Chamber Meetings of Faro only every two weeks and with half an hour of discussion

The frequency of meetings of the Chamber of Faro will change from weekly to bimonthly, every two weeks, while the period before the agenda is reduced from 60 minutes to 30 minutes.

These reductions result from the new City Council Regulation, approved yesterday at the first Council meeting after the new executive took office, where the PSD/CDS/MPT/PPM coalition now has a majority.

The PS, whose councilors voted against these changes, argues that this can only be seen "as an express wish of the majority of the PSD/CDS/MPT/PPM coalition to limit the possibility of discussing municipal matters in the proper organ."

The socialists also denounce, in a statement, that the participation of citizens in Council meetings is also being reduced from weekly to monthly, "which translates into a democratic setback in the level of direct participation of citizens in the municipal body, without parallel in the last years of the council's democratic life».

But yesterday the majority also approved the Delegation of Competences of the City Council in its president.

Now, according to PS Farense, «the approved delegation of powers includes all powers that could legally be delegated, almost completely emptying the action of the collegiate body and excluding Socialist Party councilors from participating in the discussion and decision-making on the most of the matters of municipal activity».

They consider that “by excluding the Socialist Party councilors from participating in the discussion of municipal affairs, the 38% of voters who placed their trust and representation in the PS are also excluded”.

In their statement, the socialists of Faro they point out that, with the approval of these two proposals (Regulation of the City Council and the Delegation of Competences), «in particular, the representativeness of city council decisions is at stake and, in abstract, the transparency of decisions that do not have the participation of councilors of the opposition".

Therefore, they conclude, the councilors elected by the PS «do not see themselves in this autocratic vision of the exercise of power of the PSD/CDS/MPT/PPM majority coalition and express their commitment to participating in the discussion of municipal affairs and exercising the supervisory action of the activity of the executive, in defense of the interests of all citizens and the municipality».

At the same chamber meeting yesterday, it was still approved a reduction in IMI in 2018.