Bob Houliston resigns postion as Councillor for the Coast

Councillor Bob Houliston

When I wrote my articles 'Will CLARO partner the Partido Popular in Orihuela?' followed by 'Together we can! - Oh Really!' , and 'CRAPPOL party inauguration' I never thought I would be reporting on the resignation of Bob Houliston so soon.

Today Bob Houliston leader of the CLARO party resigned as Councillor for Orihuela Costa and as a member of the tripartite government team of the Orihuela Town Council.

His letter of resignation to the Mayor of Orihuela issued as a press release reads as follows:

“Dear Alcalde,
I regret to inform you of my decision to resign, as of today, from the municipal government of Orihuela and from my post as Councillor for the Coast, Beaches and International Residents
My decision has been caused by the present near paralysis of an important sector of the administration of the coast resulting from the sudden and abrupt transfer to Orihuela on 23 January, 2012 of the Resident Engineer. With this transfer, I have lost the services of a competent and very experienced officer. I have also lost the only technical officer working on the coast, dedicated to the supervision of works and contracts and authorised to co-sign with me, work completion certificates and bills essential for the payment of invoices. For this reason, in the course of the past month since her transfer a number of invoices have not been authorised for payment. The legal, administrative and financial problems which this creates are already considerable. I am not prepared to take political responsibility for resolving problems which others have caused..
As you know, this situation is the latest in a series of incidents resulting from the systematic refusal of an element in the government to cooperate and coordinate their activities which concern the coast with me, the councillor geographically competent From the first day I have been aware of their opposition to me and to my having the means necessary to carry out my work for the coast. In the meeting of the councillors forming the majority on the council, the government group, held on on 16 July, 2011 of which I was not informed and to which I was not invited, the conclusions of the negotiations for the inclusion in the government of the Centro Liberal Renovador (CLR) party were presented. Needless to say, I was not informed either of these negotiations or consulted on aspects relating to my responsibilities.
Arriving at this meeting by chance, I was obliged to block a proposal to divide the responsibilites which you granted to me as councillor for the coast on my entry into the government and to share these responsibilities with another councillor. I also had to block a proposal to remove the post of personal advisor to help me with my work on the coast, a post which you had previously agreed to, on a full-time basis and which was subsequently reduced to a part-time basis at the insistence of Pedro Mancebo and the CLR party. Finally, at the same meeting I was obliged to object to the title of the responsibilities to be given to Pedro Mancebo as Councillor for the Coordination OF the Services of the Coast, considering that as councillor for the coast, I should be responsible for the coordination of my services. The title of Pedro Mancebo's responsiblities was changed to Councillor for the Coordination of Services WITH the Coast..
While the preposition in the title of Pedro Mancebo's competences was changed from “of” to “with” I am convinced that the intention behind his original proposal remained unchanged. To illustrate this belief, you will remember that I objected to the definition of his competences included in Decree 513 signed by you on 16 September, 2011 which gave him responsibility for approving (visto bueno) all proposed agreements, decisions (resoluciones), decrees and other documents relating to the work of the councillor for the coast. At the same time the Decree gave him responsibility for “optimising” all resources be they personnel, material, economic or budgetary of the municipal office of the Town Hall in Orihuela Costa.
These responsibilities created in effect the post of a “Controller” (Concejal Controlador) of the councillor for the coast. Regretably, despite my proposals aimed at seeking a consensus on the text, these responsibilities remained essentially unchaged in the modified Decree which you signed on 16 December, 2011 and which I was notified of on 6 February, 2012,
An example of the “optimisation” of the human resources of the coast can be seen in the decision taken by two CLR councillors and, I suppose, the Councillor for Coordinating Services with the coast, to transfer with 6 minutes notice for “organisational necessity” the Resident Engineer who had worked for 12 years on the coast. The officer in question was of such importance, given her responsibility for supervising contracts for basic services, the quality of the beaches and the budgetary procedures, the coast is suffering from her removal. The contract engineer who was appointed in December as a reinforcement, cannot be expected to fulfil all these functions. He does not have power of signature. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any serious effort to solve this problem or the more general problem of insufficient staff, by providing the coast with the appropriate number of qualified, permanent officials needed to look after the needs of 35% of the population of Orihuela, almost the same number as those living in Orihuela city.
I do not wish to go into the detail of all the incidents of non-cooperation and the placing of obstacles to the carrying out of my work which have been caused by the CLR element in the government over the past 7 months and which continue to this day, The consequences have been to divide and weaken the management of the coast against the interest of the people living on the coast and their democratically expressed wishes as to who should represent them.
This long and painful experience convinces me of the impossibility of carrying out my work in the interest of Orihuela Costa. I am therefore obliged to resign from my post as Councillor for the Coast and as a member of your government. I will, of course, continue as an elected member of the Corporation. to work for the interests of Orihuela Costa.
I should like to state that during the past 8 months, I have formed and will retain the highest appreciation of your personal and professional qualities and those of the majority of members of your government”.

This will mean that the town council is now split into two distinct armies; the tripartite governing team of the PSOE, Los Verdes and CLR will now only have 12 Councillors, whilst the PP oposition party will have an equal number of Councillors; with Bob Houliston holding the balancing council seat bringing the total to 25. Monserrate Guillén Sáez as Mayor of Orihuela, and leader of the tripartite alliance will have a difficult time with getting legislation approved through the Town Council with Bob Houliston having the floating, deciding vote.

The alternative, feared by many who have experienced the previous government periods of the Partido Popular party in Orihuela, is that Bob Houliston will give his permanent allegiance to the PP in return for being giving total Councillor responsibility for the Orihuela Costa area. This would be the achievement, pinnacle, of his personal ambition for totalitarian control of the coastal region. What cost for power!

Partido Popular Mayoress in Orihuela Municipality says; "ignore these type of people they are not worth bothering with".

Let me first explain that the Mayoress in question is Gill Reynolds, the wife of the Partido Popular appointed, but not elected, quasi-Mayor of Entre Naranjas, a suburb of the Orihuela Municipality, and not Monica Lorente the PP Mayor and leader of the Orihuela Town Council. However it was Ms. Lorente who made the appointment, without any ballot of the residents of Entre Naranjas, of John Reynolds as quasi-Mayor in the manner of a favour.
 
In my previous article about the political status of the Orihuela Costa Neighbourhood Watch I added a comment on the 5th April which read: 'There is an interesting letter in this weeks CoastRider paper asking the question about the political status of the OCNW from a diferent view point. http://www.coastrider.net/lifestyle/letters/11879-letters-to-the-editor '. The author was Edith Wood of La Florida in Orihuela Costa. The letter had also been published in the Round Town News the previous week.

The Editor of the Orihuela Costa Vc Facebook page posted an article entitled ‘Letter to the RTN’ which opened with the wording of a letter in reply to that of Edith Wood.

(I would have normally just put the link to the page and relevant quotes, but because, as you will have noted from my previous weblog article, comments that I and others made on the OCVc Facebook page that were uncomplimentary to the PP party were deleted, I believe there might be a possibility of the ‘letter to the RTN’ post and comments being deleted from the page at some point. So I believe it is necessary to duplicate it here for the circumstances to be fully appreciated.)

The opening post was:-

I WAS incensed to read such an attack in the letters last week, about the Orihuela Costa Neighborhood Watch and the volunteer leader Chris Poole.
I have been actively involved for more than the past eight years with many organisations in Torrevieja and OC and although less active now I can assure the concerned person that there are no political leanings by the OCNW or the leader.
Any registered NGO in Spain wishing to achieve their objectives need to co-operate alongside the Ayuntamiento and ruling party: it’s a two way partnership, especially as they control the purse strings and policies. If invited any leader would be proud to re-present his organisation as a way of communicating requirements and shortcomings.
Opposition parties and their supporters need to stir it up, but the NGOs avoid confrontation preferring a more subtle approach to achieve objectives.  
John Kadwell  Los Balcones   

Gill Reynolds posted the first comment to this:

what a disgusting thing to do, how dare they attack someone like Chris Poole who has done so much to help everyone regardless of nationality, religion or politics, Chris...ignore these type of people they are not worth bothering with.

On reading the initial entry I posted the comment:

It is interesting that the link is included to the wording of the letter by John Kadwell in the RTN newspaper in  reply to a letter criticising the political status of the OCNW but no link appears to be included to the original letter. Perhaps that is because it does not seem to be on the RTN website, so here is a link to the same letter in the CoastRider http://www.coastrider.net/lifestyle/letters/11879-letters-to-the-editor so everyone knows what was said. It is also interesting that in an email I received from JK today he said “Did check with Chris before writing”.

This I followed with a further posting:

Gill Reynolds:- The questions being asked about the OCNW are about its political status and its relationship with the PP political party.
Your comment is definitely thought provoking!
So in order for me to more fully understand the context of your comment; I am wondering are you making it as an individual, or as the Mayoress to your husband John the PP appointed, unelected, Mayor of Entre Naranjos. Appointed personally by Monica Lorente PP Mayor of Orihuela who, along with other PP party members, has been indicted for malpractice and corruption.
Perhaps you would care to define ‘these type of people’. Are they those that criticise the PP and anyone who has very close links to them? Are they those that criticise the OCNW? Am I one of those people as I asked questions in my article ‘Is Orihuela Costa Neighbourhood Watch  a Non-Non-Political Group?’ on my weblog about the political status of OCVC?

I was not expecting the venomous reply comment from Gill Reynolds:

"you just don't understand do you?? there are some good people in this world however you can't grasp the fact that not everyone is like you, something must have happened in your past life (if you ever had one) to make you so bitter and twisted, I was always raised by my parents to think that if I couldn't find something good to say about people, then say nothing. As for my husband being an unelected Mayor, how many times in the UK were you asked to vote for who you wanted to be your Mayor? why would you think it would be different in Spain?"

Having laughed at the baseness of her reply I responded with:

Gill Reynolds:- Thank you for taking the time to construct your well thoughtful, meaningful, constructive and polite reply, although you didn’t clarify the questions I raised, it does justice to yourself.
I take it from your reply then you think of me as one of “these type of people they are not worth bothering with” in your advice to Chris; except that you bothered to reply in your fashion.
This is getting off the subject of the political status of the OCNW  but I’ll pick up on the question of your husband being an unelected Mayor and your opinion that the same applies in the UK. The Parish Council Chairman, the Town Mayor, and the County Council Chairman, that is the leader of the different levels of governing councils are all elected to their positions by their peers, who are themselves elected Councillors having been chosen through the ballot box in local, town and county democratic elections. So yes my vote in local elections has counted towards the selection of Mayor. I’m not aware that your husband’s appointment was made on a similar basis. It was made as a favour by Monica Lorente.
Finally I would thank you for giving me the theme for a new article on my weblog.

Gill Reynolds made a further comment:

so in the UK the people elect who they want to represent them and they in turn choose a Mayor. In Spain the people elect who they want to represent them and they in turn choose a Mayor so your point is??? . My husband is one of 23 Mayors ELECTED by the town hall, how come he is the only one you target? perhaps because the Spanish wouldn't put up with your nonsense and your language skills are not sufficient. Anyway end of conversation as I will not have access to a computer for a while so no good replying.

My reply to her comment was:

Gill Reynolds: It is disappointing that you will not be able to read my reply but your absence is not sufficient reason for me not to reply as there are other readers of this Facebook page beside yourself.

The Mayor is the leader of the Town Council which is made up of Councillors who have been elected as a result of a local democratic election system. The so called ‘quasi-Mayors of the Pedanias within the Orihuela Municipality are usually members of the governing party, in this case the Partido Popular, who are personally appointed by the incumbent Mayor, Monica Lorente at this time, as a favour for work done for the party.  I am not aware that the Town Council Pleno or any subcommittees discussed or voted on the selection of the Pedania quasi-Mayors, so they weren’t elected. Please correct me if I am wrong on this by giving me a copy of the minutes of any meeting of the council which the vote was taken. Some of them may also be an elected Councillor but that is not a criteria to selection, neither is the requirement to have been on the party’s electoral list. It is an honoury appointment ‘without portfolio’.

I raised the question of your husband's appointment, and therefore yours as his quasi-Mayoress, as you have previously commented on this Facebook page “we have attended a lot of events, not all the photos are put on by John but as Mayor he should let people know what he is doing to promote Entre Naranjos”, in order to understand your initial comment on this article and the position you were coming from when making it. It is a pity you did not feel able to answer the original questions I put to you in my second comment on this article.

Your husband like all the Pedania quasi-Mayors were selected, by the PP party, not elected, by the citizens. I object to all the appointments of the quasi-Mayors as they are a result of nepotism by the governing party leadership and not through democracy.

I would like to suggest that any further comments on this theme would be better made on my weblog article. Adiós hasta entonces.

So what are the points that I’m making you may be asking.

Within the boundaries of the Orihuela Municipality there are hamets, suburbs and large urbanisations that are referred to as the Pedanias . In these the Mayor (Alcalde) of the Town Council will designate a headman (Mayor) to be the eyes, ears and voice of the government in the individual Pedania. The person nominated with this quasi-Mayor title is normally someone in the confidence or trust of the borough Mayor. It is normally given to a member of the governing political party of which the Town Council Mayor is leader. This would be someone who the leader of the party can trust to project the image of the party. It is a position ‘without portfolio’ as it carries with it no legal authority over the residents of the suburb. It is an appointment in which the residents were neither consulted or given the chance to vote on.

The urbanisation of Entre Naranjas, within the Orihuela Costa area of Orihuela, has such a quasi-Mayor, namely John Reynolds, with his wife by definition being the quasi-Mayoress. They are by default the Partido Popular party’s officially nominated representatives and spokespersons in their Pedania.

It was bearing this in mind that on reading Mrs Reynolds’ initial comment of “ignore these type of people they are not worth bothering with” that I sought to clarify two points. Firstly, if the view expressed was her personal view or that of the PP party whom she represents. Secondly what type of people were being referred to in her comment. Hence my second posting on the article where I asked the questions of her.

They were questions that required only a simple reply. Not the venomous attack against myself that she returned with. Is the quality of her response that which one would expect to receive from a governing political party representative? I think not!

Considering the fact that on the 22nd May 2011, only some 6 weeks away, the local council elections are to held, without doubt I think not!

Unless of course, if she was replying as the quasi-Mayoress, that it is the policy of the PP party to dismiss and not bother with “these type of people”, those who disagree with, or question, the party’s point of view and policies. And then if those same type of people ask probing questions then ignore the questions but reply with unsubstantiated personal attacks upon their character!

To the residents of the Orihuela Municipality, and in particular the residents of Orihuela Costa this would come as no shock really, because they have experienced this daily from the Partido Popular party for all the time it has been in government over the last 20 or more years. Its level of contempt towards the electorate, and degree of avoidance of answering questions knows no limits!

If the comments made by Gill Reynolds were her personal opinion, and possibly not that of the party, although I doubt it because the PP party will have educated her in their ways, then it raises the question in my mind as to her suitability for the position of quasi-Mayoress of Entre Naranjas.

I have also noted that despite being registered in his own right as a ‘Friend’ on the OCVc Facebook page, and therefore capable of adding a comment, quasi-Mayor John Reynolds has not made a comment to contradict anything I have said. It leads me to the assumption that he is in agreement with everything his wife, his quasi-Mayoress has said!

Which ever option is the reality it raises the question in my mind as to the quality of judgement of Monica Lorente, current leader of the PP, and her suitability as the future Mayor of Orihuela after the forthcoming elections. It was she who appointed the quasi-Mayor and consequent quasi-Mayoress to be the representatives of her party in Entre Naranjas and project the attitude, policy and opinions of the Partido Popular party to the citizens.

An attitude of “ignore these type of people they are not worth bothering with”, and an opinion that the correct way to answer polite and probing questions is to say "you just don't understand do you?? there are some good people in this world however you can't grasp the fact that not everyone is like you, something must have happened in your past life (if you ever had one) to make you so bitter and twisted”.