Jelgava County Council Chairman Lasmanis resigns / Diena

Lasmanis made this decision because the deputies of Jelgava district have already “agreed on the creation of a new coalition and the election of a new mayor”.

Lasmanis announced his resignation about an hour before the meeting of the Jelgava County Council, which was supposed to consider the request of seven deputies to remove him from his position.

Some politicians and officials of the municipality demanded to evaluate Lasmanis’s actions, while directing the session in the Budget Commission, he addressed the feet of a woman. The executive director of the municipality, Līga Lonerte (LZS), invited the members of the municipality to evaluate, in her opinion, the violation of ethics in the actions of the council chairman, by sending them a video from the commission’s March 13 meeting. The executive director told the deputies that, in her opinion, significant violations can be seen in Lasmanis’ actions. She turned to the deputies after the alarm raised by the administration employees.

The request was signed by four deputies of the Latvian Farmers’ Union – deputy chairman of the city council Ilze Vītola, Lolita Duge, Juris Lavenieks and Juris Razživins, and three deputies elected from the list of the Association of Regions of Latvia – Dainis Liepiņš, Vidmants Rinkuns and Dina Tauriņa.

Lasmanis explains in the statement issued on Wednesday that he is resigning from the position of the head of the council “so as not to delay the election of the new head and the smooth work of the municipality”.

According to Lasmanis, the creation of the new coalition is based on the agreement on the reorganization of the central administration and administration of the municipality, which until now has been sabotaged by executive director Lonerte. Also, it was decided to ensure the “legality of the operation of capital companies”, how to evaluate Lonerte’s suitability for the position. “These are essential prerequisites for the county’s future capacity for action and successful development,” Lasmanis believes.

In the statement, the municipal politician also made new accusations against Lonerte, regarding which he “considers it his duty to inform the public” that there is a suspicion of Lonerte’s “possible criminal offense, in addition to what has already been announced about intentional, significant and systematic violations in the work of the executive director of the municipality, arbitrarily, violating the authority , dealing with public property and financial resources of the municipality”, that is why he allegedly applied to the State Police’s Department for Combating Economic Crimes, the Office for Prevention and Combating Corruption and the State Control.

Lasmanis believes that the concession contract of SIA “Zemgales sehyans centrs” was concluded illegally, it was not terminated intentionally and the capital shares belonging to the municipality were not taken over by the council, so he asked the investigative authorities to evaluate whether Lonerte’s actions were “related to the responsibility for the possible uncontrolled use of municipal funds and wastage to a considerable extent”, because the executive director of the municipality performs the duties of the representative of the holder of capital shares in capital companies in which the holder of capital shares is the municipality.

“Looking at it with today’s eyes, it was a mistake to terminate the service inspection of Lonerte’s activities in 2022 with the mildest possible disciplinary punishment – a note. The action that followed from this person – intentional, deliberate and purposeful obstruction of the work of the municipality, thus causing huge losses and balancing on the normative the limits of compliance with the acts,” Lasmanis continued his appeal to the executive director.

On the other hand, assessing the responsibility for his own unethical behavior at the meeting of the local government’s Budget Commission, Lasmanis said that “good deeds are often not enough”. “Of course, everyone should also follow ethical standards in their actions. A person who works in a public position should not find himself in a situation that can be interpreted in different ways,” admitted the regional politician.

Meanwhile, in the press release issued by the municipality, Lonerte insists that none of the insults of the previous mayor are justified and that they are currently based only on “public ranting to stir the air”. All the accusations against her largely correspond to the responsibility of the council chairman himself, both in the collective decisions of the members and in individual votes as a member of the council, which raises “reasonable suspicions that Lasman himself has his own scheme to control the direction of the issue of SIA “Zemgales health center”.

“Each of the accusations is an accusation made within the framework of a political scam, which I will definitely justify step by step in front of both the deputies and the public, but I must admit that the work under the influence of political forces is complicated and now unjustifiably casts a shadow not only on my reputation as an executive director, but personality. This is serious spreading of false information and I will stand up for the politician to answer for his words,” the executive director of the range.

Lasmanis claimed that he had apologized to his direct colleagues in the municipality and party members, but with the public announcement he wanted to “also apologize to the residents of his district and the wider society, who felt uncomfortable or offended in any way due to the situation”. At the same time, he promises to “make every effort to restore his tarnished reputation and regain trust.”

message supplemented from paragraph 6