The Campoamor neighbourhood association has appointed a new board of directors, under the presidency of Santiago Gorostiza, but its formation has been anything but usual.
The reason for the replacement is that the previous president, Juan Gómez, and his partner (also a member) have been expelled after alleged “irregularities” were found with their management.
It all started at the general assembly held last year on July 28. According to a spokesperson for the current board, Gómez expelled four members of the association, two of them were members of the board and a third served as the secretary.
It is said that the vote confirming their expulsion was carried with a majority of votes, however, Gómez and his partner each cast fifteen proxy votes, whilst, according to the association statute, the maximum that can be dispensed by an individual is just three.
As such the vote was described as fraudulent. At the very next board meeting Gómez and his partner were asked to resign and a disciplinary file was opened against the pair. They were asked to resign within 48 hours due to the irregularities discovered, both in relation to the four expulsions, and for hiding information from the members of the Board of Directors.
An administrator was then appointed to deal with the disciplinary case, who reported that neither Gómez nor his partner acknowledged or responded to the correspondence that she sent.
The association then called a new extraordinary general meeting in December which the pair attended electronically, however the meeting resulted in their expulsion and the appointment of Gorostiza (until then vice president) as the new president.
The board accused them of “retaining sensitive documentation,” as well as the control of the association’s social media accounts. On February 7, the Board published a post on the association’s Facebook account, in which the members were informed of the changes in the Board and the reason behind them.
However, the post was deleted by Gómez and his partner, who have since refused to hand over the account passwords which they have retained for themselves.
The complaint has now been passed to the Civil Guard.
