Kazimierz Gawron accuses the starosta of protecting “his man,” namely Karol Stasik. In the letter, he exposes the work of the county executive board, which he himself helped create. He writes about the neglect and omissions of “trusted officials,” misleading members of the County Executive Board and passing on false information. He also attacks the staffing policy and writes about an “unjustified increase in employment.”

In our opinion, Kazimierz Gawron also wants to gain something from the turmoil in the county. He has always been ambitious, so it is possible that the social position of executive board member did not suit him very much and he wants more.

It is unclear how Gawron’s resignation letter got into the hands of the media. There will be an investigation into the matter. Karol Stasik suspects the deputy starosta of removing the letter from the office’s internal system.

– The letter was probably released by Marian Haniszewski as a riposte to Kwaśniewski’s statement, says the chair of the County Council. – The secretary placed the letter in the system, and the information leaked from the system. I did not even have time to consult a lawyer, but I launched an investigation into who released it to the media, Karol Stasik told us.

We contacted Marian Haniszewski, who firmly denies passing the letter to the media.

– I have the letter, but I was not the one who passed it to the media, says deputy starosta Marian Haniszewski. – I analyzed it and considered what in it was true and what was not. I do not know how it “leaked” from the district office. The letter circulated around the office; many people have access to it. I am meeting Karol Stasik tomorrow and will discuss the letter with him, Haniszewski adds.

The published text of Kazimierz Gawron’s letter:

Bolesławiec, October 10, 2016

Mr Karol Stasik
Chair of the Bolesławiec County Council

Due to the impossibility of properly fulfilling the duties of a Member of the Executive Board, in accordance with my knowledge, local-government experience and the expectations of voters, I hereby submit my resignation from the position of Member of the County Executive Board to the Chair as of today.

JUSTIFICATION

1. Irregularities in the functioning and servicing of the County Executive Board From the beginning of this term, members of the County Executive Board were familiarized with the planned agenda only during the meeting, which prevented them from studying it in detail. The secretary, who was often asked to present the items as the person responsible for properly preparing materials for the Executive Board meeting, repeatedly attempted to acquaint himself with the content of these motions and present them rather ineptly. Only after my repeated interventions and pointing out that this made the Executive Board’s work more difficult did the Chair of the Executive Board decide that members would receive the meeting agenda electronically on the preceding day, but without any additional materials. Those remained known only to the Chair of the Executive Board, who tried to present them at the meeting. Often, during Executive Board meetings, it was necessary to invite the applicants—the heads of departments or managers of organizational units—to attend. My motions and suggestions addressed to the starosta to improve the Executive Board’s work were most often dismissed with some malicious remark. I repeatedly suggested that before each Executive Board meeting, the district office management should review the contents of the motions together with the applicants, so that they could present and logically justify them in a concise manner. This motion was not adopted.
The Chair of the Executive Board also rejected my motion that applicants—the heads of departments—be invited to Executive Board meetings to present their motions. This suggestion and motion were ignored and not implemented. A reprehensible practice in the work of the Executive Board was and is changing the meeting agenda during the meeting to one whose content differs completely from the agenda received electronically. There were also instances of topics being “slipped” into the meeting at the last minute that had not been on the agenda at all, most often difficult topics requiring deeper analysis and consideration. One must assume that this was done deliberately and knowingly, perhaps also with the knowledge of the County Secretary, who was personally responsible for properly preparing materials for Executive Board meetings. Another reprehensible and unacceptable action is omitting from the minutes of Executive Board meetings decisions and recommendations for district-office officials that have a decisive impact on the efficient functioning of the county as a whole, limiting costs, preventing mismanagement and curbing wastefulness in spending public money. Moreover, I believe that the conduct of the County Secretary is blameworthy: when correcting the minutes of Executive Board meetings, he removes from them all entries and decisions of the Executive Board that are inconvenient for him and the officials subordinate to him. Worse still, the minutes of meetings are very often written several months late and were not adopted on an ongoing basis. My comments and efforts directed to the Chair of the Executive Board to change this practice achieved little. This is unacceptable, reprehensible and scandalous conduct. Both the Chair of the Executive Board and the County Secretary, who has a legal education, should be aware of this. He does not respond to any motions, comments or suggestions concerning a change in this situation because, in my opinion, he has a “protective umbrella” provided by his direct superior—the starosta. This cannot continue; office employees, executive board members, councillors and visitors can see it. The Chair of the Executive Board expects members merely to “obediently raise their hands” and always vote unanimously “in favor.” I have never accepted and will never accept such a way of working for the County Executive Board. I declare that, as a commune head for several terms, I chaired meetings of the Commune Executive Board and know very well how commune or county executive boards should function. I do not need to learn this. Others should learn it. The Chair of the County Executive Board expected and still expects its members to uncritically accept every decision, without comments, suggestions or proposals for changes, particularly in the functioning of the district office. I find it disturbing and puzzling that this does not bother most of the “boundlessly loyal” executive board members at all.

2. Management of public funds. I find it difficult to accept the lack of economy and wastefulness in the spending of public funds by some district-office officials, who also often show a lack of care for the district office’s property. Through the clear and tangible neglect and omissions of “trusted officials” and the starosta’s failure to respond to comments concerning the mismanagement of officials and unit managers, as well as the County Secretary supervising them, the district office budget is steadily exposed to financial losses for which no one has faced disciplinary consequences—many examples could be cited.
The facts concerning the neglect and omissions of “trusted officials” are concealed, and members of the County Executive Board are misled by being given false information. The County Secretary also does this personally, perhaps with the starosta’s knowledge.

3. Disastrous staffing policy. The staffing policy personally pursued by the starosta is entirely incomprehensible, and its result is a significant, entirely unjustified increase in employment at the district office and its units, worryingly generating an increase in the payroll fund, over which the Members of the County Executive Board responsible for proper budget implementation have no influence whatsoever.
This raises the question: should things be this way? There are many district-office and subordinate-unit officials who work reliably and honestly, caring about the county’s welfare and good name. But there are also many “particularly trusted” employees who receive very good salaries, awards and bonuses without having to perform their work properly. It should be checked whether the circulating information is true that some trusted office employees hold two full-time positions within an eight-hour working day, receiving additional remuneration and awards for this. Whether this is true is not known to the members of the Executive Board—perhaps only some of them know. Attempts to obtain this information, unfortunately, have failed. One must ask how it is possible to serve on the Executive Board and take responsibility for the county budget when one cannot even obtain information about how many employees work in individual departments and subordinate units, how they are remunerated, what their duties are, and how many new officials have been hired since the beginning of this term, where and for what money, and why—was it necessary? Repeated attempts to obtain answers to these perhaps inconvenient questions remain unanswered to this day. One must ask whether County Executive Board Members should be treated this way. In my opinion, this conduct is unacceptable, indeed reprehensible. I declare that all my persistent attempts to introduce beneficial changes in the functioning of the Executive Board and the district office were never received favorably by the starosta or some of the Executive Board Members, who were entirely uninterested in changing the functioning of this “closed arrangement,” which is exceptionally harmful not only to the county budget but also to its image.
I do not accept or support this, and I will not lend my name to it. Therefore, I am making my decision to resign from the position of Member of the County Executive Board consciously and responsibly. Since I was elected to the County Executive Board by councillors from the PS-PSL-SLD coalition, I also declare that I have decided to leave this coalition. At the same time, I would like to thank the County Council Members for entrusting me with the duties of Member of the County Executive Board, but also apologize that, for reasons beyond my control, I cannot meet their hopes and expectations.
I intend to remain an independent councillor so that, in accordance with my conscience, knowledge, local-government experience and the oath I took at the beginning of the term, I can perform my duties as a councillor as well as possible and serve the residents of our county and my electoral district—the Bolesławiec Commune.

Yours sincerely,
Kazimierz Gawron