Colau fattened the management leadership of the Barcelona City Council with 13 new positions in 2021
In 2021, shortly after the first major peak of the pandemic and in the midst of an economic recession due to the effects of Covid, Barcelona City Council incorporated a total of thirteen new management positions, passing from 217 to 230. These managers, with salaries that almost equal or exceed those of Ada Colau herself, are a good example of the mayoress’s policy, who came to the town hall criticizing the size of the municipal network and that years later, and despite economic times difficult, do not use scissors to reduce it.
According to the file of the annual accounts of the Consistory to which ABC has had access from the opposition, the Consistory as such closed last year with 155 directors and managers, three more than in 2020. The autonomous organizations won six (and they have 34); public business entities, two (24); and commercial companies, three (13). On the contrary, the municipal consortiums lost one management position and now have four.
At City Hall, structural changes made disappear figure of two managers, since there was one high and three low. In addition, in 2021, three directors and two division heads will join the Consistory, which until then did not exist. In the autonomous organizations, six directors were gained and in the public business entities, another six directors, according to the same data.
The new additions
Among the new additions, who arrived either to replace the dismissed or to occupy a newly created environment, is Laia Claverol as head of the Social Rights Management, Global Justice, Feminisms and LGTBI. The chosen one was until then municipal director and received, for her new position, 103,334 euros per year.
In 2021 there was also, among others, the appointment as deputy manager of Mobility of Oriol Altisench: since 2013 he has been chaining senior municipal positions and now has a salary of 87,018 euros per year. Similar to his trajectory is that of Gemma Arau, Territorial and Proximity Coordination Manager since December 2021: he earns 103,334 euros per year and before, and since 2001, he led six other managements, according to his own curriculum, which can be consulted on the City Council website.
These salaries are higher than those of the mayoress herself -who charges 100,000 euros and who donates part of his salary to his training – are common among municipal managers. According to the municipal transparency portal, they only exist between the City Council and its autonomous bodies and public entities 40 managersand with the exception of one of them, who charges 60,000 euros, the rest receive at least 86,700 euros per year.
The large municipal network has been the object of suspicion on several occasions. Just a year ago, the municipal group of the PP demanded a reduction in the companies dependent on the City Council, alleging that the “municipal superstructure” with more than 70 own organizations or with participation that cost 1,170 million euros a year. The popular ones proposed a 30% reduction of companies as well as 10% of the salaries of senior officials and the initiative did not prosper due to the contrary vote of the municipal bipartisan (common and PSC) together with the ‘no’ of ERC.