This morning, Court of First Instance no. 4 in Estepona received a visit from the former mayor of Manilva, Mario Jimenez, the 3 councillors of Compromiso Manilva, Marcos Ruiz, Evangelina Galindo and Pilar Zúñiga, and the former councillor for fairs and education (now retired from political life) Daniel Muñoz, to attend, according to information obtained by this newsroom, a conciliation hearing requested by the former urban planning manager Aitor Menoyo.
The PSOE councillors Diego Jiménez, Francisco Becerra and Alba Jiménez were also summoned to the hearing, but chose not to attend in person, delegating their representation to the PSOE legal adviser, Francisco Conejo.
Reason for the summons
Everything suggests it could be related to a public complaint made by Compromiso Manilva on 22 September 2023, in which the party accused Menoyo of being hired «by direct appointment and without a selection procedure», and to a press release sent to the media in which they argued that it was «An appointment that surprises us: he was convicted in 2022 as the person responsible for an offence of administrative malfeasance by necessary cooperation, with a penalty of 21 months’ special disqualification from any public office or employment, according to the ruling of the Provincial Court of Málaga. And he is currently also under investigation in another court case», said Compromiso Manilva.
They also announced that they would take a joint motion with the PSOE to the council meeting urging the mayor to dismiss the appointed urban planning manager, Aitor Menoyo, and to immediately revoke the mayoral decree of 21/08/2023, which gave him the powers and salary of a manager without being one, according to the statement made public by Compromiso Manilva.
Motion that never reached the council meeting
This motion announced by the Compromiso Manilva party was never presented, as it was withdrawn before the council meeting because of the resignation of Menoyo from his post a few days later. He said he had taken the decision to step out of the spotlight and not disrupt the work being carried out by the urban planning management itself.
Menoyo acquitted by the Supreme Court
In October 2023, Menoyo won his case before the Supreme Court and was acquitted of the offences of forgery of an official document and procedural fraud of which he had been accused. According to the prosecution, he had drawn up a report in order to prevent the dismissal of a Town Hall employee, an administrative assistant in the cleaning department, from being declared void or unfair.
Oliver present at the hearing
As if this tangle of accusations were not already complicated enough, we have learned that the legal representative of Compromiso Manilva at this conciliation hearing was Mr Luis Olivier, who held the post of urban planning manager and was appointed by Mario Jiménez «Compromiso Manilva» back in June 2021. He continued to provide his services to the urban planning management until the arrival of Jose Manuel Fernández «PP», who decided to dispense with his services and appoint Aitor Menoyo to the post.
To be continued…
A conciliation hearing is a procedure that seeks to reach a satisfactory agreement between two parties, as an administrative step prior to filing a court claim. According to the sources consulted by this outlet, no positions have been found that might point, for the moment, to any kind of agreement with almost all of those involved. Therefore, everything suggests that the proceedings could continue towards a criminal complaint by the affected party against the councillors.
The only settlement accepted
At the conciliation hearing, Daniel Muñoz, who was a councillor for Compromiso Manilva but is now away from political life, attended without legal representation, offering his apologies and acknowledging that what appeared in the document was totally untrue. He admitted that at the time he had been unaware of an appeal lodged before the Supreme Court which would end up acquitting Menoyo of the charges being reported by what had been his political party. At the same time, Muñoz undertook to send a document to the council meeting clarifying his position. The complainant agreed to accept the apologies, waiving any financial claims against Muñoz.
