On 19 October this year, the council in Sogndal decided to give the resigned mayor close to NOK 80,000 in back pay for the month. The politicians believed that the former mayor had no job to go to after he resigned on 5 October, and thought 12 weeks was appropriate. Menes was on leave from his job at the University of Vestland until 31 October, and wrote in the application that the employer “needed time to get his bearings”. But news can now reveal that it was Menes himself who asked for extended leave from his job until the New Year. It is believed that the application for leave was based on “a high workload over a long period of time and a desire to spend more time with family until the New Year”. The local politicians decided to pay him NOK 80,323 a month in salary during the period. The leave application was sent to the employer the day before the board meeting. It was granted the day after the chairmanship made the decision he was hoping for. Law professor Jan Fridtjov Bernt is ready for this if there is no reason for it. – This is not something that is expressly stated in the law, but the system of gratuity for full-time public officials is that they only get back pay as long as they have no other income when they go back to their normal lives, says Bernt. If a salary is received, it must be reduced kroner for kroner in the arrears. This also applies if the elected person has voluntarily renounced income. In this case, by the fact that Menes has applied for extended leave. The municipal center Sogndal in Sogndal municipality Photo: Bjørn Erik Pedersen – I don’t like the case Rita Navarsete (Frp) is one of several in local politics who now want the case investigated by the control committee. Raudt has also requested this. – The reason given about workload and more time with family and leisure time is not a good enough reason for late pay. People can take leave as much as they want, but it is not the taxpayers who have to pay for it. Important dates in the case of Menes’ back pay news has seen several documents in connection with the case of the mayor’s back pay. Briefly, these are the important dates: 20 September: Due to the change of mayor in Sogndal after the election, Menes applies for back pay for six to 12 weeks from 6 October. The email will be replied to with a copy to both the University College and the director of the municipality. 5 October: Stig Ove Ølmheim is elected as the new mayor. 8 October: The application will also be forwarded to the new mayor in Sogndal. 17 October: It is believed that the University of Western Norway is applying for extended leave due to “a high workload over a long period of time and a desire to spend more time with family until the New Year”. 19 October: The chairmanship in Sogndal processes the application and decides to give Menes back pay until 1 January. The back pay will be stopped if new employment conditions arise. 20 October: The application for extended leave is granted from the University of Western Norway. The University of Western Norway will not comment to news, they say this is a personnel matter. Mayor of Sogndal, Stig Ove Ølmheim (Ap) will look at the municipality’s handling again. – If it turns out that the information is not correct, and that he is therefore not entitled to back pay during the period, it is a matter that we must look into more closely. He says he trusted Menes’s information when they had the case on the table – We had confidence that he provided correct information in the application. Rita Navarsete (Frp) was the only one who voted against in the chairmanship when they adopted 12 weeks’ back pay. Photo: Sondre Dalaker / news Sending out a press release after news contacted news on Sunday afternoon asked Arnstein Menes if he had given correct and complete information in his application, and why he is asking the municipality for back pay at the same time as he is applying to his employer for leave. We have also asked him whether he is actually entitled to this money, and whether it is morally right to ask for back pay in order to take a period of time off. 48 minutes later, Menes sends out a message to the local newspaper, news and the municipality. There he writes that he has been made aware of wording in the Municipal Act, which applies to ordinary income that the elected voluntary body refrains from. He writes that he has become unsure whether he “has the right to compensation”. The Menes Act refers to the ruling that back pay must be shortened if a person voluntarily forgoes income. “As I myself compare the municipal law withholding other income, I find it right to make the mayor/chairman’s attention to this”, writes Menes. He is now asking the municipality to reassess his back pay. He wrote to the politicians that he “had no intention of appropriating money to which he is not entitled”, but that he realizes that he should have informed the mayor and board that he had applied for leave instead of returning to work. – I probably hadn’t studied and familiarized myself well enough with the Municipal Act, and how this should be understood, says Menes on Monday afternoon. May lose back pay Navarsete says she is worried that a system of back pay for politicians who have no job to go to is being used to pay out an ex-mayor who would rather be on leave: – It looks like Menes is applying to get granted a lot of money from the municipality to take time off, and I don’t like the case as news is now telling me.
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Mayor received 12 weeks’ back pay – did not say he had a job – news Vestland
