Here we come back. The “battle” between the mayor Cateno De Luca and the local police commanders is, punctually, started again. After Messina (it was 2018 when Cateno De Luca, at the time of the first citizen of the capital he collided with the then commander of the local police) and Taormina (the story that involved Danilo Lo Presti, wanted by De Luca himself at the head of the local police of the Ionian pearl), is known, this time to trigger the challenge was the reporting of a citizen on a signal of the signs not restored for a year, requests.
So in the square, on the occasion of the meeting with citizenship to exhibit the annual report, the mayor Cateno De Luca has “disheartened” the local police commander, Giuseppe Cacopardo, confirming the desire to replace him starting next year.
“We are making a modification of the personnel needs-recalled the first citizen-providing for the hiring, since January 2026, of twenty new local police officers and a full-time and determined commander, apical-painting figure, because obviously there is a need also on this front of breaking certain connivances. If a pole of the signs have been cut and the local police still did not take it to arrange it, it means that there is something pathological inside the body – said De Luca – I say it and I take responsibility for it, in no uncertain terms. I told the commander several times, then they get angry if I made the decision to head the local police who, possibly, will not be Taormina, so certain connivances are broken once and for all: these things cannot be heard and now we will get to this. Let’s see the long muzzles and how many will be asked to ask me to explain inside the building, these things make me blood on my head ».
The intention is to establish a new local police area with a manager, as requested in the past by the former commander Daniele Lo Presti then, as mentioned in the introduction, defended with the suppression of the body, subsequently restored albeit with limited powers, and proceeding with the hiring of a commander by applying art. 110 of the decree law. 267/2000, i.e. with contract assignment and therefore outside the organic endowment, with a selection for ex -category D employees in which Cacopardo will not be able to participate, being a former category C.
Among the papabili for the role of next commander of the local police of Taormina there is the name of Giovanni Giardina, current commander in Messina, and his possible arrival in the city of Centauro could kick off a waltz of movements in the capital and also in other municipalities. Certainly for the current commander Cacopardo the countdown has now started.