Why is the official and association president unable to sleep at night?

After our article “Networks of connections in a Bolesławiec association. Who pays for the president’s trips abroad?” Piotr Roman and Krzysztof Hewak spent a long time explaining themselves at the December session of the City Council. Mayor Piotr Roman frequently interrupted President Hewak, who was telling councillors about the Association’s finances and his earnings, as well as exhibitions organised by the Association.

Krzysztof Hewak’s sleeplessness

Piotr Roman was extremely involved in Hewak’s explanations and reacted to them emotionally. He even revealed that his subordinate was having trouble sleeping.

– I cannot agree that Mr Krzysztof Hewak should be unable to sleep at night because of such activities; it is unbelievable, an attack on the foundations of our city’s functioning – Piotr Roman became heated during the session. – And as long as I am mayor here, I will not skimp on international activities. Especially activities in the field of ceramic production, which is a brand of the city and a brand of Poland – he added indignantly.

In the heat of the moment, he contradicted himself, because shortly beforehand, while summing up the Association’s financial report, he had suggested that the amount of 25 groszy per resident allocated to membership fees paid by the municipalities belonging to the Association was small.

– Over 10 years, it is less than PLN 20,000 annually. I will not say whose salary that is – he added suggestively. We will tell you: it is roughly the monthly salary of the city mayor.

Why are private ceramic companies given such special support?

Other small Bolesławiec businesses cannot count on such exceptional support from the local government, whether they are retail, catering or broadly involved in tourism. The mayor and municipal heads have not established associations for them, collected membership fees or delegated employees to work for them, as official-and-president Hewak does.

– I recently found out that we support the development of private ceramic companies – the mayor said. – It was presented as criticism. Well, we have to consider whether, through this cooperation and this particular form of support, we have not brought about the fact that Bolesławiec is now compared, among other places, with Murano (a famous European town in Italy producing glassware – editor’s note). Bolesławiec is an attraction on the map. And when we read about why to come here and why to visit Bolesławiec, you will always find the slogan there: because there is ceramics here. This is the result of what Mr Krzysztof Hewak is talking about now. As you can see, not everyone understands it yet. But I will also beat my breast and admit that perhaps we talk about it too little. For some, the discovery that there is an association at all came as a surprise – the mayor admitted.

The dogs bark, Roman keeps moving forward

The mayor’s determination to keep the Association operating despite the criticism it has faced is deeply puzzling. To this end, the mayor allowed himself to say that the dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.

– And one more thing. If the Association did not exist, we would have organised these exhibitions anyway – the mayor declared. – But then we would have had to draw much more heavily on the budget. I hope this presentation will bring to an end a certain phase in which attempts are being made to prove that the Association was supposed to serve some kind of siphoning off (probably of money from the municipal budget – editor’s note), some such underhanded actions. I want to emphasise once again. There is no additional remuneration whatsoever for the president of the Association, who was delegated on trips by the mayor of Bolesławiec as a representative of the City Office. And I do not believe that his trips can be treated as excursions, although he does indeed get to see different places on the way; the most important thing is that certain matters are taken care of – the mayor explained.

The mayor also reported that the City Office saved money during these trips because Krzysztof Hewak speaks two foreign languages, Italian and English, meaning that translators did not have to be hired.

Officials in the Association

Piotr Roman also explained why officials are employed by the Association.

– I want to emphasise that no person sitting on this Association receives any additional remuneration for that reason – Piotr Roman explained. – This is part of their official duties. And as for the representatives in this Association: since this is an organisation whose members are municipalities, who can be its representatives? People appointed by the municipal authorities that co-created the Association – Piotr Roman said.

Despite criticism concerning the favouring of ceramic companies and personnel controversies in the Bolesławiec association involved in promoting ceramics, the mayor also rejected accusations of unjustified spending on his official’s foreign business trips and confirmed that promotional activities would continue to be funded from the local government budget. He justified this by saying that supporting local ceramic producers is crucial to building the city’s international brand.

Does anyone still not understand?

Summing up this text and the previous article, one could say that public money magically turns into “non-public” money as soon as it passes through an association run by officials from the same municipalities that previously paid it in. The mayor defends the president with such commitment that we even learn about his sleeplessness, while foreign trips are not excursions but merely “getting to know places along the way”. All this, of course, in the name of the city’s interests, ceramics and Poland’s brand, because if the dogs are barking, that means the caravan is moving in the right direction. And if someone does not understand who supervises whom here and whose money is involved, then apparently they have not yet grown up enough for Murano on the Bóbr.