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When he did not want to lead the municipalities through an unpopular merger, the former councilor was instead given a more comfortable role as a consultant with a million salary.
When 119 municipalities were merged into 47 new ones, several of Kommune-Norge’s top bureaucrats had to find new jobs.
As Nettavisen Økonomi has previously written, 55 former councilors started in a lower position in the new municipality, dozens of whom continued to earn more than one million crowns a year.
One of the former councilors who was left out of Nettavisen’s overview was Hans Stusvik, who was a councilor in Marnardal municipality between 2009 and 2017.
As the top administrative leader of the municipality with around 2,300 inhabitants, Stusvik enjoyed great respect and was appointed to lead the municipal merger between the municipalities of Lindesnes, Mandal and Marnardal.
The merger was unpopular, especially from Lindesnes, and some residents of the municipalities started a resistance movement against the merger. Hans Stusvik, however, started his job as a merger manager and believed that municipalities could benefit from more efficient operations if the three municipalities became one.
The surprise was great in the local community when Stusvik left his job as a project manager in February 2018, eleven months after starting. He would be a councilor again in the municipality of Marnardal, he thought.
– I have an employer agreement that says that I will return on April 1 as a councilor. It will be very nice and I look forward to it. I don’t want to comment further, Stusvik told the local Lindesnes newspaper after the departure.
The statement was also, as far as Nettavisen knows, the last statement that Stusvik has given to the media. The former counselor of Marnardal has not responded to our queries.
Also read: The salaries of municipal leaders destroy the salaries of Norway’s top politicians
I got a golden deal to quit
In recent weeks, Nettavisen Økonomi has mentioned several councilors that they have received severance packages and severance pay to resign in connection with the municipal mergers.
Former Marnardal councilor Stusvik thought he would get his old job back. Instead, he was offered another deal:
In the document “Agreement on termination of employment”, Hans Stusvik and the municipality of Marnardal agree that the then 59-year-old the project manager had to leave the municipality two and a half years later.
Meanwhile, Stusvik was going work as an advisor to the mayor of the municipality in a position of 20 percent. In practice, this means that he only needed to work one day a week.
The last six months of the contract that was Work in a 10 percent position as an advisor to the municipal merger project manager..
Despite the fact that the responsibility and percentage of positions were drastically reduced, Stusvik withheld the salary of NOK 1,180,000 as well as additional benefits from your original employment contract.
When Stusvik’s new role and associated salary payment became known in the local community, several people reacted. The leader of the local newspaper Lindesnes reacted strongly to the lack of openness of the municipality about the process with the following ointment:
“The municipality of Marnardal and the new Lindesnes have added an extra dimension to the saying ‘the world will be deceived'”.
Also read: Former councilor (61) costs the municipality more than a million in pension each year, while earning a million salary from a savings bank
I thought the deal was cheaper than other options
When the mayor of Marnardal, Helge Sandåker (Labor Party), who at the time signed the agreement with Stusvik, faced the final agreement, the mayor responded to the contract that it was the cheapest solution for the municipality.
– I understand that most people react to this, but it is a fairly common jurisprudence. There is a difference between ordinary employees and managers, where ordinary employees have much stronger job protection than managers. Often only a final package is paid for, whereas we have solved it Stusvik also having to work a bit. This is a common way to solve it, and it is the most affordable solution for the Marnardal municipality, Sandåker told the local Lindesnes newspaper in 2018.
Helge Sandåker is currently in the midst of demanding chemotherapy treatment after a severe cancer diagnosis, and tells Nettavisen Økonomi that he does not have the ability to investigate the case now.
The agreement between Stusvik and the municipality also guarantees a gift pension for the former Marnardal councilor of about NOK 800,000 per year until June 2023.:
«When the Employee resigns from the position of municipal councilor on July 1, 2020, without having a new job at this time, the Employee has the right to have the Employer pay a gift pension per operation to coordinate with his pension rights to receive 66% of their salary on the date of resignation until June 2, 2023. In this case, the Employee is obliged to withdraw AFP from the age of 62 to reduce the payment obligation of the municipality.
Do you have tips on how to spend money in municipal Norway? Tip to Nettavisen reporter here.
Word about agreement button
The former mayor of Marnardal, Sandåker, told the local newspaper Lindesnes that Stusvik himself did not consider his motivation or authority to be great enough and that he therefore wanted to resign.
However, the statement is in contrast to Stusvik’s statements that he hoped to return to his job as a councilor after his departure.
The current mayor of Lindesnes, Even Tronstad Sagebakken (Labor Party), points out that the agreement was signed before his term as mayor, and refers to the manager of human resources, Lena V. Lindesnes, should respond.
Andersen, who was recently nominated for second place on Frp’s list in Vest-Agder, is silent when Nettavisen Økonomi asks about the deal. Andersen says he does not know whether Stusvik felt the pressure to resign as project manager and councilor in Marnardal municipality.
The FRP politician believes that Stusvik did not want to continue working as a councilor in Marnardal because he did not get the position he applied for as a councilor for the new large municipality.
– Stusvik informed himself that he would retire when he didn’t get the job, Andersen writes in a text message to Nettavisen.
– What do you think of the agreement, in hindsight?
– The agreement has been processed in the old municipality of Marnardal, so I have not given it any thought, says Andersen.
Also read: The councilman became a case officer in the new municipality – withheld a million salary
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