Narva opposition fails to block new city leadership

Narva’s new governing coalition secured the appointment of city government members and salaries for council leaders despite more than four hours of criticism at Saturday’s city council meeting, ERR reported.

The Centre Party and Plaan B coalition has enough votes to appoint the city government, but its narrow majority might not have been sufficient to approve the council chair’s salary because the chair cannot vote on the matter.

The opposition could have prevented council chair Urbo Vaarmann from receiving a salary, but did not do so. Some opposition members were also absent from the meeting. Vaarmann’s monthly salary was set at 4,000 euros.

“People must be paid for their work. What was done to Mihhail Stalnuhhin and Jana Kondrashov, the former council chair and deputy chair, who were not paid for seven months, was fundamentally wrong,” said Katri Raik, a Narva councillor and chair of the Respekt faction.

“No one believed that we would manage to approve the salaries. This had been one of your main issues with us for a long time. The salary was approved before anyone could have expected it,” Vaarmann said.

The new coalition reminded the opposition of the rule calling for 100 days without criticism, but the appeal had no effect.

“I promised to be the town hall witch, and I intend to remain one for as long as necessary, because I fear we will see some rather dark deeds,” said Raik, a former mayor.

Vaarmann said the new city government had a stronger team spirit.

“The other side has spoken, but in reality the voting results and our team spirit are stronger. What the other side could not accomplish in nine months, we managed to do in the first two hours,” he said.

The new coalition also confirmed the members of the city government. Eduard Parts, a new face in Narva politics, will among other things oversee tourism development.

One of the projects is Tsaaritee, a route modelled on the Sibulatee project and intended to follow the journey of Russian tsars from north to south.

“Tsaaritee is intended to connect Narva more closely with southern Estonia. This would certainly create interest among local residents who would like to travel more around Estonia, as well as among tourists who would come here,” Parts said.

Mayor Jaan Toots was awarded a salary of 4,000 euros, the lowest mayoral salary among Estonia’s larger cities.