Torrevieja councillor and deputy mayor Carmen Gomez has apologised after being caught attending a virtual meeting while driving. The meeting, which was carried out by video conference, saw the Mayor Eduardo Dolon, and a series of the town hall councillors discussing and voting on issues pertaining to the town’s budget. As the councillor can clearly be seen driving while attending the meeting by phone, opposition parties wasted no time in publicly criticising her just hours after the image from the meeting came out. Councillor Gomez has apologised for her actions, saying “When you drive you have to be attentive to driving one hundred percent, with or without hands free,” and adding that if she is fined, she will of course pay the penalty which could amount to €200 and two points on her licence.
Head of the opposition PSOE, Fanny Serrano, took the opportunity to write to the mayor to remind him that he is also the head of the Local Police and proposed that he fines the Councillor for a traffic law violation.
Councillor Gomez does not take a full time salary from the town hall. She is paid for her participation in plenary sessions and meetings, such as the budgetary virtual meeting in question, for which she is paid €178 for attendance.
Councillor Gomez was on her way to the secondary school where she works as a teacher when she signed in to the town hall meeting through her phone. Legislation on virtual meetings requires a continuous visual of the attendees in order to be able to verify their identity at all times. However, the highway code designates the use of mobile devices while driving as a very serious offense.
The mayor at first said that attending the videoconference in this way was just “like going hands-free”, although once the incident was made public, he indicated that his responsibility now is to propose the fine is issued to Councillor Gomez.