Requires response from Mayor of Tromsø: – Unforgivable – VG

On Friday, iTromsø was able to reveal that Mayor Gunnar Wilhelmsen at an internal group meeting, according to iTromsø sources, expressed dissatisfaction that the Labor Party municipal council had said no to the Arctic Center’s plans.

The mayor is incompetent in all the processing of Arctic Center’s zoning plans, as he and his brother Knut Wilhelmsen have significant financial interests in the company.

The opposition is highly critical of how the Labor Party and the mayor have handled the Arctic Center case, based on the information that has now emerged.

– It is quite clear that the Labor Party has a big problem here, and I think the mayor here is unable to distinguish between his different roles, says the leader of the conservative group Erlend Svardal Bøe.

– There have been a number of cases where the mayor has failed to act in a way that does not pose problems, he says.

The conservative politician believes that politics is not only about law when it comes to disability and special ties. He says that it is at least as important to maintain confidence that political processes are orderly.

What has been learned of the internal group meeting on Labor’s handling of the Arctic Center case is helping to break this trust, he believes.

– It seems that we have a political leadership that is characterized by chaos with infighting in the Labor Party and an Environment Party that wants to get out of political leadership, says Bøe.

– Total chaos

The criticism is, almost literally, the same of the opposition colleague Bjørn Gunnar Jørgensen (Frp).

– Total chaos prevails in the post, he tells iTromsø.

Mayor Gunnar Wilhelmsen has had the opportunity to comment on criticism from the opposition, but says through his political adviser Stian Johansen that he will respond to criticism in the presidency on Tuesday, September 15.

Aps city council group leader Jarle Heitmann has received criticism. He has not yet responded to VG’s inquiry.

– hour

The group’s leader in the Progress Party believes that the mayor has failed to separate the hats, and that the mayor’s conduct at the internal Labor Party meeting on the Arctic Center case is messy and unfortunate.

– This will remain in the case in the future, regardless of what the Labor Party does. They’re boring of chess anyway, and it creates a lot of discomfort, says Jørgensen, before adding:

– We will demand a response from the mayor on his handling of this case, that’s for sure.

He also notes that Wilhelmsen has ended up in the spotlight several times in a relatively short time around fairness related to his business activities.

– We recently had the Hurtigruten case, and in the case of the Arctic Center it has even bigger private interests, says Jørgensen.

– unforgivable

The leader of the Red group, Bendik Woie, is also not polite in his criticism:

– The behavior described describes the limits of what is acceptable behavior for a mayor, says Woie, who wonders if Wilhelmsen may have violated the municipality’s ethical guidelines.

– This is unforgivable behavior from the mayor. I don’t understand how the Labor Party, the Socialist People’s Party, the MDGs and the Socialist People’s Party can have confidence in a mayor who acts that way, says Woie, before adding:

– It seems that Wilhelmsen has a lack of respect for both local democracy and his own role.

The leader of the red group now believes that the municipal council should receive a response from the mayor himself in the case.

– I think there are a number of questions in this case for which we not only get an answer through the media, although it is very good that you have discovered this case. Therefore, the municipality must initiate a separate process to handle the case.

The red politician says that he will take the initiative to arrange a hearing or that the municipal council can get an answer in the case otherwise.

– We believe it is absolutely necessary. It is not enough to respond with a single position in the council. If we, as politicians, want to have the confidence of the population, we must take this matter very seriously.

The toll part has understanding

One that is not so judgmental is No to tolls in Tromsø’s Jan Blomseth. He says he largely understands how the mayor has run the case internally in the Labor Party.

– I would hardly put myself in such a situation, but if I had been the one who had invested so much money in a project, I probably would have also been cursed and suffered a blowout, says Blomseth.

The leader of the Aps group in Tromsø, Jarle Heitman, makes the following written statement to VG:

“We believe that we have managed to handle the Arctic Center case in a comprehensive and serious manner, where Mayor Gunnar Wilhelmsen has not been involved in any way in handling the case, as he has been indisputably incompetent. We note that the group leader of the Conservative Party and the leader of Rødt’s group in Tromsø choose to include what concerns internal processes in the Labor Party, in municipal politics, and we believe that this is primarily an internal matter of the party. However, the discussion in recent days about the process surrounding the case has been difficult and shows that we have a job to do with cleaning and ventilation, confident that we want the best for others. We will carry this process together with the organization of our party, and not with the conservatives and the Red Party.