By Jesús Aguado
The Potable Water and Sewerage System (SAPASMA) is the body responsible for bringing water daily to the homes of more than 80,000 urban residents of San Miguel and some outlying communities. It operates annually on a budget of 350 million pesos. It has now provoked a legal battle for interpretation of laws and regulations.
On October 30, the City Council appointed a new SAPASMA Board of Directors. This was approved by six votes. City councilors from MORENA and PAN voted against, and argued that the election was illegal.
How it all began
The Board of Directors of SAPASMA appointed on October 15, 2018, resigned on October 7, 2021. Then, on October 8, the 2018-2021 City Council appointed new members who took the oath of office. On September 29, 2021, an amendment to the SAPASMA Regulation (Articles 38, 46, and 59) were published in the Official State Newspaper. It established that the directors would remain in office for four years: Article 38: the members of the Board of Directors would be appointed by the City Council; and the term of office for members of the Board of Directors would be four years, beginning with their oath-taking before the City Council. When that term ends, the directors are to remain in their duties until a new Board of Directors is appointed or ratified.
Article 46
In the case of a resignation or authorized absence, permission, or justified cause that exceeds two months, the City Council will be notified so that it may designate and swear in the new member or members of the Board of Directors. They would then carry out the position for the remainder of the term for which they are assigned by the City Council in the Act of Designation.
There was never an extension to the period
According to what Secretary of Government and City Council Laura González said last week, “On the date of resignation of the previous directors, and the appointment of those who replaced them, there was a period of 22 days remaining to complete the three-year term, which ran from October 29, 2018 to October 29, 2021 of the council appointed three years ago.” However, according to legal arguments “the period for which the appointed directors would hold the position was not established, that is, there was no express directive of the 2018-2021 City Council” that the new directors—Luis Manuel Orozco, Rosario Carreón, Alan Álvares, Alan Romo, Alejandra Cacho, and Verónica Luna—would serve a four-year term; they only replaced the council that resigned, and there was never an extension to the period of the resigning council as regards the newcomers.
Simple and qualified majorities
In an interview, Councilor Felipe Tapia Campos (PAN), told Atencion that the appointment should be discussed in the courts. He claims that according to SAPASMA regulations, approval of a council member must be made by a qualified majority (nine votes), but they only obtained six in that session. However, Atencion spoke with a lawyer who did not wish to give his name. He explained that a regulation cannot go beyond a law, so the new Council is legal.
He explained, “Since it is not established in Article 152 of the Municipal Organic Law that the appointment of directive councils of decentralized organizations must be by a qualified majority as regulated in article 70 of the Organic Law itself, it is to be concluded that what is established in Article 40 of the SAPASMA Regulation requiring that the appointment of Directors of the Board of Directors be by a qualified majority is unattainable and unobservable. A regulation cannot go beyond what the law provides.” This lawyer underlined that Article 152 of the Law does not expressly establish that the city council must designate the council of a decentralized body by qualified majority. Therefore “the designation is valid with a simple majority,” he concluded.
Previous SAPASMA Council: projects at risk
Atencion had a conversation with Luis Manuel Orozco, who served as president of the Council that is still fighting to regain leadership of SAPASMA. He stated that, “There are important projects, such as the aquafer (consisting of seven wells in the southern area of SMA to bring water from rural to urban areas) and the new Wastewater Treatment Plant.” According to Orozco, the arrival of a new City Council put these projects at risk of not proceeding. He added, “The aquifer already has four wells that now provide 70 cubic meters of water per minute. Three wells need to be drilled, for which the permit is already in place. The infrastructure to bring water to the city is already in place.
Orozco added that his council has had two meetings with Mayor Mauricio Trejo, and there are projects. He respected the regulations. “Then, on Saturday we were taken by surprise to learn that new directors were appointed because our appointment had expired. I will not fight with him because it is not right. I want to return, we are contesting the decision. Once the suspension is granted we will return to the assignments. We will have to work as a team. We don’t want to fight with the mayor. We must work as a team with the administration,” he stressed.
The aquifer will be concluded
Mayor Mauricio Trejo recalled that sanmiguelenses knew that the previous administration left the SAPASMA council «with the goal of making it eternal and initiating the first steps for the privatization of water.» But, “they made a serious mistake because they did not give the appointed council a temporary position, which replaced the Council that resigned, so by not giving it a temporary position, they covered the 22 days that were left to the resigned council and that had been elected for three years; his term is over. Our goal is to appoint a new council so that SAPASMA does not become headless.”
Trejo remarked: “I am very happy, because appointing a new council guarantees that there will never be a thought of privatizing water. This will focus on reviewing the illegal feasibility of water. SAPASMA will review the drainage saturation, and new network that they secretly made for the distribution of the water. In six months, neighborhoods will have seven days of water. It will guarantee that the aquifer is completed, so that once the colonies have water, they will think about giving the new subdivisions ”.
The president ruled that the aquifer must be concluded because it will be what returns the water to the people of San Miguel. “We think about the premises, not for the subdivisions that were made, such as those in the upper part that began to be given water from the San Julián well. We will not give water to the new subdivisions until there is a surplus, and that is what will be given to the others ”.
New members of SAPASMA Council already working
Members of the new SAPASMA council visited all the wells in the city last week. Martin Salgado Cacho, Alberto Rico and Jessy Ledezma were doing this to verify the physical and operational status of each of the wells. «The objective is that starting next week water will begin to return to the neighborhoods that have lost it in recent years or which have been continuously suffering from shortages,» said the councilors.
Finally, they reassure that the commitment of the new SAPASMA Board of Directors is to provide water to the people of San Miguel.
