Three chiefs of the Fire Department have had Cuenca in two months, due to legal actions

BASIN

The situation inside the Cuenca Fire Department is a fire without putting out. On the afternoon of this Friday the 18th, a constitutional judge accepted a protection action filed by an official, thus generating the dismissal of the First Chief (J1) in charge, appointed by the Mayor of the city.

With this ruling, Cuenca has had three First Chiefs since December 2022 in the following order: Jorge Torres (appointed by the Mayor), Patricio Lucero (by winning a protection action), Jorge Torres (returned by a judge’s ruling) and from tonight, Sixto Heras Abril (also by judicial decision).

With this situation, the provisional J1, Jorge Torres, must leave office and in his place will be assumed by captain Sixto Heras, who was the one who filed the legal action before Judge Fabián Romo.

Judicial ruling agrees with the Municipality of Cuenca, which dismissed the first head of the Fire Department

Among the arguments raised by Heras are an alleged violation of his labor rights and that according to his resume he is the oldest rented firefighter.

In reading the resolution of first instance, Judge Romo said that the constitutional action is declared admissible because “they have violated their constitutional rights, legal certainty, right to work, right to due process of the guarantee of motivation.”

With this, the municipal administrative resolutions signed by the mayor Pedro Palacios, where he entrusts the Headquarters to Jorge Torres, are left without effect.

For this reason, it was also ordered that Heras be the new J1 of Cuenca.

Controversy in Cuenca over appointment of interim head of the Fire Department

The decision took the volunteer firefighters by surprise, according to Major Felipe Camacho, who adds that the judge agreed with Heras “without knowing some situations such as the inability of the person who is being made to win the lawsuit by committing situations against the law.

He considers that this is a discomfort for the entire city and not only for the institution, because it shows that “Cuenca is defenseless in the face of this mistreatment that firefighters have suffered.”

Sixto Heras Abril is a paid officer of the Fire Department and holds the position of Second Chief and Operations Coordinator. This newspaper called his cell phone and also wrote to Captain Sixto Heras through the WhatsApp application to find out his version, but until 7:00 p.m. there was no response.

In January there was controversy over the salary resignation of the two firefighters in command

On January 21, the then First and Second Chief of the Cuenca Fire Department, Jorge Torres, and Javier Carpio, respectively, renounced the salaries of $3,798 and $2,588 that corresponded to them upon assuming these dignities. This is because in a Comptroller’s report it was pointed out that these remunerations were not approved by the Cantonal Council.

Torres who had been designated as J1 in December 2021 by order of the Mayor of Cuenca instead of Patricio Lucero who, according to a municipal ordinance and a first instance court decision at that time, ended his five-year term. Due to a power that legally corresponds to him, he appointed his partner Javier Carpio as J2.

Patricio Lucero resumes his position as first chief of the Cuenca Fire Department; for protection action there will be a hearing next January

As head of the red coats of Cuenca, Torres issued his first written order on the afternoon of Friday, January 21. There he announced that he will not receive that salary, but the $1,212 that he received for his last position as Inspector of the Department of Fire Prevention and that he left to assume the Headquarters at that time.

Another action was to issue a personnel action for those who work in the Human Talent area. It was said that Carpio would do the same, who also kept the $1,212 for his work as captain of the Prevention Department.

His decision was made based on the DPA-006-2019 report of the State Comptroller General’s Office, which states that: “the monthly remuneration of $3,798 was approved for the position of First Chief, without the salary scale having been known and approved. by the Municipal Council of the Cuenca canton, and without the acting Human Talent Coordinator preparing a technical and economic report that supports the determined amount (…)”.

But also the Comptroller’s Office in a special examination of income and expenses determined that the recommendations on salary observations were not fulfilled by that date.

The legal advisor to the First Chief, Andrés Tola, stated that this scale “did not follow the legal, statutory or regulatory guidelines that should be collected” and that if Jorge Torres received the money he also incurred the alleged illegalities announced by the entity of public control. (I)