The mayor Jaume Collboni has announced this Thursday the signing of Maria Buhigas as the new chief architect of the Barcelona City Council, taking over from Xavier Matilla, and the appointment of Oriol Altisench as chief engineer, a figure that has not existed since the Joan Clos. The new mayor has appeared after completing the first Government Commission to explain the new municipal executive structure, led by the manager Albert Dalmau, who was appointed on Saturday to replace Sara Berbel.
De Buhigas (Barcelona, ??1971), who was an ERC councilor between 2019 and 2020 as an independent, Collboni has highlighted that he has worked and collaborated with the mayors Joan Clos, Jordi Hereu, Xavier Trias and Ada Colau, and his extensive professional career, especially at the Barcelona Regional agency. She “has a metropolitan vision”, she has emphasized after adding that she will be the first woman to hold this position in the democratic history of Barcelona.
The mayor highlighted the stature of Altisench (Barcelona, ??1968), who has also collaborated with the City Council since the days of Mayor Clos -until now he was the deputy manager of Mobility and has coordinated the project to connect the tram along the Diagonal- and He was dean of the College of Engineering of Catalonia.
The new executive structure is made up of seven municipal area managers with which Collboni wants to mark a new roadmap in the City Council. “The house has to start with the foundations and the first decision has been to lay the foundations of the new government”, stressed the mayor. They are Resources and Digital Transformation, headed by Agustí Abelaria; that of Urbanism and Housing (Joan Cambronero); Mobility, Infrastructures and Urban Services (Xavier Patón); Social Rights, Health and Community (Marta Clari); Culture, Education and Sports (Sara Jaurrieta); Security, Prevention and Coexistence (Maite Casado); and Economy and Economic Promotion (Laia Claverol).
Collboni has insisted that the new organization chart responds to a main purpose: “Ordering the city, so that it is clean, safe and beautiful, as we Barcelonans like”. The mayor highlighted Dalmau’s “rigour, ambition, determination and desire to innovate”, “who is a great connoisseur of the house and comes from a line of managers; his father was already one in the Maragall era”, he added.
