Istotne.pl: – Is Mr Małkowski right in claiming that you are part of a closed system that keeps Bolesławiec residents away from power in the city?
Emil Zając: – The word “system”, overused by Maciej Małkowski, reminds me of PiS’s 2015 election campaign, which also featured the slogans “system” and “baby bonus”. It is as if I were reading the Impuls programme now. These are key words behind which lies are very easily smuggled.
Are you accusing Małkowski of lying? Isn’t this simply an attack on Piotr Roman’s rival candidate? Do you have any evidence?
I am a lawyer, and I do not make statements that I cannot support with evidence. This is too serious a matter. Let me give the first example that comes to mind. In an interview with Telewizja Wrocław, Mr Małkowski says that people are hearing that the mayor did not join the Mieszkanie Plus programme. I have a document proving that Maciej Małkowski lied outright. Bolesławiec participates in the Mieszkanie Plus programme. I am providing the contents of the TBS agreement with Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego במסגרת the Mieszkanie Plus programme, signed in June 2018. That is a fact.
But isn’t it the case that Maciej Małkowski proposed Mieszkanie Plus, and Piotr Roman’s committee adopted it as its own idea? Apparently the same happened with the idea of a nursery in the former public library building. Małkowski claims he came up with the idea first.
I will put it this way: I do not know which untruth to respond to first. To sign a loan agreement with the bank in June 2018, it was necessary to prepare a series of documents and submit an application by 30 September 2017. I do not know when Mr Małkowski planned to join the Mieszkanie Plus programme, because I cannot read his mind. Information that Bolesławiec’s Samotniak had been included in the Mieszkanie Plus programme appeared in the press sometime at the beginning of this year. And “Samotniak” is not the only investment under this programme. TBS has already submitted design documentation and an application for repayable funding for 11 apartments at 32a Tysiąclecia Street (on the hospital grounds). And the most important thing when it comes to investment plans: since August this year, we have had a concept prepared for buildings on Zwycięstwa Street (the site of the former clinic). This will be a very modern development, with almost 80 apartments and—most importantly—taking into account the neighbouring single-family housing. We already have visualisations of the project. Tenants of these premises will receive rent subsidies, as TBS has planned to register them in the Mieszkanie na Start programme.
That is why my answer is: no, we are not copying Mr Małkowski’s ideas. Neither the one concerning Mieszkanie Plus nor the one concerning the nursery. We are carrying out our own plans, which apparently appeal to him so much that he includes them in his election programme without reading Piotr Roman’s programme.
Those are strong words. Małkowski, your rival candidate, strongly criticises Piotr Roman’s ideas for Bolesławiec, including the housing policy pursued by the current mayor and TBS.
I will be direct. We are the cheapest TBS in the region, with rent at PLN 9.50 per square metre. I checked: rents this low do not exist in Jelenia Góra, Polkowice, Zgorzelec or Dzierżoniów. Even in Jarocin, which presents itself as a leader in building homes under Mieszkanie Plus, rent is almost 30% higher than ours.
More than 400 housing communities have placed their trust in TBS. What Małkowski proposes—depriving TBS of the ability to manage properties and releasing these communities onto the private property-management market—threatens a price-fixing arrangement and an increase in property-management fees of up to 100%.
Today, TBS stabilises property-management fees, keeping them at an affordable level for property owners. It is significant that the candidate is officially supported by one of the private managers.
But Małkowski wants to open the city to private entrepreneurs; that is his idea for breaking up the stagnant system, so surely the fact that an entrepreneur supports him is not surprising?
I said that it is significant that he is supported precisely by a private manager. Shall I give an example of how a private property manager thinks compared with the municipal TBS? Thanks to the efforts of TBS and the work of its employees, of the nine communities joining the municipal heating network using subsidies, seven are communities managed by TBS. A private manager lacks the determination and willingness to undertake the effort of organising this environmentally friendly project that serves residents. We do this for people, not for money. For a private manager, introducing another shared installation is a nuisance: they then have to operate and settle accounts for it. As you can see, managers are not interested.
Another matter is organising façade renovations: almost the entire Market Square, Prusa, 1 Maja, Armii Krajowej and Kościelna streets—these are investments organised for housing communities by TBS using subsidies from UM Bolesławiec. None of the private managers was able to provide this. And thanks to the idea of Mayor Piotr Roman and the decision of the City Council, we managed to restore the beauty of the tenement buildings in the city centre.
Perhaps TBS does not like private entrepreneurs?
TBS’s activities are an example of very good cooperation with private entrepreneurs. The contractors for the most important investments organised and carried out by TBS are local Bolesławiec entrepreneurs. We also use services provided by local entrepreneurs for the day-to-day administration of properties.
It is already bordering on paranoia that everyone who works in a municipal company or organisational unit and is a director or president must belong to some alleged “system”. But if someone wants to tear everything down, let them show who will replace these people, what specialists they will be, how much professional experience they will have, what expertise, or whether they know anything at all. Judging by what has happened in recent days, even a banner must be hung properly (Małkowski’s large banner on Żwirki i Wigury Street came loose from the wall and had to be attached again). If someone is pushing for a high position, they should possess basic skills.
Surely not all ideas for change are bad. Some probably affect you personally, especially the idea of abolishing the municipal police.
It has become a tradition in Bolesławiec elections. Every four years, some candidate calls for abolishing the municipal police.
The Municipal Police is like health. You start appreciating it when it is gone, and anyone can conduct a simple experiment. Call the police and ask them to intervene regarding rubbish dumped somewhere. The police will not deal with it at all; they will refer you to the Municipal Police. The same will happen with an aggressive dog running down the street without a muzzle or a blocked entrance to a property. It is no coincidence that, apart from its own interventions, the Municipal Police receives approximately 3,500 reports a year.
Abolishing the municipal police would produce savings of nearly PLN 1.5 million, which could be allocated to other purposes, Impuls argues. Some of the Municipal Police’s duties could be performed by civil servants.
Yes, Maciej Małkowski proposes that civil servants could perform some of these duties, so I ask: would they be the people who currently work at the office, or would he hire new ones? If they were new employees, there would be no savings, because what we pay a municipal officer, we would pay a civil servant. And if they are supposed to be the people who work there today, the candidate should tell one colleague, then another and another, to go out on street patrol.
You need to know the basic legal provisions that determine who may conduct proceedings in cases of offences or who may issue a fine under fine proceedings. The Code of Procedure in Petty Offence Cases—a matter the candidate has apparently never read, although he should have, since he supervised the Municipal Police when he was deputy mayor—clearly specifies who is authorised to do this, and it is not an official from one department or another.
What about the additional police patrols that could be purchased with the money saved?
If I hear that additional police patrols will be purchased, I politely inform you that the city already tried this 15 years ago. I do not know whether the candidate realises how many vacancies there are at the Bolesławiec police station; they do not have enough people. And before the candidate suggests that some police officers will ride scooters at night, he should first ask the officers, who, I assure you, will not be interested. Why? Because, quite simply, instead of what Mr Małkowski calls “overtime work”, they would rather spend time with their families. This idea shows a complete lack of respect for police officers and voters to whom such solutions are being proposed.
And what about the demand to categorically prohibit employing city councillors in senior positions in units dependent on the city budget?
When I read in this man’s programme that he will call on councillors to resign from jobs in units dependent on the city budget or to give up their councillor mandates, I wonder on what basis the candidate arrogates to himself the right to deprive the residents of this city of their right to stand for election.
And will he apply the same rule to people from his own “system”? Judging by the Impuls candidate lists, a candidate for the City Council works in a local-government cultural institution, and I do not know whether she will resign from her job if she becomes a councillor. Will teachers also resign from their jobs after joining the City or County Council? Or are we dealing here with the philosophy of “what is good for Kali is not good for others”?
I already declare that if people are dismissed from their jobs because they hold councillor mandates, I will gladly help them pro bono in court, because I very much like helping people in labour courts and I do it effectively. People who have contacted me in this area have already found that out.
You also do not like the idea of merging companies?
The two candidates, Małkowski and Ogrodnik, talk about merging companies to save money for the city budget. I inform both former deputy mayors that not a single złoty from the city budget goes towards the presidents’ salaries. Either they are openly misleading people, or they became deputy mayors by mistake—which only shows that they were right to stop being deputy mayors.
Below we present scans of the TBS agreement with Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego mentioned in the interview, concluded under the Mieszkanie Plus programme and signed in June 2018.
