Election 2015
Well, its nearly time again, this time next year the residents of La marina Urb. & San Fulgencio will have a new ruling council.
With no new party appearing on the horizon any time soon, it looks like we are set to keep the existing parties.
You have the PP, PIPN, APSFU, PSOE, not much changes with these parties, one thing that is for certain, the Urb is always overlooked, no matter what the promises are at the election party's.
We have the PP, with this party we associate, Paulino Herrera.
He is a good man, good intentions but, probably very misguided by his boss.
The PIPN, we know next to nothing about party members, Jeff & Sam are the only ones on the front line, more so Sam.
If Jeff could be honest, he would probably admit he went into this not knowing he would end up being disliked.
3 years in to this ruling council it seems he has finally got the idea, keep your opinions to yourself.
Sam, Sam has become a very important part of the PIPN party, she is the lady doing the running of the party, we all know Sam as the lady to see at the town hall. Could Sam edge Jeff if she decided to go her own way.
APSFU, here again is another party we know next to nothing about. You have councillor Mark Lewis and a gentleman called Brian representing this party.
Not much is documented about Brian, apart from he drinks to much.
The other councillor, Mark, he is very Jekyll and Hyde.
If this gentleman put as much time into his meeting and greeting with residents, as he does his own blog he would have a slim chance in the next election.
With his persistent, barbaric slurs at the current ruling council, does this not show a true glimpse to the real person he really is.
With the amount of work he does with charities, then the possibility of running for election next year, it is very clear he can not dedicate 100% to the residents, if elected.
As residents, Mark, already has experience under his belt as a serving Councillor, many residents grew tired of his antics and lies over the years he was a serving member.
He of course has done many good things in the past but, the bad out weigh the good far more.
PSOE
We have next to nothing on any party members, we do associate "Trini" with this party.
One mention of her name and everyone shouts "corruption".
Residents have to remember, all elections are based on false promises and maybes.
If were not being promised more help, were being promised more help for animals, vice versa.
Lets forget that, lets start to really understanding that we are being neglected here on the Urb.
The 2015 election will probably be one of the most important in recent times.
With a limited amount of councillors vying for jobs next year, lets see who can really deliver, really TRY and make a change.
Change does not happen over night, it takes time, sometimes years.
It would be very refreshing if we could find a councillor who can say, yes we are broke, yes we wont have much for the near future but, with everyone's help, we can start making changes, slowly.
The most important thing is, having a council who will try and listen and converse with the residents on a weekly basis.
Well written electioncampaign in La Marina Goes to prove that there are thinkers here on the the Urbanisation! I often wonder what hapend to the idea a few years ago of making the urbanisation a separate area and becoming its own masters? I can remember things like we had to have a police station, plus we had to have a church and a social center, all of which are now here. The idea behind it all was that all revenue raised on the urb would be used on the urb and not down in the village of San Fulgencio. Of course San Fulgencio would be well and truly against it. Any feedback would be interesting to read.
Alan.
You point out a very evil, but true fact, Mark Lewis did attack the Charity for the poor. To take it a leap further, he even questioned where the food donations were going.
If memory serves me correct, a lady by the name of Jan, volunteers for his pet Charity. Jan herself is a keen "people person charity". I wonder if she knew what he had posted on his own blog regarding the Charity for the poor people, would she still heap praise upon him.
Remember people, politicians are like clowns, they paint this pretty face upon them, then proceed to trick and suck you into there game, if you can see past this, then you can be sure to see there true path.
As human beings, we all have our "trigger points" to where certain people we meet in daily life set them off.
When a Councillor posts something as vile as that on his own site about people who truly need help with food and day to day life, why on earth would you elect that type of person to serve the community
Dear electioncampaign ( real name hidden), you refer to " a gentleman called Brian representing the APSFU party", but there is just one elected councillor named Brian representing a political party in San Fulgencio, and you say he drinks to much. Brian Deacon is a member of the PSOE party ( not as you say the APSFU). Are you saying that Brian Deacon is an alcoholic?
Sincere apologies "Don".
We know that a "Don" you certainly are not. We could have the wrong Brian, or our information is incorrect.
If Brian does belong to the PSOE it actually throws a few possibilities into the Chicken pen.
Picture this, Brian is a keen, we would say more a lap dog for Mr Lewis, who just by coincidence happens to be part of a all Spanish party (PSOE). In the opposite pen you have councillor Lewis for the APSFU. These two are close friends, pals, buddies that could be swaying in-house votes or ideas, or even trying to find out whose doing what and when.
Politics is a dangerous game "Don"
Having trawled through past comments I have noticed that two different Brians have written comments on this forum, one appeared to of stopped writing in the past couple of years,because he was fed up with the bar debate,the other one brian(spelled with a small b) hasn't written for several months but I will find his comments when I have regained the will to live.
Please keep this thread alive it is important to all of us , although we may not realize it yet.
Alan, you must regain the will to live! You must find the meaning of life again! Who else will tell us how important this thread is and make us realize the importance although we may not realize it yet.
Been away a while, but still read this forum every now and then (not easy with the internet at my recent location) anyway back now for a while, Nice to see Alan still disagreeing with everyone.
Me, I like the new council, don't like the Polish urb guy though.
A good comment by Spanish Connections although reindeer disagrees for some reason.
BigEd, that's because I think it is an unrealistic idea. I know Alan will attack me on this subject and try to make it a question for or against British ideas.
Reindeer, it might be unrealistic but it's also unfair.
Most money is generated from the Urb, but most money seems to be spent in San F.
For those that think it unlikely for the urb to break away, it was only a few years back when Quesada broke away and finally became an area of its own with its own Town Hall.
Personally I think we need to know just how much of the Council income is spent on San Ful. and how much is spent on The Urbs.
We all seem to think that most of the cash goes to San Ful. which contains just a small percentage of the population, Of course the only way to find out is to have the Councils books independently audited, The chance of getting this done fairly and truly is absolutely zilch. So where do we go or where can we go from here, unless the Council is a fair and true Council we cannot go anywhere, We are all pretty sure that this council is not fair and true, and neither was the last one and neither will the next one be.
Our next Council will probably be smaller that this one, It will probably be run by who ever can manage to get 7 seats, whoever that is ,it will be one of the Spanish National parties ,the rest ,if needed (as they normally are) will be made up by the main party giving the best offer to one or more of the Independent parties. I think the only way that we can go forward, is by hoping that these independent parties have truly honest and righteous people in them who will not accept the thirty pieces of silver. Once we have these honest independents the National parties cannot bully the others, if only because the bullies cannot get anywhere unless they can guarantee that the independents vote with them on everything. So to get anything done (including getting things moving on an independent La Marina Urbs) is to make sure that you vote and also where possible for true independents, The Spanish National parties will get all the votes they need in San Ful. We need to make sure they don't get any from La Marina Urbs.
My Opinion only, I have yet to make my mind up which party to back, none convince me at the moment ,although two or three people that I know of would be great for San Ful/La Marina Urbs.
When they do there campaigning why not ask all the pertinent but awkward questions of them all the time and every time they strike up a conversation stating that you cant vote until you have the answers, if we all did this they may just get the message as to what there public wants and expects before they are voted into power also what to expect when they are in power
What is really needed badly is for there to be a good Independent Candidate. Wonder if it has crossed the mind of Sam, or has she now been dragged in to deep? The other problem will be to get us lazy Brits to bother to vote or even to check before to make sure that they are correctly on the registry.
The more you think about it the more you realise that it could be done. There are well and truly enough of us here!!!!!!!!!!
Yes Douglas,I must agree that Sam, would def. get my vote, If she wanted to start some sort of Independent Party, not aligned to jeff and the PIPN. I have not yet met anyone who has a bad word to say about her, but of course she would also need other people in her party who could also help with the votes. It would be good to know if she had any interest in doing this, She would immediately have a problem if Jeff were to stand again on the PIPN platform, which would mean the Sam couldn't tell us what she wanted to do until the last minute, I think if she was interested, Jeff could make her last months at work almost untenable. What we cant lose sight of is that Jeff got Sam the job she has and as sure as eggs is eggs, he could try his best to take it away from her .
As for getting the ex-pats off their a***S, We can all play a part in that,starting with going to the mini town hall with your passport and padron and check you are on the voting list, don't wait until the day of the election before finding out your name is not on the list.
Don't forget Jeff got his job because a little over 200 people voted for his party. Just think how many councillors La Marina Urbs could get if 2000 ex- pats voted an independent party.
Three years ago a NEW party was formed in Catral called the APC and less than three years later the head of the APC is the Mayor so it isnt as hard as you think.
If he has turned out to be a good honest reliable Mayor, Then lets find out how to get one in La Marina, Firstly I should think we need some good ideas, Time aint on our side
Alan,
I'm not sure of my facts, but you say Jeff got Sam her job, could be true, I don't know, but what do know is Sam is fluent in Spanish, but Jeff is not, so maybe that's why, but I could be wrong,
big Ed,
I am not perfectly sure about jeff getting sam the job, but I know at the time that is what was being said, and I am pretty sure Sam was on PIPN list of potential Councillors, being dependent on how many votes PIPN got, Unfortunately for them they only received a little over 200 which only gave them one seat. Sam and four others started working soon after.
Sam used to help a few friends of mine with their Spanish, and they always praised her manner. When she worked in The council offices I would see her if possible to point me in the right direction, She always gave me correct info. and was ever so helpful.
Why try to get an independent urb.? Why try to break away from the rest of San Fulgencio? If you can get a majority of the people to vote for a party which supports this idea of breaking loose it would mean that the party would govern the whole municipality. And the councillors could distribute more things to the urb. And you have got what you want.
There are probably more Spanish citizens living in the village San Fulgencio compared to the urb. So why try to make it a battle between immigrants and Spanish citizens? I do not think it would be popular in any country if a group of immigrants/foreigners would try to take over a part of the municipality and tell the native born to step away. Much better if you within the system can get a majority of the councillors to work for a better urb.
A council which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. Who can you trust to do right for the citizens of La Marina Urb?
I say "citizens" rather than "residents" as of the approx. 7000 house on the Urb. perhaps only 40% are residents. Then you have those with the so called holiday homes who cannot even be bothered to sign on the padron or unwilling as they do not understand that the Urb. will benefit financially. It is not a devious plot to investigate their affairs. So naive!
Giving money and power to some of the potential future political scumbags (proved historically) is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
Dynosore,
Possibly we are singing from the same hymn sheet, But I think what is needed, is proof that if you own a holiday home ,and only spend a short period staying here, are you legally allowed to sign on the pardon ,I know that this practice was urged on you to do a few years ago by the Local Councils, as a way to get the Region to pay money to the Local Council. About a year ago a push to get people to re-sign on the pardon if they hadn't signed on for it in the previous two years was urging people to sign on as the income from regional government would be stopped. While this campaign was going on non resident owners were being advised that it would be illegal for them to sign on, so really is it any wonder many may not of done so. I did not see anyone saying,that it was perfectly lawful to sign on the pardon if you only lived here for a small part of the year.
A well written piece, Most of which I completely agree with. I think Sam would make a wonderful leader of a new Council, That girl oozes Charm, Honesty and helpfulness. I truly wish she could find a dozen people of her calibre, who would join her and make a council San Fulgencio would be proud of.
As for Mark Lewis, he has turned into a bitter man. I read his blog, most of it I looked at tongue in cheek, as it seemed to carry the hate of a man who didn't get a Council seat this time round, which he seemed to blame Jeff relentlessly, as Mark wanted three Brits on the Council, apparently making San Fulgencio, one of a very few councils to achieve that description, but of course he needed jeff on his merged party to achieve this, Unfortunately for him jeff soon realized the grass was greener on the other side. What I cannot forgive Mark for something he put on his blog, which insinuated that all collecting for food or cash to help the poor and needy of san Fulgencio should be done via Caritas, which he claimed was the charity for the poor and not our local charity, although that was legally set up and running successfully, but although run by someone I would trust implicitly,I believe Jeff gave help at the beginning, thereby the poor and needy may of lost out to The Vengeance of mark lewis, Fortunately most people saw through him and he had little detrimental effect on the charity. This brings us to brian, whose name I have come across often on this pages, always as Marks personal best friend who believes mark is a God of some sort, and in being so he makes jeff the Devil incarnate. I have no knowledge of brian as a person,But I do think at this juncture his. alleged drinking habits could of been omitted .
All I have to say is that I wonder who the Author of the original comment is, I know it is your prerogative to use a tag as a name, But if you could just put a name to your comments it would help me (at least) and I wouldn't think of you as a feature editor of the Daily Mail. But please keep writing