I do not take either side, because neither of them simply deserves it. The subject of the political dispute should be the Nowogrodziec Municipality and the fate of its residents—now and in the future. The programme and efforts of the current mayor, as far as I know, were clearly discussed and presented to the new power structures. They were not supposed to raise any doubts as to their intentions.
For the sake of transparency and out of respect for the municipality’s residents, the “new” mayor was supposed to conduct audits—that is, check whether public funds were managed properly, whether investments were justified, and how they were carried out. At this point, it is worth explaining in simple and understandable language what people expect from their local authorities and what officials of the Regional Chamber of Audit, or RIO, expect—the institution whose opinion mayors, municipal heads and city presidents so eagerly invoke.
This famous RIO is not interested in whether spending was justified, but in whether the statutory municipal head spent the money in accordance with the law. Society, on the other hand, should be interested both in whether its money was spent lawfully and in whether a given investment was actually needed. It may have been needed—but was it needed right then? Were there more urgent investments at that time?
There are also funds that can be described as having an “expiry date”—if unused, they are lost. There are others that were granted for one specific purpose and no other. Is that what happens with the budget? After taking up a new position, sensible people check the actual situation and take stock—in this case, conduct an audit. An audit means security for a newly elected municipal head and respect for the taxpayer’s hard work, to whom public money belongs. It is not a favour, but the duty of local authorities.
In the dispute among Nowogrodziec’s politicians, there is no dispute about the fate of the Nowogrodziec Municipality; all the “energy” has gone into inflating both sides’ egos. Running a municipality is not a beauty contest, a tug-of-war competition or the fulfilment of personal ambitions. It should be hard, substantive work for voters and all residents.
In the case of Nowogrodziec, we have everything except a desire to work for the municipality’s residents. We have the slogans “Cooperation and experience” and “Residents first”—and that is practically where everything ends. These slogans are the only things both sides are capable of and could generate. There is clearly no desire for agreement, but there is also a distinct drive for power.
The problem is that the desire to exercise power has nothing to do with competence or the predisposition for teamwork. Individually, one can at most fight for a pay rise, but one cannot meet the social expectations to which the group seeking power committed itself because it saw the future differently.
In the case of the current mayor, this is the second such vote of approval, and we are only roughly halfway through the term. Well, one might say: “Didn’t I tell you?”. I believe the most surprising thing is the information that everyone had known for a long time.
My favourite rhetorical question in the case of the Nowogrodziec Municipality is: “Where is the real centre of power in our municipality?”. I am also curious how long the community of the Nowogrodziec Municipality will tolerate such behaviour from the people to whom we entrusted our fate.
We can clearly see the tendencies: the former mayor’s struggle for power and the current mayor’s struggle to remain in power. The means used by both sides can be viewed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. I do not know whether I may say this, but I recently finished reading a book titled “An Accident? I Don’t Think So”. In it, the author excellently portrayed the backstage of local authorities, including their arrangements.
All this shows how severely the institution of local government has been deformed. How much the legislator has done to take the idea of self-government away from people and place it in politicians’ hands, without any real possibility for ordinary people to influence their own fate.
When I hear that “young people are leaving Poland” or that “the birth rate is falling”, I ask: what is keeping them here? The eternal quarrelling of small-minded people with huge egos? Widespread hopelessness? The greed of those in power? How long can one keep fighting? Young people do not want to waste their time on it.
Someone once summed up the current state of affairs brilliantly in one sentence: “The world does not have a problem feeding the hungry. The world has a problem with the rich being unable to stuff themselves.”