José María Pomares – pictured far right
The Administrative Court No. 1 of Elche has dismissed the appeal filed by the former chief commissioner of the Local Police of Orihuela, José María Pomares, against the City Council for the order of retirement for forced retirement last September, when he reached 65 years of age, despite his request to continue in active service until 2027. The court also ordered him to pay 500 euros in legal expenses. The ex-cop has 15 days to appeal the ruling.
The head of the Department of Human Resources, Agustina Rodríguez, rejected Pomares’ request to stay in his post until he turns 67, setting the statutory retirement date for September 18, 2025. For his side, Pomares contended that, according to the regulations, mandatory retirement should be set at 66 years and eight months – or, in his case, at age 67 – reasoning that at age 65 it would be voluntary, assuming sufficient contribution time has been attained (more than 38 years and three months).
Hence, he requested the court to rule to annul and nullify the decision of the City Council, to reinstate him immediately to his position as Local Police Commissioner until he reached the age of 67 and to pay him the amount he would not receive since September 19, including increases, the application of the professional career and the “network funds” – a kind of overtime for mandatory services – which would amount to 5,725 euros for an average of 25 services per year.
The City Council, on its part, argued that the choice was legal. The judge also considered it fair to set the mandatory retirement age at 65. In this sense, the judge found that there was no discrimination against Pomares, since the circumstances he stated in his lawsuit corresponded to another professional group that of local police officers, which is governed by other norms.
The ruling also indicates that the former police chief claimed as discriminatory that the activity was allowed to be extended until reaching the contribution that would allow him to accrue 100% of the pension when in his case he had already reached the corresponding contribution period.
Market requirements
It was in October that Pomares filed the complaint in court, the last straw in a barrage of appeals in an open war with the City Council. He also sought a preliminary injunction against the decree, but the court refused his plea.
Meanwhile, the City Council opened a disciplinary file for a major offence against him, which was closed after his retirement, and shortly after the nomination of Rubén Selma as chief of the Orihuela Police was made public.
In all this time, Pomares has been a pest of the City Council , firing shots left and right through his social networks with movies in which his avatar appears criticising the government team.
Resources
Some of her appeals, of an unstoppable avalanche since her retirement was decreed, were aimed at positions offered by the municipal company Servicio de Gestión Medioambiental de Orihuela (SGM), the waste management company, for which she also presented herself for the management position – with a salary of up to 80,000 euros – as part of a similar strategy to the one she adopted when she presented herself – along with two other candidates – for the position of general coordinator of area 4 of the City Council, one of the four senior positions appointed at the mayor’s discretion – which receive a salary close to 100,000 euros, casting doubt on the process of these appointments, which in this case fell to Isabel María Belmonte, just as she had predicted.
He was on his “well earned” vacation from May until he retired. The coalition government requested him to depart in a decree that also selected Selma, who worked with Pomares for 23 years in the Orihuela Local Police from 1982 , as acting chief.
He started office as commissioner on June 14, 2023, in the PSOE-Ciudadanos coalition government – already in power after the PP’s electoral triumph – and was in charge of the council portfolios of Citizen Security and Human Resources. Now these portfolios are in the hands of the PP, in the hands of Mónica Pastor and Agustina Rodríguez, who are his targets along with Mayor Pepe Vegara. He even accused them of harassment and discrimination but the case was eventually dropped. His proximity to Ciudadanos has led some to speculate that it was no coincidence that he requested to retire in 2027, after the municipal elections.
Diploma
On the feast day of Our Lady of Monserrate, September 8th, the Mayor of Pomares stood up the City Council at the traditional awards ceremony for the Local Police. He was to be given his Retirement Diploma, as is the usual in such instances, but declined to attend to prevent “problems”, but in fact it was also a tough situation for him, as, being under investigation, he could not represent the force or wear uniform. The mayor made some sharp observations regarding honesty, outstanding conduct and respect for superiors without misusing one’s authority in his speech .
Pomares, who devotes part of his leisure time to follow the government team on their social networks, has seen the accounts of the Local Police, which have a service role to the citizens and were managed by the Headquarters, deactivated since the retirement was decreed in April last year, with the City Council being able to recover them five months later – in September.
