It’s a major political crisis : despite 3 attempts, the municipality of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc (9,000 inhabitants) failed to adopt its initial 2022 budget. The legal deadline ends on April 15: from next week, the prefect will seize the Regional Chamber of Accounts and then execute the budget herself. A sort of guardianshipthe culmination of a conflict that has lasted for several months.
Delegations withdrawn from 5 out of 7 deputies
The municipal majority has indeed torn. Of the 21 elected officials who compose it, 7 voted against the budget, de facto joining the 8 elected officials of the opposition, and reproaching the mayor Françoise Grivotet (various center) “authoritarian and divisive management“. An accusation that the person concerned rejects: “Wanting to be aware of the files is not being authoritarianshe replies. The deputies and councilors have delegations, but they are only delegations, and the responsibility remains with the mayor. What the slingers don’t understand is that you can’t work in your own corner, that’s not teamwork.“
Disavowed by part of his team, Françoise Grivotet does not intend to resign. “I have the feeling of having been betrayed, we were a close-knit team at the time of the municipal elections and which broke up after 2 years, only for questions of egoshe laments. But me, I was elected, I will go until the end: when a ship sinks, the captain is the last to go out. I will hold on.“And as proof of his determination, she decided to withdraw their delegations from the 5 deputies who voted against the budgetincluding 1st deputy Thierry Charpentier (this was in fact already the case since November for 4th deputy Evelyne Berthon).
4 more years to go?
Result : out of 7 deputies, they are only 2 to keep their delegations and therefore the confidence of the mayor. The 5 “punished” deputies remain in office despite everything – since it would take a vote of the municipal council to withdraw their title. “How can we imagine that we can continue to operate like this until the end of the mandate in 2026?” wonders Christophe Tafani, elected in opposition. “It’s a completely blocked situationhe observes,things have gone very far, there have been nicknames, we have come to a complete rupture. I don’t see how we could last 4 years in such an atmosphere.“
For Christophe Tafani, Françoise Grivotet must draw all the consequences. “We will have to find a solution, and everyone knows that there are not 36 solutions, he summarizes. The resignation of the mayor is necessarily one, but it is not for me to say what Ms. Grivotet should do. Resignation, questioning, meeting everyone around a table, including with the opposition, I don’t know, it’s up to her to draw the conclusions. But whether she likes it or not, there is a management problem, it is felt far beyond elected officials, and it cannot last indefinitely.“
Several months behind schedule for capital expenditure
Waiting, capital expenditure of the commune (2.5 million), which should have been deployed in January, are blocked. They can only be initiated by the prefect, therefore after an opinion of the Regional Chamber of Accounts which will be delivered within a month. The construction of changing rooms and the club house of the football stadium, the repair of the school canteen, the renovation of the music school, and the study planned for the creation of the health center are all projects that will be delayed. On the other hand, the municipality can cover its current expenses (except the payment of grants to associations).
Irony of history: Françoise Grivotet had won the municipal elections in 2020, after a quadrangular, on the promise of appeasement, after the 6 years of very complicated mandate of his predecessor Christian Bois which had to endure several controversies. He too, in 2019, had seen his team reject the primitive budget; but the budget had finally been adopted in extremis, during the 3rd attempt. “It feels like history is repeating itself, only for worse“, concludes Christophe Tafani.