In a “private” meeting, away from the eyes of the people of Liberia and the majority of the municipal council members. This is how the new members of Liberia’s regulatory plan commission were sworn in on Wednesday, July 17th.
Councilor Leyden María Cerdas described it as a lack of respect towards the council. She mentioned that she found out about the swearing-in through an interview Eugenio Román gave to a media outlet.
“What bothers me is that the council was not taken into account, we were not informed, no report was presented to us, and we had to, as we saw on television, request the minutes to find out. I believe we are part of the council and should be respected and valued equally,” she criticized during the municipal session on Tuesday, July 23rd.
The municipal president, María Lourdes Ocampo, did not respond to the questioning and continued with the session.
The situation also angered community representatives, who are questioning the appointment of the municipal president’s first cousin, Eugenio Román Ocampo, as the civil society representative on that committee.
“I believe that public affairs should be public. This is an outrage against Liberian society,” protested Damaris Rodríguez, president of the Association for the Rescue of the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone (Arezomate). The community leader added that civil society members cannot represent the community “in secret.”
The seven members of the commission (two council members, three municipal officials, and two representatives of civil society) were sworn in before the municipal vice president, Rigoberto Viales Dávila, according to the minutes. The council secretary, Karla Ortiz, was also present.
Although the municipal president is responsible for installing the commissions, María Lourdes Ocampo delegated the task to the vice president because she is a member of the commission.
The regulations of the regulatory plan commission are silent regarding where the swearing-in of its members should take place.
Article 10 only states:
Once the Local Territorial Planning Commission is formed, it must be sworn in by the president of the Municipal Council.”
Therefore, although there is no legal breach, the questioning of Ocampo and Viales concerns why they chose to conduct the swearing-in privately rather than in a public event like the council session.
The swearing-in was clearly different from that of the previous members of the regulatory plan commission. According to the minutes, the two civil society members of the previous commission (Christian Golcher and Octavio Zúñiga) were officially sworn in during Municipal Council session 153-2022 on April 4, 2022.
The Voice of Guanacaste attempted to get a statement from the municipal president about the “private” swearing-in but received no response to calls or questions sent to her cell phone.
Initially, Councilor Viales stated that he acted in accordance with the commission’s regulations. When it was clarified that the regulations do not specify where the swearing-in should occur and he was questioned about why they chose to do it privately instead of during a council session, the municipal vice president said he would review the regulations again to provide an answer. Subsequently, Viales did not respond to the call or the message left on his cell phone.
The new controversy surrounding the Territorial Planning Plan (spanish acronym: POT) of Liberia, or regulatory plan, comes shortly after the seven councilors rejected two appeals against the appointment of businessman Eugenio Román Ocampo to the commission and escalated the case to the Administrative Contentious Court. The other civil society representative on the committee is lawyer Laura Soto Charpentier.
Inspecting eyes remain.
Councilor Leyden María Cerdas’s complaint about the swearing-in arose during the presentation by academic Christian Golcher, who was part of the previous regulatory plan commission representing civil society. Golcher presented a report on his work and stated that, as much as possible, he will be present in various public forums to support the regulatory plan process constructively.
After the accountability report, María Lourdes Ocampo stated that the presidency of the council has always adhered to legality and the advice provided by the municipality.
“Here the goal is to move Liberia forward, with transparency and a lot of work, and keep in mind that we will involve anyone who wants to participate in the construction of the regulatory plan for us Liberians,” she commented.
Golcher concluded by calling “on all citizens to always be vigilant of the processes occurring in the municipality because it is our local government.”
For Víctor Hugo Chacón, one of the appellants of the designation of Eugenio Román to the regulatory plan commission, what happened was “a lack of transparency.”
I think this is very typical of what this municipality has been doing, and clearly they did it this way because they were afraid to face the questions we were going to ask,” he stated.
The POT (Territorial Planning Plan) is a tool for managing development within a canton. It designates where businesses, residences, services, industries, and other activities can be located. Since 2002, Liberia has had a regulatory plan for the central area only, and now it aims to regulate the entire canton.
This proposal is still in draft form and under consultation with the population. To carry out this project, the Municipality of Liberia has allocated ¢189 million.
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