City of Füssen withdraws lawsuit against its ex-mayor

Created: 09/30/2022, 18:17

By: Matthias Matz

Füssen's ex-mayor Paul Iacob has a good laugh.

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Did the former mayor of Füssen, Paul Iacob (SPD), unjustifiably take expense allowances?

The city wanted to have this clarified in court.

Füssen – All good things come in threes, ex-mayor Paul Iacob (SPD) may be thinking at the moment.

Because the third case against him since the end of his term in office has also come to nothing: the city council decided in a closed session to withdraw the lawsuit before the Augsburg Administrative Court against Iacob for allegedly unpaid expense allowances.

The committee followed a pointer from Augsburg.

As already reported several times in this newspaper, the city council had decided by a large majority in December to file a lawsuit against Iacob with the Augsburg administrative court.

In doing so, the city wanted a judicial determination as to whether Iacob should have paid to the city or was allowed to keep the expense allowances that he had received during his time as mayor (2008 - 2020) as a member of the management and advisory board of the Tegelbergbahn.

Point of contention: 131,000 euros.

However, due to the lack of prospects of success, the city council has now decided in a closed session to withdraw the lawsuit.

The committee is thus following a “judicial recommendation” from Augsburg, as the head of the main office, Peter Hartl, explained last Wednesday at the request of the district messenger.

According to this, the administrative court came to the conclusion on the basis of the documents available to it that Iacob had not carried out his activities at the Tegelbergbahn at the "suggestion or instigation of his employer".

Translated this means: If the city council had commissioned Iacob with the management or his membership in the advisory board of the mountain railway, the social democrat would actually have had to transfer at least part of his expense allowances to the city treasury.

As it is, the city can only lose out in court against its former mayor

Spicy: according to the court, the city parliament would have had the right to do so in accordance with the statutes of the railway and the partnership agreement, but apparently waived it and thus also the money.

According to the judges, the fact that the city, according to its own information, "spoke" to the court with the ex-town hall chief about his part-time job at the mountain railway is not enough.

In addition, Jacobs merely continued the practice of his predecessors.

Court confirms district office

With its “judicial recommendation”, the court confirmed an assessment by the district office.

This had already made it clear to our newspaper at the beginning of the year that Iacob's activities for the Tegelbergbahn could not be assumed to be a "secondary job in the public service", since the ex-town hall chief had not been commissioned with this by the city council.

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Speaking to the county messenger, Iacob said he was happy and glad that the city council had decided to drop the lawsuit.

"It was clear to me from the start that I hadn't done anything wrong!" After all, he had reassured himself at the time with the district office and the Bavarian Association of Cities.

"The lawsuit was just a waste of money," the Social Democrat continued.

In any case, he will invoice the city for his legal fees of an estimated 10,000 euros, he announced.

"You could easily have saved yourself by calling the district office."

In fact, the clammy city will have to bear the costs of the procedure, confirmed the head of the main office, Hartl.

However, the amount has not yet been determined.

"Had it come to a decision, the cost would have been double the cost if the city lost.

The city's legal expenses insurance does not cover this," Hartl continued.

Particularly annoying from the city's point of view: Even the lawyers in the administration had advised the city council against filing the lawsuit.

Personal reasons?

Jacob suspects personal rather than financial reasons behind the lawsuit anyway.

“The committee allowed itself to be incited by some members to tie something to my leg.

The engines are in all factions.” As a possible motive, he suspects, “maybe I stepped on someone’s foot one or the other time.” Now Iacob wants to wait for the official announcement of the court, then he will take possible legal action with his lawyer discuss the city council, he announced.

Since the social democrat is no longer mayor of Lechstadt, he has been involved in two legal disputes.

On the one hand, the old district office was leased to a doctor's office and the leasing contract for a new company car for his successor Maximilian Eichstetter (CSU).

Both procedures have been discontinued.