There is something wrong in the City of Le Locle. Other cases emerge after the dismissal of a long-time employee at the regional social desk and the analysis of the work climate within the School Circle, two procedures recently made public to the General Council. According to our sources, at least a third investigation took place within the Loclois administrative apparatus. This is an analysis of the working climate at Public Security and it has been completed, confirms Anthony von Allmen, the president of the City of Le Locle. When asked if it is indeed a question of serious slip-ups by male colleagues with female colleagues, the municipal councilor makes no comment. Likewise when it is said that the head of department would have been asked to take early retirement at the end of the procedure. What is certain is that the main person concerned will leave next February, a few months away, we are told, from celebrating his 65th birthday. A subordinate in this department also reportedly walked out to avoid being fired.
Civil status would also be concerned
Civil status would also be plagued by difficulties. There is talk of a possible procedure underway in this sector of the Le Locle administration. There were reportedly casting errors and at least one resignation of a subordinate. Here again, Anthony von Allmen invokes the duty of reserve.
How can we explain the multiplication of procedures in the local administration? “These cases are not related to each other,” says Anthony Von Allmen. The analyzes were all launched before the shift to the right of the majority in the Municipal Council, specifies the elected PLR. The president is not alarmist: “Human resources are doing their job,” he assures. At most, he concedes that Le Locle must increasingly go beyond the municipal circle in order to find qualified people to run a service.
“Concerned” by the evolution of the work climate
Anthony Von Allmen mentions a turnover rate below average, but he says he is concerned about the evolution of work relationships, marked according to him by an increase in complexity and legalism, with the corollary, an increase for several years cases to be resolved through lawyers. The Municipal Council therefore wishes to invest more in team cohesion in the future. “It is not millions”, specifies the municipal councilor, but “a few tens of thousands of francs” which will thus appear in the next budget of the Municipal Council.
Soon a new promotion manager?
In Locle, there are those who leave, like the assistant curator of the Museum of Fine Arts (this is a resignation and not a dismissal, specifies Anthony Von Allmen). But there are also those who remain: the promotion manager Bernard Vaucher, for example, who at 66 is not yet retired. The City is said to be “at close quarters” with the person who should finally succeed him, after several failed recruitment campaigns entrusted to specialized companies. /vco
