6You’re on time Guillote! You’re on time!”a National Party advisor shouted from the bar just before possibly the most important session of the period began in the Departmental Board. “What do you say?”, the Frente Amplista councilor Mayo González responded from below and with a smile, while he gave a mate to one of the protagonists of the day, William Kruse.
Minutes later, when Kruse raised his hand for the first time, the tone against this councilor – independent, but who supported Martín Lema in the elections and was elected with his 815 list – changed.
“Pah Guille, we dropped an idol. What happened there Guille?” lamented councilor Diego Rodríguez, looking at the man who was separated by two benches. As Kruse did not return his gaze, Rodríguez began to look at the target Rafael Seijas and completed: “You saw that in politics daggers are the order of the day.”
What was Kruse’s “dagger”? Voted, this Thursday afternoon and evening, the four extra-budgetary loans that the Municipality of Montevideo requested from the Departmental Board to address the so-called “Citizen Priorities”: repair of streets (US$ 40 million), sidewalks (US$ 40 million), implementation of the cleaning plan (US$ 50 million) and expansion of the sanitation network (US$ 130 million). The only one that was not put into consideration was revitalization of Old City, because it did not have any opposition votes.
A senior member of the Montevideo Municipality summarized the importance of these US$260 million with a soccer metaphor: “This is the Copa Libertadores.”
Kruse was not the only opponent who accompanied the 17 Frente Amplistas. Also the red Federico Paganini and the whites from list 22 Nicolás Hernández and Joaquín Campos supported all the projects, as was suspected to happen since the beginning of the discussion, in April.
Times and laughter
The first battle of the day was due to time and the Broad Front won. As the final proposal on the four loans reached the Whatsapp of the bench coordinators this Wednesday at 8:30 p.m., the National Party asked that the vote be postponed for a week, to “study the changes“The FA refused and allowed him an hour of intermission. The four coalition votes that went against the current were stored in two offices and there was no option to change their minds.
At 5:30 p.m., the session finally started and the darts began to fly. The white Gonzalo Gómez opened the debate. Citing a note from The Observerquestioned that the commune requested US$ 260 million when “it has loans to pay until 2046 for US$ 321 million.”
“They are sitting us down with US$600 million that the people of Montevideo have to pay”he launched. The outburst required the first of many interventions to ask for respect from the president of the Board, Gonzalo Sánchez, but at least it was the only moment in which the high school students who were on a curricular tour in the bars laughed.
The Frente Amplio preferred not to substantiate its position in advance in order to vote as soon as possible on the most important credit of the day: the cleaning bill. “The mother of all battles”in terms of an official councilor.
Cleaning is the main complaint for Montevideo residents and the approval of the loan will allow the completion of the plan headed by the director of Environmental Development, Leonardo Herou, with the novelty of the intra-home and intra-farm containers.
Although in principle they were for US$60 million, they were removed the purchase of the 74 trucks at the request of Colorado Paganiniwhich reduced the amount by US$ 10 million. It was approved with the necessary 21 votes.
Then, sanitation was the only one that came out unanimously. Although there were complaints again about the last minute changes –was US$ 102 million and went to US$ 130 million this Wednesday -, the whites decided to support.
At the request of list 22, The IM agreed to add some US$22 million to begin work in the La Paz street area, where it frequently floods. At Kruse’s request, “US$ 2 million to rehabilitate the wall of the Rambla Sur.”
Streets and sidewalks
For the discussion of the sidewalk plan came one of the moments of greatest tension in the room. Rodríguez, who is usually the most explosive of the opposition councilors, pointed out to the Frente Amplio and the IM: “They are not ashamed to put Montevideo in debt again. The taxpayers always pay and they put their hand in their pockets. Do you know what you call someone who puts their hand in your pocket and gives you absolutely nothing? Jet! They are thieves. “I know it hurts them, but they are squirts.” Once again Sánchez had to demand respect, to be able to vote.
This loan also took into account opposition requests, such as Kruse’s proposal to remove andThe US$5 million revolving planwhere the IM intended to fix sidewalks and in a short period of time recover the money—which had to be paid by the neighbors—to make new sidewalks.
In addition, something that is not linked to the trails was included -at Paganini’s request-: US$ 1.5 million for lighting the coastal strip. “What does lighting on the coastal strip have to do with the sidewalks? It has nothing to do with it. It’s not serious,” criticized Gómez.
The street repair plan was left for closure. The four-hour session had already passed, the shirts were more wrinkled, the hair was more disheveled, and the leader of list 22, Santiago Caramés, had already gone out a dozen times to smoke to relieve tension. But fatigue did not affect the councilors, who decided to get to work. discuss curious matterslike whose merit it was to build the south rambla 100 years ago. After an exchange between Rodríguez and Paganini, the president of the Board fulfilled his repeated threat and ordered the noisy bars to be vacated.
Finally, around 10:10 p.m., this loan was also approved with 21 votes. “Surely on 18 de Julio and Ejido they are celebrating with whiskey and coquita. Not in the rest of the neighborhoods,” Rodríguez said. Once again, the coordinator of the Frente Amplista bench, Gonzalo Zuvela, gestured to his coreligionists to enjoy the victory in calm.
