Catalá has affirmed her eagerness to cooperate with the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office in the case of the alleged arbitrary re-employment of several former employees of the Consorcio Valencia 2007 in entities of the City Council and the Port. She emphasized that "the entire corporation" intended for these employees to maintain their public employee status "within what the law allows".
The mayor recalled that both the PSPV and Compromís requested in September 2024 a re-employment plan for the 11 workers affected by an ERE after the liquidation of the mixed body, composed of the Government of Spain, the Generalitat, and the City Council.
Furthermore, Catalá announced that she will commission a report from the city council's legal services to analyze the selection process of the former worker who obtained a position in the municipal foundation Visit València. The objective is for them to "certify" that it was a "regulated" procedure, although she is already "aware that it was a usual and normal process".
Regarding the conversations published by eldiario.es involving her councilor for Major Projects, José Marí Olano, with consortium workers, where he allegedly pre-advised them of job openings, the mayor believes that Olano's words reflect "the same" as those uttered by Ferran Puchades (Compromís) or Javier Mateo (PSPV) in the municipal plenary session of September 2024.
“"Pepe Marí's words seem to me just as serious or just as less serious as the words of Puchades and Mateo."
In the same vein, she framed as normal the meeting held by Marí Olano with unions and workers "to see the situation that was going to arise at the time of the consortium's liquidation," just as she understands that meetings were also held with the Socialist Party and Compromís.
However, both Compromís and the PSPV have already announced that they will expand the complaint to include the minutes of the 2024 plenary session and the transcript of the audio recordings, with the aim of investigating Olano for alleged crimes of using privileged information, revealing secrets, and prohibited negotiations for public officials.
“"This plot cannot be understood without Olano's central role."
In response to the mayor's words, Robles insisted that "this clientelism operation predates any motion in the plenary session." For his part, the spokesperson for the PSPV, Borja Sanjuán, added that "Mr. Olano is the councilor who appears every time there is a suspicion of corruption in the City Council".
For the socialists, Olano "is in a continuous conflict of interest" as he keeps secret the companies for which he works privately as a lawyer. Therefore, according to Sanjuán, Catalá should dismiss him from his responsibilities as councilor for Contracting, since "we do not know on which side of the table he sits".
