The new mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, has taken a new step in his promise to ensure, at least during this initial term of office, the continuity of the organizational structure of Barcelona City Council, which remains intact compared to the previous municipal term with Ada Colau in front of the Town Hall. La Gaseta Municipal published yesterday four mayoral decrees with the cessation, firstly, of all senior management personnel (managers) and temporary personnel hired by the different political groups and, then, with the appointment and, therefore, the replacement in their respective functions of these same people.
The Municipal Charter establishes that the dismissal of eventual personnel and managers corresponds to the mayor. In fact, this practice becomes a formality and, at least in the City Council of the Catalan capital, it is customary that at the start of the mandate the mayor does not force a major change in the municipal organization. The fact that on this occasion the door has been left open to future changes in the composition of the city government, with the possible entry of other political formations, has led Mayor Collboni to choose to renew all positions in the first instance.
The decrees signed minutes after the end of the investiture session and published yesterday contain the dismissal of 115 people, including temporary basic and senior management personnel. Almost all of them are recovered in other decrees by which 73 advisers assigned to municipal groups and 38 managers of the different departments of the City Council are appointed.
In this first batch of appointments – in fact provisional renewals of trust – there are 26 from the PSC, 25 from BComú, 12 from ERC, 6 from Junts and 4 from the PP. At the moment, no designation by Vox appears, a formation that has entered the Barcelona City Council for the first time with two councilors.
Regarding the managers, the documents signed by the new mayor contemplate 38 appointments. In relation to the previous mandate, they repeat, always provisionally, the same people with the same positions and the same functions. The well-known exception is that of the municipal super manager Sara Berbel, who has left the City Council after eight years in the institution –four as head of the Economic Promotion area and another four as municipal manager– and who has been replaced by the right hand by Jaume Collboni, Albert Dalmau. The new head of the management structure of the City Council follows the same steps as his predecessor, since in the last term of Ada Colau he also directed the economic area. In fact, in this first list of senior positions, Dalmau, in addition to assuming municipal management, remains manager of the Economy, Resources and Economic Promotion area.
