The long-awaited statement from the Bavarian state commissioner for data protection on the e-mail affair in Taufkirchner town hall is now available – this alone can hardly help to clarify the cause. The three-page letter mentions a “contradiction between the investigation report and the statement by the mayor”. However, according to the data protection officer, he could not clarify this because he “does not have the investigative powers of the public prosecutor”. The same is held by the Munich public prosecutor’s office, which, as a result of the allegations, opened proceedings against the Taufkirchner town hall chief Ullrich Sander (independent). The investigations into this continued, a spokeswoman for the authority said on request.
The background to the events are allegations by ex-mayor Jörg Pötke that his successor in office read private e-mails to municipal council members – which Sander vehemently denies. The reason for this claim is an automatic out-of-office notice from the mayor, which Pötke found in his mailbox last year – just minutes after he had sent an email. However, this was not addressed to Sander, but to a local councillor. To be more precise: to her address with the ending @taufkirchen-mucl.de, which the town hall had set up as a forwarding address for all municipal council members. Pötke concluded from the absence notice that his e-mail had not only ended up with the desired recipient – but also with Sander. As a result, he turned to the district office and the state data protection officer. Meanwhile, the second mayor Michael Lilienthal (free voters) was entrusted with clarifying the matter in the town hall. In addition, the municipal council commissioned an IT security company to examine the incident.
Denies the allegations of predecessor Jörg Pötke: Taufkirchen’s first mayor Ullrich Sander.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
Their report suggested that a filter rule that has since been switched off could be responsible for the incorrectly forwarded mail. From 2014, at Sander’s behest, all emails from Pötke to employees in the town hall were also sent to the mayor. He ordered this to protect the employees, Sander explained at the time. Emails to members of the municipal council should, however, be excluded from the filtering. In this regard, there were apparently technical problems, it said in the investigation report, which is why Pötke’s mail to the municipal councilor was also sent to the head of the town hall by mistake.
Pötke concluded that Sander must have received earlier emails from him to the municipal council. However, the mayor rejects this – also to the state data protection officer, as he reports. Sander stated in a statement that he only received emails from Pötke that were sent directly to himself or to employees of the municipality. This is exactly where the state data protection officer now sees that “contradiction” to the investigation report, which he cannot clarify. In the meantime, however, the filter rules have been deactivated as well as the forwarding addresses of the municipal council members, writes the state data protection officer. Therefore, he considers “the matter currently – subject to any results of the public prosecutor’s investigations – as closed”.