In a special meeting on Wednesday Eching's local council dealt with the investigations and allegations against town hall chief Thaler.
There was a lot going on.
Eching
- After 3rd Mayor Leon Eckert (Greens) had done weeks of preparatory work to shed light on the complex set of files that had formed primarily due to the legal consequences of the 2018 incidents at Echinger See, Vice Mayor Stefanie Malenke (SPD ) commissioned to examine possible claims of the community against Sebastian Thaler and the lawyers and insurance companies commissioned by the community. The community chief himself was unable to attend the meeting because of a Covid 19 infection.
Since the public prosecutor had the town hall searched in July and started the investigation against Mayor Thaler for infidelity, nothing has been the same in Eching. “There is a standstill. The pull of events and the way we deal with them engulf the whole place, ”said Malenke in an emotional speech. "My inner despair beats meter-high waves and I don't always feel up to the scale of these extraordinary events." On the other hand, he also showed understanding for the muzzle that the community chief was given by his lawyer ("For him it's about the big picture. About his job, about his reputation,about his political survival ”). But because she sees "effects of the crisis" for the whole place, clarification must now take place.
Georg Bartl (CSU): "The citizens should finally know what's going on here"
At the beginning, the members were not entirely in agreement about how exactly this should take place on the part of the municipal council. CSU parliamentary group spokesman Georg Bartl would have loved to put all the figures on the table that resulted from the inspection of the files regarding the assumption of costs for the consequences of Thaler's dispute with an SUV driver on Lake Echinger. “The citizens should finally know what's going on here,” grumbled Bartl. But Malenke explained to him that the legal supervision had already forbidden her to deal with this item on the agenda in public. Carsten Seiffert (SPD) accused Bartl, who picked up the microphone several times, of "shop window" behavior. Because: "If we cannot do something here, then we are breaking the law." The topic was moved to the next regular council meeting, against the votes of the CSU and FDP.Until then, it should be found out with which numbers you can go public.
(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)
The around 50 listeners in the community center were allowed to listen to Leon Eckert's statements, who presented his research results with regard to the assumption of litigation costs in the matter of “Echinger See”. In a nutshell: Eckert sees the community in this case badly advised by the law firm (with which she has been working for many years). The town hall chief would have had to cover some of the costs himself. There was also talk of “party betrayal” because the law firm represented both the community and Thaler, which led to a “conflict of interests”. Eckert has filed a complaint against the lawyer. Stefanie Malenke suggested, however, that they should first have their say before the community could take further conclusions. Regardless of this, the 2nd mayor,as mentioned above, examine the claims of the municipality in the matter.
The planned working group was not set up at first
The “motley coalition” (SPD, Greens, BfE, Echinger Mitte and ÖDP) had also proposed the creation of a five-person working group that should support Malenke in checking entitlements and also be given access to files.
Again there was headwind from Georg Bartl.
You need “real professionals” from a higher-level institution.
A working group from within its own ranks not only lacked the necessary skills, it also just dragged the whole thing out.
Ultimately, one refrained from setting up such a body for the time being.
While Thaler's apartment purchase (here is being investigated for usury) played no role in the special session, however - by means of an urgency request from the CSU, FW, FDP - the municipal orders to Thaler's brother-in-law (we reported) made it onto the agenda.
The latter had been entrusted with the printing of citizen information brochures since 2018.
The committee decided unanimously to have all related orders and payments to the brother-in-law as well as information about the form of the tenders compiled in order to then be able to determine whether the law has been violated.
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