And once again the city of Schongau finds itself without a location supporter. Tina Birke's fixed-term contract expired on March 31st - but the employee only received the news that she would be retained on her last day of work. “Communication was faltering from the start,” says Birke.
Schongau - At the January meeting, Schongau location promoter Tina Birke informed the city council about her work over the past two years. Networking was particularly important to her, she emphasized at the time: “I want to be a mouthpiece from the outside in and from the inside out.” She has now ended her collaboration with the city anyway – very surprising to many. Yesterday, at the request of the Schongauer Nachrichten, the administration announced that Birke had not accepted continued employment after her fixed-term employment contract expired at the end of March.
Moved my desk a year ago
“It's actually not my style to not finish projects and leave without a hitch, but there were communication difficulties with the first floor,” the young woman said in an interview with the local newspaper, suggesting that not everything was internally the same went well. The mayor and management have their offices on the first floor.
That's why she moved the desk one floor up to the building authority about a year ago. This was also much better in terms of work flow, as she worked very closely with city architect Sebastian Dietrich, for example when it came to funding applications. “Unfortunately, the communication difficulties did not subside until the end,” Birke continued.
Difficult internal communication
Apparently difficult internal communication surrounding her employment contract was the decisive factor for Birke's decision to let the temporary position expire on April 1st. Although the city council had signaled at its January meeting that they would like to continue working with her, the continuation of the staff position was only voted on in a non-public meeting on March 12th. But she wasn't officially informed of the result until Maundy Thursday, her last day at work. “I would have been available,” says Birke.
Mayor Falk Sluyterman sees it differently: From the day after the March city council meeting, Birke was on sick leave. “The sick notes came gradually.” And it was expected that she would come back shortly. They tried to contact her on all channels. The contract, issued on March 14th, was then sent to her via email on March 28th, “so that there is no period without a contract,” said the mayor.
The mayor says the city council's decision did not come too late
The passing on of the contract was the responsibility of Vice Mayor Daniela Puzzovio. Sluyterman said he had a few days of vacation immediately after the city council meeting and was represented by her. He sees no problem in the fact that the city council's decision was only made in March, “it was just a pure formality”. He had already had an initial conversation with Birke about the future position in October. “I regret that Tina Birke took this step – we had a good working relationship.”
Puzzovio, who had also taken on the role of mediator in the town hall, was completely surprised by Birke's decision, as she said when asked by the Schongauer Nachrichten. In a personal conversation after Easter, she tried to find out whether there were any other adjustments that could be made so that Birch would stay.
Vice mayor should pass on contract
In fact, she spoke to Birke on the phone while the mayor was deputizing, but only for a very short time. “Unfortunately I didn’t tell her anything about the contract during this conversation, I simply forgot,” regrets the deputy mayor. However, Puzzovio assumes that Birke's decision has nothing to do with the contract. “I think it’s been locked for a while.”
This is the fourth time the position has been filled; all of the site sponsors only stayed for a short time
Birke succeeded Meike Petro, who was in office for just under a year. Previously, Yvonne Voigt had quit after a personal stroke of fate, and the first business developer, Martin Soyka, resigned after a year and a half. Birke's position should now be advertised quickly, said Sluyterman. Until then, Puzzovio will take on some tasks: “I will step in as best I can, but there could be projects that have to be eliminated now.”
The Schongau location promoter was responsible for many tasks, including organizing the Schongau start-up competition, for which she was also a member of the jury.
The location sponsor also launched the SOGood Festival, and the second one took place in 2023.
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