Muro: The New Model Town Hall

Muro is a town which generally goes about its business without making a great deal of fuss or drawing a huge amount of attention to itself. Gone are the days when the grand old men of Muro's politics would clash and when things would rarely appear to be sweetness and light. Both of them also had their well-publicised legal problems. Miguel Ramis, the founder of Grupotel and one-time mayor, was disqualified from public office over a land matter, while Jaume Perelló, another ex-mayor, was sentenced to a year in prison because of vote-rigging. There are of course still the occasional spats, but by and large the town hall avoids being named in dishonourable dispatches and conducts itself in an unfussy and efficient manner. So efficient is it, that it is only one of two town halls in Mallorca to have no debt.

Other town halls in the area still have alarming levels of debt, despite some years of austerity. Alcúdia's and Santa Margalida's are roughly the same, edging towards four and a half million euros. Pollensa's is a bit under four million. Sa Pobla has a whacking great 10.35 million. So how is it that Muro manages to owe not a centimo? Basically, it is all down to good housekeeping. Mayor Martí Fornes has explained that running a town hall should be like running your home finances. You don't spend more than you can afford. It all sounds remarkably like Margaret Thatcher and remarkably sensible.

There was a debt, some two million euros, a few years ago, but it has been whittled down to nothing through prudence. It is not as though there aren't investments, just that they are closely controlled. The efficiency stretches to payments to suppliers. Muro takes, on average, a mere sixteen days to pay up.

Muro's financial position may all be a function of size (roughly a third the population of Alcúdia) and of a large number of mainly up-market hotels from which healthy revenues can be obtained, but however it is managing to keep the debt to zero, it can be held up as something of a model town hall for others to aspire to.

Meanwhile, the town hall is taking measures to improve security on beaches and to tackle the problem of the illegal massages which are offered on the beaches. Calvia town hall has taken a lead in respect of the latter by putting out to tender a number of massage tents on various beaches in the town. Muro is following suit, as is Santa Margalida (aka Can Picafort). It is a pragmatic response in face of a problem that is not easily solved. It might appear to be easy to solve, but as Santa Margalida's mayor, Antoni Reus, has pointed out, the local police can confiscate the oil and the towel but an hour or so later the massage girls are back again. It's a familiar story, akin to that of the "lookies". Issuing fines isn't much use, as they don't get paid.

Muro will have two massage tents this summer, while Santa Margalida will have four. Though it might be hoped that some of the trade that the illegal massage girls have until now exploited will prefer to have an authorised beach massage, will it mean the end of the illegality and the sheer nuisance factor? Somehow, you would doubt it.

On beach security, Muro will be installing safes with the sunbed and parasol units. Or rather, the concessionaires who supply the sunbeds will be installing them. Doubtless this will have meant higher tenders for the sunbed lots on the beaches. The concessions are good revenue-earners for both Muro and Santa Margalida town halls, but they have also had their share of controversy. One can but hope that the safes will not be the targets of any vandalism. Both Muro and Can Picafort have a bit of form when it comes to sunbeds being vandalised. Not, it would seem, by ne'er-do-well tourists or local lads with nothing better to do, but by rivals.

MALLORCA TODAY - Santa Margalida's dire financial situation

Santa Margalida town hall's leaders have taken the unusual step of addressing a meeting of residents to explain the precarious situation regarding the town's finances, the total debt having risen to ten million euros. The lack of liquidity has required cuts to services and an increase in local taxes. One victim of the cuts will be the public swimming-pool which will not open this summer as it will cost too much to repair pipework.

Kicking Off: Cuts, Catalan and Conflict

I know, I know. I should write about turquoise seas, dramatic mountain landscapes, quaint old Mallorcans acting traditionally. I should use the "beautiful" word. I should consult only my tourism brochure thesaurus, litter my every sentence with superlatives. I know, I know.

"What me? Write about politics?" "Yea, as if you don't". Sometimes I wonder if I am the only one who's interested. But then I know I am not, as I correspond with those who make it clear that I am not alone. "It's all going to kick off." "No, it won't kick off." I wish I could share such optimism. It was a pessimistic view that had made me suggest it would kick off. It had been half-joking, but only where one of the rescue agencies was concerned. "The Royal Navy and Ryanair repatriating us all." Pull the short straw and there would be O'Leary kicking you back down the steps if you dared to bring on excess baggage, your dearest possessions stashed inside a hurriedly-packed old suitcase.

Will it kick off? When will it kick off? What will be the starting-point for it to kick off? Or perhaps it already has in an as yet quiet way.

You can't blame Bauzá and his government for some of it. These government public companies, for example; what on earth were they all doing? Four or five of them with IT included in their titles. Was it possible that they were duplicating information technology effort? Very likely. The Balearics Tourism Agency is to be combined with the Foundation for Sustainable Development after all. What will become of the foundation's Jorge Campos? He'll probably be kept on. He and Bauzá are chums.

Ninety-two of these companies are to go, along with 800 jobs. Shame for the workers, but what was the point of them? The point seemed to be that it cost over 100 million euros a year to employ them.

The unions are making noises, but then unions always make noises. They are threatening "permanent conflict" if the government doesn't back down on its promise to get rid of the full-time union worker representatives in public administration. It won't back down. Permanent conflict. Will it come? Has it arrived? Has the kicking-off started?

The university hasn't got money to pay salaries. Its financial situation, poor anyway, has got worse. It's short of 20 million of government cash. Its budget had already been cut by 12%. How much more can it lose? Students, always students, gave Bauzá a hard time when he put in an appearance, not just about money but also about the attacks on the use of Catalan. The Obra Cultural Balear is going to take the attacks on Catalan to Europe. Cuts and the language thing. They are a powerful cocktail.

The cuts have only just begun though. There need to be more. Without them, the pharmacists, still owed millions, the constructors, still owed millions, will strike or close or do whatever it takes to get their money from a government with no money.

Because there isn't any money. Well, there's some. Some lurking somewhere. In the nick of time, Palma town hall has found some to put into the coffers of the city's transport service operator, so that wages can be paid. There had been a delay in payment. The workers protested at the town hall, as they have every right to. But what's to become of Palma town hall? It needs to find 42.6 million euros to pay banks by the end of December. If it doesn't, what then? It'll scrape by somehow, only to fight a losing battle later. And remember that thing about the Palacio de Congresos being a bottomless pit. When, if, it is finished next year and is meant to be under Palma's administration, there won't be any money in the bottom of the pit to maintain it.

Things are falling apart. The centre cannot hold. The centre holds only in that central office of the Partido Popular is instructing the Balearic Government. Former President Antich, remember him, and none of this is of course any of his doing, has described Bauzá as being on the radical right, and it's not a compliment. He has also said that the regional government is a subsidiary of central office. What's that? I think I've been saying this. For some time. Give me back my line, Antich.

Is that when it really kicks off? After the national elections? Or what about at the start of November? All those unemployment queues at the end of the season. All those people snaking along the street, demanding their winter payment from the government. From a government with no money. They should get a job. Where? All the hotels are closed. The airlines have stopped running. Does it all really kick off before Christmas? And what of Christmas? Will it be cancelled?

I know, I know. I should write about turquoise seas, dramatic mountain landscapes. Lose myself and lose you in a land where the sun always shines. It was nice while it lasted.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.


Index for September 2011

Alcúdia tourist day - 9 September 2011
August's tourists - 2 September 2011
Balearic Government, questions about spending by previous - 20 September 2011
Bellevue to be split in two - 4 September 2011
Bullfight in Barcelona, last - 23 September 2011
Burka ban in Sa Pobla - 3 September 2011
Celebrities - 19 September 2011
Constitution and budgetary stability - 13 September 2011
Cuts, public sector - 30 September 2011
Drinking and youth tourism - 16 September 2011
Drowning, weever fish and the sea - 14 September 2011
Fractional ownership and condohotels - 27 September 2011
GOB - 1 September 2011
Hundred days, Bauzá's first - 26 September 2011
Insult of President Bauzá by "L'Estel" magazine - 18 September 2011
Jorge Campos and Foundation for Sustainable Development - 25 September 2011
Madness at Mallorca Rocks - 11 September 2011
Melon fiesta, Vilafranca - 6 September 2011
Oktoberfests, Mallorca - 29 September 2011
Playa de Muro empty units - 21 September 2011
Playa de Palma survey - 28 September 2011
Political make believe in Mallorca and Spain - 24 September 2011
Return to school - 10 September 2011
Rugby World Cup - 7 September 2011
Smells of summer - 5 September 2011
Sports teams and tourism promotion - 22 September 2011
Tourism degree, Universitat de les Illes Balears - 8 September 2011
Tourism: necessity for change - 17 September 2011
Winter tourism - 12 September 2011
Worker representatives, elimination of - 15 September 2011

Mama Told Me Not To ...

Family closeness is all well and good, but the Spanish, in the form of young-adult offspring, have traditionally often failed to leave the womb, especially the young-adult Spanish male, for which read also of course Mallorcan male. I once read someone bemoaning the nature of this species. To paraphrase, it was in terms of sun shining from where only those with certain proclivities or medical staff would dare venture. The Mallorcan son can do so little wrong that he is indulged and is quite content to reciprocate by continuing to feast from his mother's table. There is one Mallorcan chap who I meet periodically, except that is when he fails to show up, normally because mama has insisted she cooks lunch. And this Mallorcan chap runs a restaurant. Go figure.

But some do of course escape. The only problem is that the economic crisis is driving them back to the welcoming arms of mama who doubtless had told them not to go in the first place. Everything is back again as it should be in the Mallorcan family, courtesy of the American sub-prime crisis. According to a piece in "The Times", 60% of those between the ages of 18 and 34 live at home, more than a quarter of that figure being over 30. And now the numbers are rising.

In my immediate neighbourhood, there is one 30-something who is still at home and who has enjoyed many a mama's hearty meal by the looks of him. Another, in the house opposite, is still there, and his brother lives round the corner. One rather grand house has a whole load of them; it's all a bit like "Dallas" minus the oil.

For one who, had it not been for university meaning that a room was kept available for the rare trip home, would have been shown the parental door at the end of schooling, I find it all a bit strange. But there is a serious side to all this in that economic circumstances are making it hard to move out even if they want to. Young people tend to be employed on temporary contracts and so are the first to get the chop, while an average salary across Spain for those under 35 is 18,000 euros. Leaving mama has never been more difficult.


BAD DEBT
"DEUDOR". Know what it means? Change a couple of letters and you would have the English. Debtor. All the Spanish that might have headed to the beach near me on Sunday would of course have known the word. That may have been the intention; the more that could see, the better. The only problem was the morning rain and cloud which meant that, despite the afternoon sun, the beach was more or less deserted on what is otherwise the busiest day of the week. Consequently, there were only a few other cars where normally one gets some double-parking. It made one car stand out though. A Volvo estate. I seem to have seen it there quite regularly. Someone else would have known it would be there, too. And would probably have taken into account that the repair workshops would be closed till Monday. "Deudor" had been scratched into the bonnet. The tyres had been slashed. It was not perhaps as vandalistic as a car I once saw near Sea Club in Puerto Alcúdia. Its windows had been smashed and it had been spray-painted with the word "GRASS". And yes, it was the English word; I've not translated.

Much as many here will resort to a "denuncia" to the police for matters trivial enough that they should be possible to resolve with a bit of adult discussion or will fabricate the "facts" of a denuncia, there are many others who will take matters into their own hands - for those things for which a bit of adult discussion might be beyond the wit of either party or for which there seems no other resort than to vandalism or violence. Exasperation can sometimes drive people to extraordinary measures. Not that I am condoning grand auto vandalism. Far from it. But I can understand the exasperation.

I have no way of knowing the circumstances behind the "deudor" attack, but if someone owes you money, there is not a lot you can do about it, unless you have pretty deep pockets and are willing to go through a protracted court procedure. There is no such thing here as a small claims court. And if you happen to be the one who owes the money, here's a word of advice. Find yourself a garage. Oh, and it might be an idea if you pay the garage's landlord as well.


DON'T GIVE A FIG
A year ago I did a piece about figs. This is the fig season. My mate with a finca near Santa Margalida delivered a tray last night. Pure ambrosia. I hadn't appreciated, until he told me, that they are highly calorific. To Hell with it. Hand me another.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Immigrant Song", Led Zeppelin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svR3iXKTJvc). Today's title - ok, Tom Jones, but who came first and who had the first hit?

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