A couple of evenings ago I was angrily informed that the ruling consejales (councillors) are drawing salariies of 53,000€, and that the alcade (mayor) is getting another 10,000€ on top of that. Quite rightly, the person who told me that was outraged. But the source of his information? "It must be true!everybody is telling me." And, knowung it to be true, he's now telling everyone else. Except it's not true. Someone has fed this false information into the expatriate community where it is spreading like wildfire - and we've enough real fires to worry about at the moment, but that is another story.
Unlike other people I checked this before going public. The highest paid councillors receive 1,500 per month, plus - like all employees in Spain - an additional month's pay at Christmas and in the summer holiday period. Which amounts to 1,500€ x 14 which gives 21,000€, which in turn is in line with average abnual net earnings in Spain. However, you cannot simply multiply this sum by seven councillors.
The alcalde (Partido Popular) draws the full salary, but nothing over and above that. Two of the remaining PP councillors share a full salary, split 60/40. According to my information, the fourth PP councillor does not draw any salary.
The deputy alcalde (Partido Andalucista) draws a full salary and no extras, whilst a second PA councillor receives a half salary (10,500€) and the third PA councillor receives nothing. So instead of the alleged total of 371,010€ a year in salaries, the actual total is only 73,500€ with no one getting rich from holding office.
These figures, incidentally are not secret; they are available on the Ayuntamiento's website, so I'm bound to conclude that the person who set this off knew that his/her figures were blatantly untrue. In village politics, truth is the first casualty.
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