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She was fired after a scandal. However, former Grimstad city manager Tone Marie Nybø Solheim pulled a giant final package out the door.
– I find it very strange that those who have negotiated have not made a reservation that the severance pay be reduced if I were to get a new managerial position. It’s completely ridiculous that you have to go from a high-paying job in Grimstad to a high-paying job in Kristiansand and also bring that package, says Karl Meidel Johansen.
The retired professor is among Grimstad residents who have closely followed this fall’s political drama. In September, most politicians decided that Tone Marie Nybø Solheim (60) should be fired from her job as a municipal director.
The motive was the illegal and expensive purchase of consulting services from Agenda Kaupang. Agderposten revealed in 2019 that the municipality had spent more than two million crowns on consultants who would help the municipality save money.
The case created an uproar that the Grimstad city council had hardly seen before (see fact box below).
– I am disappointed with our new rapporteur and politicians. They have not handled the firing well, says Johansen, a Grimstad resident.
After several weeks of tug of war, where the municipality, among other things, changed lawyers along the way, the municipality and the municipal director became agrees to a final deal with a 15-month early retirement payment, around NOK 1.7 million. In addition, the municipal director receives student support worth approximately NOK 150,000 and Legal expenses covered up to NOK 125,000.
Therefore, the municipal director was fired
- Last year, it became known that Tone Marie Nybø Solheim had violated municipal procurement regulations as well as the law on public procurement.
- Following Solheim’s instructions, the municipality bought consulting services for more than 2 million kronor from the consultancy Agenda Kaupang in two years to save money.
- “It is particularly serious that this is one of several cases in recent years in which procurement regulations have been violated,” he says in the decision to remove Solheim as municipal director.
- On June 18 of this year, the control committee in the Grimstad municipality adopted strong criticism of Solheim’s handling of the case.
- On September 10, the Mayor of Grimstad, Beate Skretting (H), harshly criticized the management of the control committee for the Agenda Kaupang case and thought that it had not been properly investigated.
- On September 15, most municipal politicians voted for Solheim to resign as municipal director.
- At the same time that the municipal director was negotiating her own final agreement, she hired a councilor to evaluate the processing of the case and the decision of the corresponding municipal council. Politicians knew nothing about this process, according to Agderposten.
Sources: Agderposten, Grimstad Adressetidende.
Also read: Arrested as a councilor: I earn 1.2 million a year to work one day a week as a councilor
Reject towering demands
According to Agderposten, the municipal director demanded a final agreement with a total value of between three and four million crowns, as well as a retirement position. The former municipal director does not believe this is true.
– That information does not come from me, and I do not recognize myself in the numbers, Solheim tells Nettavisen.
– Was the severance pay the reason why it took so long to reach an agreement?
– The mayor and my lawyer must respond to this. But the quantity size is wrong. I have never demanded an amount of that size, says Solheim.
The value of the original claim depends on how a cost is defined, according to Solheim’s attorney, Jostein Nordbø.
– We wanted Solheim to work one more year, which would have given the municipality salary costs of around 1.2 million crowns before the service pension took effect. But we think it’s wrong to count salary as a pure cost when it corresponds to full-time job performance, says Nordbø.
Also read: The local community learned of the five million payments. Then came the reactions
From municipal director to a new senior position, with severance pay
Recently, it became clear that the municipal director Solheim has been offered a job as general manager of the Kristiansand Region inter-municipal cooperation. The 60-year-old has been nominated for the position and the job will be decided on Friday. According to the plan, he will join on March 1. Until then, she receives the full salary of the municipal director of the municipality of Grimstad.
– I am pleased that we have reached the end of the negotiations. As I said before, I would like to continue in the municipality of Grimstad, but when things turned out the way they did, I am glad that we reached an agreement, says Solheim and continues:
– I have had four interesting years in the municipality of Grimstad and I have had good meetings with residents, companies, employees and union delegates. Being a municipal director is a big task, and there have also been demanding cases, that’s right.
Grimstad politicians have no doubt that the case has been difficult for everyone involved and that many residents have lost trust in the local authorities.
– It affects the vision of politicians and the administration. We all have a responsibility to do something about it, says Arnt Gunnar Tønnessen (V) to Nettavisen Økonomi.
Liberal politician Tønnessen, who voted for Solheim’s resignation as municipal director, believes politicians, citizens and the administration must rebuild a good relationship after the disturbing dispute.
– Since the practice is for final agreements to be reached, the agreement they reached was within normal practice. One of the learning points should be that the conditions for termination should be clear when entering into an employment contract, says Tønnessen.
Conservative politician Tor Eriksen has openly criticized the municipal director and believes that the Agenda Kaupang scandal was the last straw that caused the cup to overflow.
– In addition, the climate of cooperation in the municipality had become so difficult that most were right to ask for a resignation, says Eriksen, who shares the opinion of the leader of Grimstad Venstre, Tønnesen, that politicians and the administration must now work to regain trust among many residents.
Read more: Former councilor (61) costs the municipality more than a million in pension every year, while earning a million salary from a savings bank
The speaker: – No comments
The mayor of Grimstad, Beate Skretting (H), does not want to answer Nettavisen Økonomi by phone and asks questions by email. There she is extremely tight-lipped. When asked if it is true that the municipal director initially demanded an agreement worth between three and four million crowns, Skretting responds:
– I have no comment on the negotiations.
– What made the negotiations lengthen? I suppose you would finish ASAP, but was he still out for many weeks?
– Naturally, it was demanding to find a solution that both parties could accept, responds the mayor.
– You ended up with 15 months of severance pay, as well as student support. Do you think it is a fair solution for a councilman who has been fired for mistrust of elected representatives?
– I have no comment on that.
– Now the municipal director has a new management job in the Kristiansand Region. Do you think it’s okay for you to get your severance pay in full or should it be reduced when you start a new job?
– I relate to the agreement that has been concluded.
Also read: Moxnes looks red: The salaries of municipal leaders destroy the salaries of Norway’s top politicians
Read more: The councilman became a case officer in the new municipality: He withheld millions of salary
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