The almost 50-year-old music school Planegg-Krailling is apparently threatened in its existence. The reason for this are disputes in the board of directors and other bodies, which have now led to the fact that the two municipalities Planegg and Krailling, as sponsors, have put their grants of several hundred thousand euros for the current year on hold. At a press conference in the town hall, Planegg’s mayor, Hermann Nafziger (CSU), said the money would only flow again when peace had returned.
The existing board, the two mayors and all of the municipal councils want to achieve this calm through a new association statute, which is to be determined on May 4th at a non-public general meeting. According to Nafziger, it is based on the model statutes of the Free State for music schools, but in the case of Planegg it provides for the extensive disempowerment of the music school members who have had a say up to now. Only the mayor and a few selected municipal councils could then make decisions.
Planegg’s mayor, Hermann Nafziger, is even considering founding a new music school.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
What exactly triggered the grueling arguments of the past few months is no longer so easy to determine. According to Philipp Pollems, secretary of the music school, and the second chairwoman Stephanie Hamburger, there was “one person”, according to Pollems, who “represented and still represents particular interests”, who tried to run as a candidate for the board himself in circular letters to the 120 members and otherwise made an appraising assessment of the work of the Management Board. Ultimately, according to Nafziger, “this severely restricted the club’s ability to act”. This member demanded an “extraordinary general meeting” – “nonsense”, as Pollems says, “because we have our meeting at the beginning of May anyway”.
Thomas H. Roy (here in 2009 as a county councillor) says he was only “supportive”.
(Photo: Schunk Claus)
The person that Nafziger, Pollems and Hamburger mean is not unknown in Planegg: It is Thomas H. Roy, former municipal and district councilor of the SPD and once a beacon of hope for the Planegger SPD. In 2014 he no longer stood for the SPD and left for Berlin for a few years. He has now returned from there and is again working as a lawyer in a law firm in Würmtal. Pollems and Nafziger were extremely surprised at Roy’s reappearance: “Heard nothing for five years and then he got involved again.”
Thomas H. Roy Says He’s “Overrated”
According to the two, Roy expressed an intense interest in working again. Probably in order to get on the board, so the others put it, he wrote dozens of letters to members, criticized the work of the board and proposed an extraordinary general meeting for the purpose of new elections. In this context, Nafziger accuses Roy of trying to “undermine the board by accusing it of illegal activities and calling it incapable of acting”. There was also a filling of positions among the teaching staff, criticized by Roy. Even the courts tried. Ultimately, according to Pollems, “it was also about the co-determination of the works council”. Finally, they turned to the two mayors: “It’s the communities that finance the music school.”
Nafziger and his Kraillinger colleague Rudolf Haux (FDP) were alarmed and consulted with a lawyer and the local councils. “Unanimously”, said Nafziger, the municipal councils had decided to put a new statute to the vote at the general meeting on May 4th. “The old statute is 50 years old and showing its age,” says Nafziger. “For us it’s just about keeping the music school alive and putting the music in the foreground.” If you don’t get through with the new statutes, you should consider founding a support association. The existing board will then resign, the future of the music school would then be uncertain.
Thomas Roy sees things differently. “I’m grossly overestimated,” he says on the phone. He just “stepped aside to support”. He does not intend to get involved any further, he has only returned for private and family reasons. He calls the argument about himself and the board of the music school “hysterical”. At the same time, and in contradiction to this, Roy makes it clear: “Should the general meeting decide on a new statute, I will file a declaratory action in court.” It is completely unclear what will happen in this case: In any case, the financial support from the municipalities would continue to be withheld and the school would have to finance itself from the reserves for as long as it can. It is also conceivable that the two municipalities will set up their own music school. Nafziger is certain that the teaching staff can be “taken along”. Then there might be two music schools in Planegg and Krailling.