The twenty-seventh session of the City Council at times resembled a sitting of the Sejm Investigative Committee on the Orlen scandal. The similarity concerned the number of formal motions submitted by councillors, as well as the course of disputes, which often went beyond the designated agenda in terms of subject matter.
Was Mayor Roman a lecturer in Rome?
The first matter to which the councillors devoted considerable time concerned a complaint about Mayor Piotr Roman’s inappropriate conduct. The mayor’s inappropriate conduct consisted in asking a Bolesławiec resident to leave his office, firmly saying, "please leave."
Piotr Roman explained that, for the first time during his term in office, he had failed to control his emotions. He said that the woman greeted him upon entering with the words "fraud" and "freeloader." She also called him "the lecturer from Rome." No one knows why. Perhaps she was referring to a delegation from Bolesławiec visiting the Vatican.
One must control one’s emotions
Immediately after the mayor presented his version of events, the councillors began demonstrating their perceptiveness in establishing the truth. Left-wing councillors led the way. "There were no witnesses to this conversation. In fact, we do not know what was said and what was not," voices from the chamber said.
Finally, councillor Irena Dul took the floor. "To control oneself is the highest power," the councillor said, adding, "Seneca the Younger said it before me."
Councillor Hubert Prabucki tried to ease the discussion concerning the complaint against the mayor. He admitted that when he was deputy mayor, he too had been provoked. "One man called me a little shit," Hubert Prabucki recalled.
After the councillor’s recollections, someone offered the mayor words of consolation: "Don’t worry, it is only an allegation of inappropriate conduct. It would be worse if the accusation concerned molestation." The remark prompted laughter in the chamber. The discussion was ended by the Chair of the City Council, who ordered a vote on whether the complaint against the mayor was justified. By a majority vote, the council found the complaint unfounded.
From preschool to politics
The second matter to which the councillors devoted a great deal of time and energy was the issue of increasing preschool fees. A letter addressed to the Chair of the City Council was discussed. Piotr Kania, a parent of a child at Preschool No. 8 and also chairman of the Labour Union in Bolesławiec, wrote that the increase in preschool fees would worsen the already difficult financial situation of parents.
The preschool director was present at the session and wanted to respond to what she considered inaccurate statements in Kania’s letter and in an article published in Gazeta Wrocławska. However, during her address, councillor Józef Burniak submitted a formal motion to interrupt her statement. In his view, the address should concern the resolution, not the director’s feelings. The council chair did not react. The preschool director therefore continued speaking about the letter and article. This angered Józef Burniak, who asked whether the director was allowed to reprimand Piotr Kania. As a result, the preschool director lost her composure and ended her address.
After this incident, a fairly heated exchange took place between the councillors. Eugeniusz Kowalski and Józef Burniak quarrelled. There was talk of allergic reactions. Finally, the former mayor suggested that councillor Kowalski leave the chamber whenever he did not want to listen to him.
Mayor Roman also spoke about interrupting the preschool director’s address. He accused councillor Burniak of using a reprehensible method to interrupt her statement. Councillor Krzysztof Pieszko expressed regret over the conduct of some councillors and said he was ashamed to sit on such a council.
The councillors’ verbal clashes began to touch on freedom of speech within democratic standards and their failure to observe them during the session. The situation resembled the procedural dilemmas of the Sejm Investigative Committee examining the Orlen scandal. To cool tempers, the Council Chair ordered a recess.
Reconsideration of the vote
After the recess, a vote was held on the 10-percent increase in preschool fees. Fourteen councillors voted in favour, none against, and four abstained. However, immediately after the vote, councillor Stanisław Szypulski submitted a formal motion to reconsider (repeat) the vote, proposing the use of budget reserves as an alternative to the increase. No one, however, was able to answer what financial consequences such a move would have. The council ultimately approved the increase.