Santa Croce Mayor Rejects Allegations Over Exit Project as Council President Seeks Documents

The mayor of Santa Croce Camerina, Peppe Dimartino, has publicly rejected as "extremely grave and offensive" any suggestion of hidden interests in the administrative handling of the Exit project, saying he was obliged to "forcefully deny reconstructions entirely without foundation". In a statement carried by Ragusa Libera, Dimartino said the allusions to presumed "shadows over agreements and particular interests" regarding the project's path were grave and offensive, adding that they did not surprise him when they came from those who make insinuation "the current weapon of political action". He described the administrative process that put in place what he called an extraordinary project for the social sector in Santa Croce as "transparent, crystal clear and managed by the municipal offices".

The president of the municipal council, Luca Agnello, said he had formally deposited a request for access to documents on the Exit project, in his capacity as holder of an institutional duty to guarantee the impartiality and transparency of every act voted by the chamber. He said he reserved the right to assess a possible formal report to the competent bodies only after examining the documentation requested. Agnello cited article 78 of the TUEL, which he said imposes precise duties of abstention in cases of potential conflicts of interest, and said of the affair that "the minutes speak clearly". His statement, as supplied, ends at that point.

La Sicilia — Ragusa reports the dispute under a headline describing a verification already launched into the legitimacy of certain acts approved by the chamber. The article extract available does not set out what that verification consists of, nor who initiated it, and does not establish whether it is distinct from Agnello's request for access to documents.

The friction is presented by Ragusa Libera as wider than one municipality. That source states that frictions between administrators and the functions of municipal councillors are not isolated facts of a single Comune, describing in many administrators "a certain intolerance" of objections and of requests for access to documents by councillors "who, naturally, in most cases, are in opposition". The same source states that this "happens in Ragusa", and that transparency remains an unknown article. The passage is supplied truncated.

No reply by Agnello to Dimartino's statement, no outcome of the document request and no date for any further step appears in the material available.