Semaf will be discussed at the Commercial Court in Créteil on Wednesday.
This summer, the Fresnes mixed-economy development company filed a declaration of suspension of payments.
The reason: she was ordered to pay more than 500,000 euros to her two former employees who each sued her before the industrial tribunal after their dismissal.
The company appealed in both cases.
But the enforceability of the judgments requires the payment of part of the sums in parallel with the appeal proceedings.
Or 262,148.78 euros.
This was reported to the members of its board of directors who met on Monday evening, for the first time since January.
This company, which is the developer of two ZACs in Fresnes and of which the city is a 61% shareholder - against 39% by private parties - has been in turmoil for three years with the revelation of food costs left by the one who was there. the president from 2001 to 2017, the former mayor and current deputy (LREM) Jean-Jacques Bridey.
He had denounced "slanderous" revelations and specified that these "costs have always been validated by the board of directors of Semaf".
They are the ones who triggered an audit of the development company last year.
Its premises, located on the upper floors of the town hall, had been made temporarily inaccessible.
Current projects entrusted to another operator
Marie Chavanon, mayor (PS) of Fresnes and president of Semaf who succeeded Jean-Jacques Bridey, then indicated that the audit in question had "shown that the structural costs of the company were high compared to its activity and that the new development policy of the municipality necessitated reorganizing its operations and its finances ”.
And this is the reason why it launched a consultation of operators for an "operational management mandate for all of its ongoing missions" which appointed Sadev 94 to continue the development of ZAC Charcot-Zola and la Cerisaie sud, located on either side of the A86, still under the aegis of Semaf.
"The climate is calm to finish these ZAC", then assured the mayor (PS) Marie Chavanon recalling that the company "still exists".
Soon liquidated?
But during the board of directors on Monday evening, the elected official voted for a request for authorization to liquidate the company, which was adopted. "I abstained (
which is equivalent to a vote against, Editor's note
) as well as another administrator because I believe that we do not have enough information, indicates this Tuesday morning the elected opposition member Antoine Madelin ( LR, Free!). This story is terribly lacking in transparency ”.
According to him, the declaration of suspension of payments was made "without prior notice or information to the board of directors, and without prior notice or information to the general meeting either". The elected recalls that "the city is the guarantor of Semaf's debts up to 61% and therefore risks having to pay a large part of the bill". “This poses a lot of questions in relation to current projects,” he continues. On the Charcot development project alone, the city risks having to reintegrate € 1.2 million in losses ”. The management mandate entrusted to Sadev is due to end in February.
Contacted about the conviction of Semaf, Marie Chavanon retorts that she considers "the amount of compensation granted by the labor tribunal exorbitant given the reasons for the dismissal", and about the more global future of the company , that it is "in the hands of justice".
