Jurmala mayor ousted

Oct 12, 2008
TBT Staff in cooperation with BNS

JURMALA – The mayor of the Latvian seaside resort town of Jurmalahas been forced out of his post amid worries over lavish spending and inefficiency in the municipal government.

Eight of the city council’s 15 members voted Mayor Raimonds Munkevics out of office. The local government then elected non-partisan council member Girts Trencis to take his place.

“Organization of Jurmala city council's work in 2008 deteriorated with each month, which is not acceptable during an economic crisis. Important issues on priorities in expenditures to the city's budget were not discussed, but were decided by Munkevics alone,” the document calling for the mayor’s resignation said.

“At the same time, several issues rejected repeatedly by lawmakers, were on the agenda of the council's meetings at the intiative of Munkevics again and again,” it said.

Trencis has criticized Munkevics for non-transparent politics, regular breach of laws and poor management style.

Munkevics, meanwhile, has repeatedly claimed that the motion was organized by the People's Party, and that the fate of the mayor's position had been decided in Riga.

The former mayor said he came to that conclusion after Andrejs Kodratjuks from Latvia's First Party and Latvia's Way (LPP/LC) signed the document proposing dismissal of Munkevics, even though LPP/LC leader Ainars Slesers had promised that Kondratjuks will support Munkevics in the position.

Trencis has been elected to the Jurmala city council from the center-right New Era party, but is currently a non-partisan lawmaker, working on the city council's finance and transportation affairs committee. On the Jurmala city council he heads the economics and development department, and he is a free-lance adviser to the Latvian economics minister.

Trencis, 32, has graduated from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, according to information posted on the local authority's Web site.

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