a further option exists in addition to a new tender or simply the awarding of a new contract similar to the one that was annulled in July, this option being the closure of the pool and the waste of investment for a facility that has been in operation for only three years.

Announcement of a tender was due to have been made in the middle of August but to date the tender process has not been initiated, so making it difficult to see how the pool can be functional this month.

MALLORCA TODAY - Can Morató demolition raised with UNESCO

The Alternativa per Pollença, already in contact with UNESCO's Spanish representative, has said that it will denounce to UNESCO a decision to remove protected status from the old Can Morató carpet factory in Pollensa which would lead to it being demolished.

UNESCO's involvement is on account of the factory falling within the Tramuntana region that has World Heritage Site status from UNESCO. If Can Morató were to be demolished, it is suggested, the boundary of this site could be affected.

The town hall insists that the factory, built in 1922 but abandoned since 1960, is in a state which cannot enable its renovation and restoration.

MALLORCA TODAY - Alternativa rejects Ternelles negotiations

The Alternativa per Pollença party has rejected suggestions by Pollensa town hall that it negotiates with the owners of the Camí de Ternelles walk so as to avoid any litigation and to ensure that the walk can be included in the town's catalogue of walks, even if still on the restricted basis by which walks can be enjoyed by the public. The Alternativa points to the Coasts Law as being critical in that, as things stand, access to the sea is being denied to the public. The party argues, therefore, that there should not be any restrictions.

MALLORCA TODAY - Alternativa joins Pollensa "junta"

In what might seem a surprise move, the Alternativa per Pollença has agreed to join with the Partido Popular and La Lliga to form part of Pollensa town hall's administration. The Alternativa will though remain in opposition. Its hope is to bring its ideas to the running of the town hall and so make for greater transparency and better representation. Pepe Garcia will be the party's representative.

MALLORCA TODAY - Alternativa slam maintenance of Pollensa's beaches

The Alternativa per Pollença have listed a number of deficiencies in respect of the maintenance and management of Puerto Pollensa's beaches, claiming that the new company in charge of the beaches is not meeting the specification that was drawn up by the town hall at the end of last year. One deficiency would appear to be the material for umbrellas (grass rather than reeds), while facilities such as showers have not yet been made available.

MALLORCA TODAY - Angry reaction in Pollensa beach affair

The neighbourhood association in Puerto Pollensa, which has been putting up sun beds and parasols on the resort's beaches despite not having been contracted to do so, has reacted angrily to accusations from Pepe Garcia of the Alternativa which suggest they might be being paid for this. The association is considering taking action for defamation.

Pepe And The Banshees: Pollensa

The voice has been one of a one-man banshee howl at nepotism, inefficiency and the opaque. Yet the image, one that may have come across through the media, is quite misplaced. For starters, it is more than one man and indeed woman. It is also no deranged spirit, wailing at the prospect of death in the house; more mild-mannered Clark Kent, but with a legitimate fear of death of a resort and town.

This is Pepe Garcia. He is, his party is the Alternative. For Pollensa. The scourge of Pollensa's town hall, something of the pin-up boy for those in a municipality who wear Pollensa's badge of dishonour with a perverse pride. This is the worst town, or worst town hall, in Mallorca. It's not something to be proud of, but pride has to be sought somehow.

There are doubtless other towns in Mallorca which would wish to lay claim to the worst crown, but none has been as unremitting in its pursuit as Pollensa has, and none has the same highly vocal banshee cries emanating from it, as those which Garcia emits.

What Garcia has achieved, and it is no small achievement, is to strip away and expose what many either know or suspect. He has gone for the throat and no longer is there any illusion that contracts and services have been variously dubious, uncompetitive or the result of nepotism. Gardens, street lighting and cleaning, transport plans. All have been targets and all have been revealed for what they have been. The workings of the town hall are out in the open, much as it, like other town halls, would prefer that they remained inside and closed.

Transparency is one of the Alternative's demands and one of its election promises. The lack of transparency, which is largely endemic to most town halls, has a collusive basis. When the Alternative pressed for a motion requiring the institution of greater transparency, it was rejected. More than this, it failed to receive support from other opposition parties, such as the Partido Popular, which abstained. Why would other parties not support this? You'd better ask them.

The lack of transparency, the lack of information make a true assessment of what is generally considered to be the parlous state of Pollensa's finances (a state it shares with other towns) nigh on impossible. The hole in the finances could be considerably deeper than is admitted. It is a hole into which, for example, has been thrown the salaries of not one, not two but six full-time councillors, including one for fiestas. Why does any town need someone working full time on fiestas? The answer is that it doesn't

The spend on fiestas is something which I have questioned in the past. The amount that goes up in smoke alone is far from insignificant. No one wants to lose the essence of fiestas, but are exercises such as cost-benefit analyses ever performed which might, or might not show what they bring in terms of return?

What has generally happened, with all sorts of spend on all sorts of contracts, services and events is that no one has sought to seriously question them, to seriously dig for answers, except the Alternative. In Pollensa, some of the worst-offending contracts (and not all contracts were ever actually contracts) pre-date even the benighted administration of the current mayor. Yet, prominent town hall figures, of whom some are seeking selection as mayor this time round, raised nary a quibble. It is for this reason that the air of collusion exists, the nod and a wink of that's how things are done, the acceptance of opacity over transparency.

And behind all this, there exists something else. The local system. Garcia has a problem, in the unlikely event that he were to wish to break into the tight-knit network of contracts being granted. He is not from Pollensa. It makes his voice independent, but all the more liable to be harangued as the shrill cry of an outsider.

One can't speak for every town or village in Mallorca, but the case of Pollensa surely has echoes elsewhere. They are those which reverberate with the same accusations, largely substantiated, that have come from Pollensa. Those of nepotism and a lack of transparency, which, in turn, lead to inefficiencies, exacerbated by systems of inadequate control.

All the main parties will do their schmoozing, all will offer their words which are ultimately vacuous. Some, and some mayoral candidates and others in different towns of Mallorca, may be genuine. But you can look at Pollensa and wonder.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.