Güímar Ex-Mayor, Councilors Sue City Council Claiming Flawed Salary Reimbursement
Former Güímar mayor Gustavo Pérez and three councilors have repaid two months' salary after a court ruled their payments lacked formal approval, but are now suing the City Council, arguing the reimbursement demand is an overreach of authority and the process was flawed.
Gustavo Pérez, the former mayor of Güímar, has repaid two months' salary as ordered by a court. However, he is now suing the City Council, arguing that their demand for reimbursement goes beyond their authority. He claims the process was flawed, leaving him without a proper defense.
Three other councilors – Airam Puerta and Cándido Gómez from the Socialist Party, and Juan Delgado from CC – are in the same situation and are also threatening legal action.
This dispute follows an order issued on November 11 by the Contentious-Administrative Court number 2 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. This order enforced a previous judgment from July 5, 2022, which required the four individuals to return salaries they received in July and August 2021. The court ruled that there was no official council meeting (plenary) agreement to approve these payments, and it annulled the decrees that had set their salaries.
The issue began with a complaint filed by the Popular Party (PP). When Gustavo Pérez (CC) took over as mayor from Airam Puerta (PSOE) on July 1, 2021, the full council did not formally agree on new working arrangements or salaries. Instead, the existing salary structure was maintained, and payments were later established by decrees issued in July and August. At the time, the City Council's Legal Services believed no additional procedure was needed, a view that guided all subsequent council operations.
The former mayor and the three councilors accuse the Popular Party of "acting in bad faith" by demanding the return of salaries for work they say was performed "with complete normality." They argue that what happened in Güímar is "unprecedented," stating that no other Canarian City Council has ever sought to reclaim a salary from a public official for work legally verified and completed during their term.
Throughout the process, they maintained that their salaries were handled "with complete normality." They point out that the payments were audited by Intervention, managed by Human Resources, endorsed by the General Secretariat, and made with favorable reports, all in accordance with the law.
The original July 2022 judgment annulled the two decrees solely due to a "formal defect" in the approval process, not because the salaries themselves were irregular, unduly paid, or for work not performed. The court simply ordered the annulment of the formal act.
Despite this, the affected individuals claim that the Popular Party of Güímar "maliciously exploited a technical disagreement" between the judge's interpretation and the municipal technicians' view of the plenary procedure. They say the PP turned this into an "unjust and disproportionate process." They also note that the current governing group chose not to appeal the November 11 order and instead demanded the salaries back, forcing the affected councilors to seek legal and administrative avenues to defend their rights. From their perspective, this is not about salaries or work, but a legal issue that the PP has escalated into an "excessive political attack."
The four individuals argue that their "daily work, hundreds of signed documents, normal public service, and all the favorable reports from the legal services" – who are responsible for ensuring the council's legal operations – support their position.
The Güímar City Council demanded that Gustavo Pérez, Airam Puerta, Cándido Gómez, and Juan Delgado return the two salaries after the judge gave them 10 days to do so, with a warning of fines if they failed to comply.
In 2021, the current mayor of Güímar, Carmen Luisa Castro, who was then a spokesperson for the PP, had warned about the alleged irregularity of the PSOE-CC municipal government collecting salaries without a plenary agreement. The judge has sided with her, concluding that the "damage to public coffers is evident" because payments were made without a legal basis. While Mayor Castro initially argued that the four should return salaries received between July 2021 and June 2023, a report from the General Secretariat on October 25, 2023, limited the reimbursement to just July and August 2021, aligning with the plaintiff's original request. Three reports confirm this limitation.