During today’s session of the Nowogrodziec Municipal Council, which began shortly after 3 p.m., a heated exchange took place between councillors from the Współpraca i Doświadczenie club and Mayor Joanna Świder. The proceedings were interrupted at around 3:38 p.m. for ten minutes when one of the residents approached the councillors with grievances:

“Madam Chair, Councillors, how do you respect the residents? Please give me the floor. The chairwoman did not reply to me at all. How do you respect the residents? Who are you?”

Immediately after the session resumed, Mayor Świder read out a request from the WiD councillors containing detailed questions, including about:

  • registers of websites visited by Municipal Office employees,
  • security measures for ICT systems,
  • methods of verifying the competences of the office’s contractors,
  • lists of the municipality’s promotional materials,
  • dates of training sessions for employees on treating clients courteously.

The mayor pointed out that there had been many more similar inquiries, and that in one of them the councillors had called Municipal Office employees “an incompetent gang sitting at the municipality’s trough.”

“We councillors are also being insulted. We want answers to our questions; we are not insulting anyone,” replied councillor Czesława Janiec from the Współpraca i Doświadczenie club.

When Mayor Świder asked which officials, specifically, were insulting the councillors, Councillor Janiec did not provide a specific answer.

“It is unbelievable what you are doing to us in this office. You are paralysing the office’s work for many days,” stressed Joanna Świder.

“Can’t we learn this information?” asked Municipal Council Chairwoman Antonina Szelechowicz, referring to a situation from five years ago when, she claimed, the mayor had requested access to public information every week.

“My requests were always addressed personally to the mayor, not to the councillors. Moreover, I never insulted anyone in them,” replied Joanna Świder, at the same time appealing for personal culture and common sense.