Chisinau council disagrees with mayor, as siren wails

The Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) has negatively assessed the mayor’s personnel policy since the last local elections, Info-Prim Neo reports. At the CMC’s Thursday sitting, on February 28, general mayor Dorin Chirtoaca said he assumed responsibility for the decisions taken concerning the appointment and dismissal of municipal functionaries. The issue was discussed following a request made by the Moldova Noastra Alliance councillor, Oleg Cernei. More local councillors have accused the mayor he would have breached the law repeatedly when exerting his functions concerning the City Hall staff. Harsh replies degenerated in quarrels and mutual blames. The critics’ main discontent is that now no official contests are held to select functionaries for the municipal subdivisions. Without this beforehand stage, the procedure of appointing functionaries is not transparent and balanced, says the representative of the Humanist Christian Party, Oleg Onişcenco. According to him, the work of the municipal council has turned into a liberal chaos, as both the mayor and the CMC president, Mihai Ghimpu, are leaders of the Liberal Party (PL.) Dorin Chirtoaca has retorted he needs as subdivision heads reliable people of which he is sure they will act in a consensus with the mayor, to whom the municipality folks gave a trust mandate. Chirtoaca has said, when he is sure the contests are held fairly, he will be the first promoting such a mechanism, hinting the contest results are manipulated by organisers. „As for the subdivision chiefs, it’s practically the same government, at a local level. I assume responsibility for the decisions taken,” the mayor uttered. Oleg Crenei says Dorin Chirtoaca makes the game of his uncle, Mihai Ghimpu. In his opinion, all the appointments and dismissals made to present by the general mayor are power abuses. Oleg Cernei has demanded Chirtoaca to withdraw all the decisions previously taken. He suggested Mihai Ghimpu to resign benevolently. According to Oleg Cernei, the CMC president represents the main obstacle in the council’s work, but also in the mayor’s work. He says Mihai Ghimpu, in his capacity of an uncle and council president, is negligently treating mayor Dorin Chirtoaca. The „Ravnopravie” movement councillor, Valerii Climenco blames the mayor for taking into account his party’s interests in dealing with the personnel. He has asked to vote for the negative assessment of the mayor’s dealing with the personnel. The request has been rejected by president Mihai Ghimpu on reason it was not on the order of the day. As a protest, Valerii Climenco blocked the pulpit and the sitting broke. After ten minutes the councillors turned back only to find the vexed councillor continuing to protest. Moreover he made a loudspeaker wail each time some councillor wanted to talk. After a longer pause, Climenco’s proposal did not gain the necessary number of votes, instead they adopted Cernei’s proposal to negatively assess the information presented by the mayor and the request for him to present the personnel chart of the City Hall’s subdivisions within a month. The working atmosphere at the sitting has also been disturbed after councillor Climenco refused to surrender his gun. It has publicly been requested by the CMC president on the basis of an order of the general mayor forbidding to enter the floor armed. After deciding on the issues of the sitting, the councillors failed to convene another, as previously announced.