Civic City of Lubartów

Councilors achieved 210% of the norm during this term? According to the draft resolution to raise the salary - yes. We know that such a project has influenced.

The new government entered the office with slogans that it is expensive, wasteful and there is a hole in the budget.

A few months after the election, the degree of intoxication with power turned out to be similar, regardless of the percentage of… votes in the elections and the balance of their own achievements in politics.

At first we thought it was impossible, but then doubts began to emerge. The only meaningful explanation for the campaign to raise salaries is political subversion. We have been dealing with local government for over a dozen years, which means that we have a longer experience than a large part of councilors. We can attempt a factual analysis of the situation with a high probability that the conclusions will be correct, but this is a problem for the councilors themselves.

Therefore - long before the planned - we will organize an audit of the new Lubartów City Council.  We think about the form. In the past, we have resorted to local referendums as a tool for public consultation.  We are reflecting on the subject and depending on the development of the situation, it may be the dismissal of the entire Council or a question about raises for the councilors.

Do we see any positives? We are a watchdog organization that looks at the hands of the authorities, and at the same time our activities have an educational dimension.  Before the referendum itself, there is a referendum campaign. In a possible referendum campaign, we will look at the achievements of all signatories. We will analyze the activity of councilors. We will check attendance at sessions, on committees and what topics dominated in public statements, during sessions of the City Council. Or were these requests to close the discussion?

In any case, we will use the opportunity for a public debate on the role of the councilor in the local government, his duties and responsibilities. It will be easier to talk about public finances on the example of raise claims.

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Eastern Journal  calculated what financial consequences for the inhabitants would be brought about by the adoption of the resolution.
The implementation of the idea was to look like this: 
"After the raise, it will be PLN 788 for the councilor, the chairman of the committee and vice-chairman of the council - PLN 1350, and the chairman - PLN 1850. In January 2020, councilors, according to the draft, may receive another raise, because the minimum wage will increase by 200 PLN."

We ask: What about the implementation of election promises? 
Pre-election "missionaries" changed their approach to public funds. We will ask the signatories of the draft resolution and the councilors who did not support the idea about why they deserve or not.

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"It can't be that you waste money on a secondary project when there are no new roads in town and the old ones are like Swiss cheese." 
Candidate for councilor Renata Mazur

Councilor Renata Mazur recognizes that she simply deserves an increase in the diet and this expenditure should be classified as first-class  ventures for city residents.

We publish the first of our rankings. You will find them here. It was established on the basis of the property declarations of the city councilors of Lubartów, signed under the draft resolution on the increase in the amount of allowances. 
Do you see mistakes? Correct us.  

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We also wrote an open letter to the party leaders who have their representatives in the Lubartów City Council, i.e. Law and Justice and the Civic Platform:

We would like to ask Mr. Jarosław Kaczyński and Mr. Grzegorz Schetyna to take a position.

At the outset, we should explain where the idea of this initiative came from.
Politicians willingly declare openness and readiness to contact citizens. For us, as a watchdog organization, it is primarily a willingness to undergo verification when the voter says - I check.
We have already had the opportunity to address both the leadership of the Civic Platform and the Law and Justice party. In 2011, we applied for support in resolving the conflict over the location of Zakład Zagospodarowania Odpadów (Zakład Zagospodarowania Odpadów), an investment for almost PLN 50 million, which ended with a survey among the city's inhabitants with our participation. At that time, only on the part of Law and Justice did we get real interest in the case. The PO authorities, in turn, did not find time for us and we are curious what it will be like now - before the parliamentary elections.
A few months ago, local elections were held, to which each group went with specific slogans. 
After the elections, it turned out that, at least in the Lubartów Poviat, both the representatives of the Civic Coalition and the Law and Justice party, these slogans did not prevent them from forming the ruling coalition. 
The assessment of most of the inhabitants was then unequivocal - it is only about maintaining power. 
Today we are dealing with a similar situation when the councilors of the Civic Coalition and the Law and Justice together with others signed a draft resolution on their increases in allowances. 
For example, there was no joint action or support this year at the PiS initiative to collect signatures on the opening of the railway station in Lubartów. There was no support from the representatives of the Civic Coalition, there was no support from any other club. 
What did the residents receive for the opening of the new local government term of office? Information about the city's indebtedness and the need to take out a loan due to its bad financial situation. 
A drastic increase in fees for municipal waste collection from April this year, one of the effects of which was the decision of the City Council to withdraw Lubartów from the Union of Municipal Communes of the Lubartów Region. 
Increase in charges for water and sewage. Which will also increase in the following years, according to the information of the local Przedsiębiorstwo Gospodarki Komunalne, by a total of about 15% for water and 30% for sewage. 
How does this situation relate to the draft resolution on increasing the allowances of councilors? What do we read in the justification of the resolution? Among other things, that it is a project "prepared in terms of rationalization of expenses necessary to be incurred, taking into account the responsibility of councilors, the principles of social justice and similar resolutions in local governments of a similar size and degree of organization". 
Lubartów is a city with approx. 20 thousand. residents. Sessions are held once a month, committees - even less frequently. Yes, the responsibility of councilors is big for managing common property. But also responsibility for what they spend this property on. In a situation where it was necessary to take out a loan at the end of the year to cover all the necessary expenses, is increasing the allowances responsible? 
When it was necessary to postpone investments at the beginning of the term of office for the next year, or limit other projects - is increasing the diets responsible?
Is it socially fair to increase the diet itself at the level of approx. 50% for the councilor, not counting the participation in the committees? To whom? The more so that the diet is to be a reimbursement of the costs incurred by the councilor for involvement in the work of the organ. We remind you that the sessions of the City Council are held once a month. In a situation where councilors jointly demand a change in the basis for calculating the minimum wage, it would be socially fair to adjust to the level of inflation annually. Socially fair towards most of the people they represent. 
When it comes to rationalizing expenses, such a decisive increase will certainly force a correction of expenses in other budget items. For example, we will rationalize road expenses so that they will be enough to pay for councilors. The more so that the resolution would enter into force from September this year, so its full effects will be felt in the budget for 2020. 
Public reception, what led your councilors here? Power and money. 
And here we agree, regardless of the club colors. According to the party leaders they represent in the local government, is such an attitude justified?
Working for the local community is not about trying to improve one's own situation. The effect of agreement across divisions brings a clear social perception that people go to politics for money. 
How do you feel about it?

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The discussion is just beginning.