Saint George's Day: a very special day

Today is Saint George's Day. Just as the Town's Festival is the most important celebration for all the residents of Sitges, Saint George's Day involves the same for Catalans. We have several significant festivities in our calendar (Eleventh of September, Christmas, Easter ...), but Saint George's Day boasts a special flavor thanks to the tradition of giving away a book and a rose, a great contribution that Catalans have made to global culture. Saint George's Day amounts to peruse and buy books, a fully recommended activity, and have them signed by the author. It also amounts to walk around and participate in cultural activities, and express and display our feelings. It's a date that I fully enjoy, as many other Catalans. Now, acting as Mayor of Sitges, I will experience the festivity with a different implication and intensity, but with the same heartfelt emotions.

In recent years, Saint George's Day has acquired a significant projection in Sitges. In times of Pere Junyent, with Marc Martinez acting as Councilman of Culture, the City Council brought together all the activities organized by cultural entities under a common umbrella, to grant them a greater dimension and achieve a merrier celebration. It was a success which has been maintained during years. Today, the festivity is fully consolidated. Years later, the celebration was moved wisely to the promenade, to promote its growth and overcome the limitations of l'Hort de Can Falç or Cap de la Vila.

This year, the book fair, florists and cultural entities will also be the meeting point for all the inhabitants of Sitges. The difficult economic situation that affects the City Hall, which forces us to rationalize the cost to correct the deficit, also forced us to consider the option of sharing costs with participating companies and associations, something that involved an important hike in municipal fees in comparison with other years. Finally, however, we found together a solution that allowed maintaining the celebration with the same charm and high level, without involving an extra cost for exhibitors or the City Hall. Therefore, today we will witness again people swarming among books, roses and cultural entities that also project their image.

Saint George's Day took place last weekend. There were different book presentations, fully displaying the link with our profile as arts village, or yesterday's fantastic performance of "La Jove de Sitges" (Human Towers) at Cap de la Vila, with five of seven and four of seven with needle. Today evening, and also at Cap de la Vila, we will have the opportunity to put an end to one of the most beautiful days of the year with a Sardana dance with Cobla Maricel.

Good Saint George's Day to all!

Garraf and Botigues; two places with their own realities

Last week, I participated along with other components of the Municipal Government in the Municipal Council of Garraf and Botigues. The main goal of the meeting was to devise a plan of action for the two locations for the coming months, so the needs of the residents could become the real roadmap of the City Hall for the two locations. It was a pleasant meeting, but above all it was an especially rewarding one, because we share a way of doing things that must be the rule to govern the municipal action plan. Such actions must answer both to our limited financial possibilities and to the real needs of both sectors.

During recent years, Sitges and also the rest of the country witnessed public works, sometimes accompanied by substantial investments, that were not only not necessary to improve the quality of life, but that also were totally unnecessary. The use and abuse of this way of managing public assets is one of the reasons that led us to the extreme difficulties we are now facing. 

It is significant, however, that Garraf and Botigues have the feeling that the past boom years did not leave the investments they deserved, and that now it is not possible to answer to all desired implementations. The situation is doubly complex because both sectors deserve the implementation of works that are necessary and fully justified.

Therefore, our plan for Botigues and Garraf is based in work carried out in close collaboration with the neighbors. In this sense, the work carried out by the Territorial Councilor Lluis Marcé and by the Participation Councilor Josep Moliné is crucial, and shows the willingness of the local government to implement actions that involve effective and real environmental improvements. Residents and the City Hall have activated jointly all the priorities that involve improvement of access to both areas, beach-cleaning and maintenance of public roads. This form of public implementation that encourages participation and responds to the real needs of residents is the line on which we want to base our policy of service planning and implementation in public roads.

Quality services in our beaches

Two weeks ago, the Tourist Association of Beach Services (ATSP for its acronym in Catalan) inaugurated the acts of commemoration of its 25th anniversary. To open a full commemorative program, the Association organized the roundtable Building a new tourism in Sitges, where I had the honor to participate, along with other Government Team members such as Jorge Carretero, Lluis Marcé and Ignasi Garrigó, the president of ATSP, Manuel Martinez, and the director of Hotel Terramar, Fran Marcé. The debate highlighted that challenges faced by the tourism industry in Sitges are directly related with quality, both in providing services and in the supply of equipment and facilities. The owners and employees of beach services such as restaurants, hotels and apartments, are in this sense, the main actors in conveying the image of our town among tourists.

The beach season has started this weekend, coinciding with Easter. It also implies the beginning of the summer season, when our town pours most of its efforts on our major economic sector: tourism.  Therefore, we must welcome the arrival of the season with the support they deserve, and the trust that the good work done during previous months will lead to positive results, despite the current difficult situation.

During the nineties, Sitges made a smart bet in favor of deseasonalization, with the aim that tourism could be maintained during almost all year. It was a necessary step to adapt to changing times and improve our competitiveness as a first class tourism Mecca. The efforts and the strategic bet made by the local tourism industry paid off (in a few years, we went from two four-star hotels to eight) and Sitges became a major favorite destination for conferences and conventions, such goal remains a reality that we promote dearly.

The task to become a prominent location for business meetings cannot leave behind or outside the policies to provide beaches with all the necessary quality services. Business conventions must be compatible with the tourism of sun and beach, as well as with cultural and sports tourism.

For all the above reasons, the City Hall produced a Beach Use Plan 2012-2016. The plan strives for imagination, quality and maximum safety on our beaches. Last year, more than 13 beaches in Sitges were granted the EMAS award (Community System for Ecomanagement and Eco-audit), managed by member states of the European Union based on reference standards ISO 14001. Such a fact recognized our efforts in favor of competitiveness and quality, and showed us the path to follow.

Time for “Caramelles”. “Caramelles” are one of the festive expressions of Sitges. To hear and sing "Caramelles" also means Easter, spring, music and lyrics of our teachers, our mountains ... and "sitgetanisme". This year, the three groups of "Caramelles" have launched, in conjunction with the City Hall, the "Give away Caramelles" promotion campaign, whereby families from Sitges have the opportunity to bring their songs to the balconies of their homes and collaborate in this way with the groups. I invite you to sing, listen and give away “Caramelles”.

A difficult but hopeful budget

Monday night, the Municipal House approved the budget of the City Council for 2012. This is the first budget of the government formed last June as a result of the outcome of recent elections. The budget was approved three months later than planned because, in a responsible manner, we conditioned approval upon the outcome of negotiations with employee representatives of the Corporation, as it directly affects municipal accounts. The budget was approved with votes in favor of the municipal government and the abstention of the Socialist Group. I want to publicly acknowledge the sense of responsibility shown in this episode.

The budget submitted by the Government draws five main values ​​that are absolutely essential in our policy, and that also constitute the core of this document: social justice and equality, austerity, transparency, reliability, and rigor and sense of duty. These five areas are the foundation of the lines of income and expenses that the City Hall and its agencies will apply during the current year.

The budgeting process has been difficult, without the ability, dedication and applied financial engineering of the Deputy Mayor for Finance, Jordi Mas, we would hardly been able to bring it to fruition. It is a difficult budget as it includes necessary restrictions, containment in expenditure and drastic reductions in investment. The situation faced by municipal finances forced the application of special measures, and especially the introduction of a new political culture, which makes austerity and the exercise of responsibility the foundation of a good government.

But it is also a budget that makes a firm commitment in favor of concrete social policies and services, which encompass a broad chapter called "Sitges of the people." This is the most important part (19.3%) of the total 48.7 million making up the budget, after the part which is unfortunately the larger (37.8%), which is intended to narrow our serious budget deficit. As a "Sitges of the people", we understand social policies, initiatives to support families and groups and actions aimed at improving the quality of life of all the inhabitants of Sitges. The approved document also contains, despite the forced restrictions, items intended for the socio-economic revitalization of the town.

The 2012 budget was made possible thanks to the efforts applied by many sectors of the town: organizations, societies and all the universe of festivities, all those sectors offset the decline in their respective budget lines with an increase in personal or collective dedication; companies and self-employed of Sitges that assumed the irrational late payments of their bills by the City Hall, the group of employees of the City Hall that agreed to give up certain rights acquired to avoid the reduction of staff; and all the citizens of the municipality, who must give up some services or facilities due to the serious situation affecting municipal finances. I want to thank all these sectors, groups and citizens, and I also want to encourage them to continue working every day, without losing faith or hope.