On June 11, 2022 Adolfo González, until then first deputy mayor, was proclaimed mayor of Los Realejos, replacing Manuel Domínguez, who resigned from office to dedicate himself fully to his candidacy for the Government of the Canary Islands for the Popular Party (PP ). Hand in hand with him, he came to the City Council in 2007 after having joined the party two years earlier and was always his trusted person. This last year was intense for González because he had to combine the Mayor’s Office with the electoral campaign and this required him to be on the streets a lot to make himself known throughout the municipality despite the fact that he understands the City Council like nobody else, because since 2011, when he entered the government for the first time, has gone through almost all areas.
That work paid off and is its main hallmark. On June 16, González took up the cane again and sat in the Mayor’s chair after having achieved results in the municipal elections on May 28 that he himself did not expect. It is difficult to interview him or talk to him in the street without interruptions, because the neighbors stop to say hello, to tell him about matters related to the city or the upcoming festivals. For them he is never in a hurry, he takes his time and attends to them. And although the solution is not in his hands, he promises to look for it.
-Have you ever imagined the electoral results that the PP achieved on 28M?
“If I’m honest, I didn’t think I was going to revalidate the 15 councilors from the previous term. My goal and that of my team was to go out and win, to get the majority and have a comfortable majority, but having the historic results that Manuel Domínguez achieved four years ago, the best result with an absolute majority in Los Realejos, seemed like, at least for me, impossible. We are very happy, because that means that the work we have done from the municipal government and the transition since Manuel Domínguez left office until I took it over, was carried out correctly.
– YOEven the number of votes, although participation would have to be checked, was higher…
“There is something important and it is that we had the possibility, a year before, to make the change of mayor’s office and there I think we were able to demonstrate that the management of the PP team is the same, because I have always said that it is a continuous project, that it has new objectives, new challenges, but that the work philosophy is the same. It is true that that year in the Mayor’s Office was a bigger job for me, because I had to make myself known in those nuclei of the municipality where I was not so well known. It was an intense year, of being at street level, almost every day. And today it is the same, because I understand that the work in the office has to be the minimum possible time and the rest has to be on the street. And that is what we have done”.
Will your way of managing be different from that of Manuel Domínguez? Will he impose his own stamp?
“I have been doing my way of managing for a year and I think that the neighbors have already approved the way of managing Adolfo González, with the team that was formed by Manuel Domínguez. But I take a different reading. It is not the same to govern taking over from someone who gives you the mayor’s office, who has never been a headliner and whose neighbors have not been able to vote for you directly, than when they have been able to. On 28M the residents voted directly for Adolfo González with a team that was also renewed, because of the 15 councilors that the Government has in this mandate there are 4 new ones”.
Will your salary also be different from your predecessor’s?
“I am not going to collect from the Los Realejos City Council and I did not do so last term either. I have given up collecting salaries as mayor and will continue to collect from the Ministry of Education.
Will the neighbors notice big differences in the municipality?
“I hope they do see big differences in management. They are going to see a continuation project, where I hope to materialize initiatives and projects that we have worked on years ago and I think that this mandate will definitely be the one that will definitely be able to contract and tender works that have taken very long processes, such as the project of rehabilitation of the Hacienda de la Gorvorana, recently presented. And before the end of the year or the beginning of the next I hope to publicize the new swimming pool and sports complex, and I also hope to have the replacement works of the Los Príncipes social housing”.
-And the General Management Plan? What is the status of this document?
“I have received a call from the Territorial Planning Department of the former Government of the Canary Islands to advise that they have given the go-ahead to a slight modification of the environmental memory report. It has been sent to the City Council, which forwarded it to the rest of the administrations for their approval. I hope and wish that at the end of the year the General Planning Plan (PGO) can be definitively approved”.
– Give up the golf course?
“We do not give up being able to develop green lungs in the seven areas that we have planned in the PGO, parks with an urban character, or that can carry a sports practice, and among them is the unit of Los Príncipes, in Realejo Bajo. As of today, there are no private offers to build a golf course, but there are other initiatives related to sports and the environment that would be interested in developing something in that area”.
-Is it contemplated in the new PGO?
“The new document determines that a green, leisure and sports facility can be built in the Los Príncipes area, but it does not delimit the specific use or the activity.”
– Will you try to recover the exit through El Patronato towards the TF-5 now that the PP governs in the Cabildo de Tenerife?
“From the City Council of Los Realejos we committed ourselves four months ago to drafting a proposal for a new road connection in the area of El Patronato. We already have the document, which is a variation of one of the proposals we have made. In this case, the construction of a road that connects La Constitución street with the TF-5. We promised to project it and we already have it, now we will see if the new Minister of Highways determines that it is viable”.
– Will the equestrian center project at Finca El Llano continue?
“That project is also waiting for the PGO. There, a green lung, leisure area is established, which will be used for sports and we have contacted some of the owners of the plots that the City Council has to acquire in order to develop the equestrian center. Nothing has materialized because it depends on the PGO”.
-What place does culture occupy on the government group’s agenda?
“It is clear that the culture in Los Realejos needs new facilities. This year the work on the Realejos cinema theater will be completed, there will be a new cultural center in La Gorvorana, we are waiting to sign the agreement for the recovery of the San Agustín school, which will be the purple exhibition hall and the headquarters of the Philharmonic, and next year we will contract the basic project of the new Los Realejos auditorium and its possible costs so that, in 2025, we can draw up the construction project”.
-Where will this last infrastructure be located?
“We have several options. One of them is at the back of the Casona de La Gorvorana, in the annexed plot, close to Puerto de la Cruz, with a road that connects with Punta Brava, and another is in the La Gañanía industrial estate”.
-One of your struggles when you were Councilor for Culture focused on the recovery of the house of Agustín Espinosa and that of Viera y Clavijo. Do you continue with the objective of acquiring them by the City Council?
“Both are private properties. I have had many personal conversations with those who have the enabling title for Agustín Espinosa’s house and I have spoken with the owners of Viera y Clavijo’s, but there are legal issues of the properties where any administration that wants to buy the property has to have The situation in which these homes find themselves is very clear and it is being a very complicated job. I cannot say that we are going to buy Agustín Espinosa’s house because there are issues that do not depend on the Consistory. With respect to Viera y Clavijo, we have the possibility of reaching an agreement to make an exchange with the different families that own it”.
-What project does Adolfo González have as mayor?
“I would like there to be interest in building a center for people with disabilities and I offer municipal public land so that the Institute of Social and Socio-Health Care (IASS) and the Government of the Canary Islands do so. And also for a geriatric center, because Santa Rita can’t take it anymore and the private and concerted initiative doesn’t accommodate the current demand. Those are the two concerns that I have as mayor and that I cannot handle alone from the City Hall, but I can insist as mayor that Los Realejos be the destination for these investments”.
Where would that floor be located?
“We have land for infrastructure use in different parts of the municipality, either in the current PGO or in the future one. And I would also add the Ministry of Health to start working in a basic health area. We have the current one, but there is already enough population to shell out a second one that includes Realejo Bajo, San Agustín and Icod el Alto”.
– Do you think it will be easier to develop and carry out the projects for the municipality with the PP governing the Cabildo de Tenerife and the Government of the Canary Islands?
“It will be easier because more difficult than it has been so far is impossible. I have already had conversations with Manuel Domínguez and Lope Afonso and there is a firm commitment to collaborate with Los Realejos. And they will have me to cooperate in everything, because it is the first time that the three administrations are aligned and I am sure that this is the moment for Los Realejos”.
