The incoming mayor of San Juan, Miguel Romero, Who will take office this morning, said he will take the necessary administrative measures so that the municipality is not obliged to pay high sums in settlements to its employees, as happened with the former mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto, Who received in recent weeks a disbursement of about $ 54,000 for accumulated vacation days and illness.
Romero stated that, in principle, he has no problem with officials collecting the money to which they are entitled, but he stressed that planning is needed that leads to avoiding the excessive accumulation of these licenses.
“I have not had the opportunity to examine this. The settlements, if there is a right to them and everything was done correctly, would have no problem. Now, in our case and the way I intend to manage in Sant Joan, i will make sure the executive officers have their plans and take their vacation to avoid what has happened now, Which is not only the $ 54,000 of the mayor’s settlement, but had to separate $ 1.2 million for settlements of 36 employees, “Romero argued.
This medium reported a week ago that Carmen Serrano, a Cross press aide, received over $ 100,000 in license settlement.
“I may think that, in the case of the mayor, she is a civil servant who sees limited days she can take on vacation, but I think the rest of the civil servants require planning.. If we hadn’t had to pay $ 1.2 million now, it would be $ 1.2 million that could be used to buy equipment, ‘diggers’, that are needed, repair the fleet of trucks and heavy vehicles, buy asphalt. I think that also denotes, and I say that in terms of the whole, I don’t want to personalize, that thirty-three employees when they are liquidated ($ 1.2 million) on average are about $ 30,000 and that catches my eye, “he said. added Romero, 1 former senator and former secretary of Labor.
The Cross itself made public the balance due for vacation and sick leave last Monday.
“Before a municipal official leaked this document as if it were an illegal thing I had shown my liquidation of the Municipality of San Juan. You can object to the liquidation but it is the law and no one who receives its liquidation is committing an act illegal, “said the former mayor, who had resigned on December 31.