Bad Wörishofen is known as a Kneipp resort, and perhaps one or the other politically responsible person would do well to cool down in one of the numerous Kneipp facilities in the city. It is great local political cinema that is currently taking place in Bad Wörishofen and is probably unique in Bavaria: In the meantime, more than 50 employees have left the town hall since it has been under the leadership of the first mayor Stefan Welzel after the last election.
A few months ago, the CSU man gave his chamberlain and party colleague a house ban, a process accompanied by rumors. And now the city council, including the CSU councillors, is not only demanding that the issues in dispute be dealt with, it is quite bluntly denying the mayor the competence for proper personnel management – in a request for a special session, which should not take place in public.
At the meeting, the city council wants to decide, among other things, that the HR officer should be consulted on all personnel decisions and informed about employee problems. The mayor should also be obliged to provide information on all personnel decisions in the city council. Questions about this should also be expressly permitted in the future.
In their justification for the application, which is actually not intended for the public, the city councilors go hard on Welzel, who recently referred to the competitive job market with regard to staff turnover. Supervisors are said to have been ignored and employees received questionable instructions. The main reason for the many layoffs is therefore apparently “a significant deficit in personnel and employee management,” says the application. According to the noteworthy conclusion of the paper, the city council has given the mayor, according to the rules of procedure, matters to be dealt with independently, particularly with regard to personnel decisions. These rights could also be withdrawn from the First Mayor.
The application alone is a clear vote of no confidence in Welzel, who even before his election in 2020 had not been believed by some party members to be suitable for the job. The question arises as to how a mayor who is so tightly bound by the city council can remain able to work. Conversely, however, the city councilors have to ask themselves why the planned special session should not be public. Sensitive personnel issues that are raised in the application can of course be outsourced and discussed behind closed doors. However, accusing the mayor of non-transparent communication and then wanting to discuss and make the criticism and decisions against him in private is inconsistent and undemocratic.