The first dispute at the City Council session broke out in January last year. Councillor Dariusz Mucha said that people had been buried on a road outside the cemetery and that other councillors were trying to cover it up. Officials explained that the people had been buried in the cemetery; it was simply that planners had designated the plot as a road on paper. Councillor Mucha told people sitting in the gallery that 38 people had been buried on the road and that, by taking away his speaking rights, the council wanted to cover it all up.

The Head of the Property and Spatial Management Department, Jan Kisiliczyk, explained at the time that the “whole problem” arose because there had been no flow of information between the municipal services department and the property department; certain pieces of information had become inconsistent. The burials carried out on plot 92, which Councillor Dariusz Mucha had referred to, had taken place within the cemetery grounds, according to the municipal services company’s understanding.

A second dispute broke out in February 2017. Dariusz Mucha claimed that the administration of our municipal cemetery was unlawfully calculating and collecting 20-year fees from the custodians of brick-built graves in which more than one person was buried. The case was referred to the District Prosecutor’s Office. It concerned 443 people.

The Bolesławiec district prosecutor recently discontinued the investigation into the matter and ordered that all these people be notified of the decision.

“Why doesn’t Councillor Mucha apologize to all these people?” asked Councillor Wojciech Kasprzyk at the January session, referring to the first dispute. The city mayor, Piotr Roman, added after Kasprzyk that the apology should also concern the second case—that is, the custodians of brick-built graves, numbering 443 people.

Dariusz Mucha could not respond because he was not present at the session when Kasprzyk and Roman made those remarks.

We asked the councillor for comment. We sent him a link to YouTube, where a recording of the session and Kasprzyk’s words had been published. This is the text we received:

In response to the request for comment on the statements made by Councillor Wojciech Kasprzyk, I would humbly remind you that Councillor Wojciech Kasprzyk is a councillor representing the voters of his electoral district as well as the remaining residents of our city, and has the right to speak on every matter and every topic within the limits of the law. I inform you that I was not present at the Bolesławiec City Council session when Councillor Wojciech Kasprzyk made his remarks, and I do not know the content of his statement. Since I cannot respond directly during the session to Councillor Kasprzyk’s words, it would be unauthorized and impolite toward Councillor Wojciech Kasprzyk to comment on a statement I do not know. If this statement is recorded in the minutes of the latest session, we can return to the request for comment after the minutes have been adopted by the Bolesławiec City Council.

Dariusz Mucha

If Dariusz Mucha takes Councillor Kasprzyk’s and Mayor Roman’s words to heart, he will have to apologize to nearly half a thousand residents.