Facebook post stirs minds

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In his message, Grafe spoke of a “scandal in Wolmirstedt” and claimed among other things: “No overtime or vacation days are being cut. It will continue to stay at home with full wages. ”He also accused the mayor of ignorance.

It all happened on Wednesday, December 16. The statements are said to have been deleted after about two hours. Count confirmed this to the Volksstimme. “I then saw the comments on it and thought about it again and then deleted the post,” he says.

Time enough, however, that a number of users not only commented on the post, but also screenshots were obviously made of it, because these reached both the town hall and later the Volksstimme. Marlies Cassuhn responded a day later by deliberately writing to the group chairman. This contained her answer as mayor to council member Robert Grafe. “Since you reported from the non-public part of the meeting …, I feel compelled to react,” it says. “With the choice of words you made … evaluations that damage the office of mayor.” Furthermore, this also applies to the reputation of the city and the city council.

Then she goes into the issues raised by Grafe. The aim was to implement the principle “We stay at home” for the employees as well. As mayor, she expressed her ideas and thoughts. In the short time she had, she did not have the opportunity to clarify issues such as short-time work in the public service.

The current regulation of the closing time of the town hall had been communicated to the employees after consultation with the staff council. With the current time window, a seven-day leave of absence for employees becomes an effective contact restriction over 18 days. “The administration is reduced to the minimum necessary,” she emphasizes. Emergency care is regulated separately anyway.

For the current company holidays there is a 100 percent continued wage payment, 75 percent of which the employer (the city) takes over. However, through vacation days and compensation for extra hours, the employees also contribute 25 percent of the sum. The cost factor has therefore been taken into account.

“I am quite open to critical inquiries,” the mayor explains to the Volksstimme when asked. “However, these should then be put forward in a sensible tone.” In a personal conversation, she is quite ready to explain the relevant connections. In their eyes, it is important that a city council member behave as such and focus on the work in the city and a constructive cooperation in the council. She has not yet received a personal apology for the harsh words, but she does not expect that either. Before Christmas, Robert Grafe wrote to the mayor in a reply and confirmed his position. However, he also emphasized that he would focus on work in the city in the future. “For me, that’s done with it,” he says, especially since he already deleted his Facebook message in a timely manner.

The process still occupies the city council members even between the holidays and also causes outrage, since most of them are aware of the letter from the mayor. Waltraud Wolff – the chairman of the SPD / Linke / Greens parliamentary group, to which Robert Grafe also belongs – emphasizes again that the conscious message was quickly deleted. “The choice of words and the reference to the non-public part of the meeting were of course completely wrong,” she says. “I talked to Robert about it and asked the mayor to apologize.” That was probably what happened and the matter was resolved before Christmas.

However, neither the mayor nor the other group leaders are aware of an explicit apology. Uwe Claus (CDU) says: “I don’t deal with Facebook and similar platforms anyway,” he says. Of course, he also received the letter. “For me, the whole thing is so far below the belt, you can’t bend down that low,” he adds. Any further comment is therefore unnecessary for him.

Mike Steffens, chairman of the KWG-WWP-FDP-FUWG parliamentary group, said: “These public statements and defamatory attacks, as read in the post by a member of the city council, are incomprehensible to us and do not serve a common togetherness. Here the office of mayor is damaged, as well as the reputation of our city. ”He continues:“ We were elected by the citizens to shape the future and to solve the upcoming problems. ”Such personal attacks did not serve the city and to move the towns forward.

The deputy chairman Mathias Knispel speaks of the AfD. “I am not surprised at such an action, since Mr. Grafe has often spoken below the belt,” he says. “He’s even called us fascists.” With this, Knispel alludes to the decision of the city council to rename the station forecourt as Otto-Hallmann-Platz. The proposal for this had come from the AfD parliamentary group. In his statement at that meeting, Grafe had alluded to Björn Höcke (AfD) (Volksstimme reported) when he announced that he would not vote with the party “which houses a fascist”.

Knispel points out that his group wants to work constructively with the other city council members. “We would very much appreciate a more objective discussion,” he says. Such disputes would have no place in public, as would points from non-public parts of meetings.

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