One of the advisors to Rēzekne Mayor Aleksandrs Bartaševičs (“Together for Latvia”/LPV) will be Raimonds Olehno, the municipality’s executive director who was denied access to state secrets and lost his position, the politician announced on social networks.
Bartaševičs said that Olehno “had to leave” his job at the municipality. However, he was chosen as an advisor on municipal governance issues because he has worked in the municipality longer than the mayor himself, is an experienced specialist and will be able to implement the planned reforms.
The advisor on strategic communication and public engagement issues will be the former deputy head of the municipality’s Urban Environment and Development Department for cooperation and public engagement issues, Natalja Jupatova. Bartaševičs emphasized that in this case too it was important that a municipal employee was chosen for the position. In his opinion, residents still do not receive all the necessary information about the work of the municipality, which is why such a position is necessary.
It has already been reported that, according to amendments to the municipal regulations, the mayor will have two advisors – on strategic communication and public engagement issues, as well as on municipal governance issues.
Bartaševičs will also have two deputies in the future. The regulations provide that
the deputies perform the duties of the mayor during his absence or on his instructions,
as well as perform other duties in cases provided for in regulatory enactments, as well as duties specified in the council’s decisions.
It was also reported that the previously suspended executive director of the Rēzekne municipality, Olehno, was dismissed from his position in January. Although neither Olehno himself nor the municipality initially commented on whether he could be the official who was denied state secret clearance by the State Security Service (VDD), Bartaševičs later confirmed in an interview with LETA that the former executive director had not been granted the necessary state secret clearance for his work, but it is not known why.
Olehno was dismissed from his position in January, when the city council received his relevant application. He did not comment on why he decided to leave his job. At the same time, the VDD reported on one municipal official who had been denied state secret clearance.
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