in Essonne, an opposition elected official sentenced to pay fines

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Judicial boomerang for Olivier Vagneux. The administrative court from Versailles to condemned the opposition elected official to the mayor of Savigny-sur-Orge (Essonne) to pay several fines pour “abusive recourse” after having notably attempted to obtain reimbursement of the costs advanced by the city for the electronic addresses and business cards of the elected representatives of the majority.

The mayor refused to create an email address in his name

On March 24, 2022, the mayor (LR) Alexis Teillet had in fact decided to take charge of “the financing and provision of business cards, letterhead, mailing and telecommunications costs and the creation and hosting of an email address attached to the name of the municipality’s domain” for the deputies and elected representatives of its majority.

Olivier Vagneux, elected (various right) from the municipal opposition, then appealed to the administrative court of Versailles for an “injunction” to be issued to the mayor of recover amounts already committed before this date for the same reason.

He himself encountered on January 13, 2022 a refusal of the mayor to create an address for him @savigny.org in his name and that his costs for “headed paper” from the municipality and his business cards be reimbursed… He had also been “put on notice not to use fraudulently” the city logo anymore. .

Disavowed, he must pay a fine of €1,000 for “abusive recourse”

“These annual expenses of an amount of 13 € for the license and 8 € for maintenance of each address have been regularized” by a deliberation of the municipal council of March 24, 2022, begins by noting the administrative court of Versailles regarding electronic addresses, in a first judgment dated November 4, 2024 which has just been made public.

“As a result, the mayor of […] Savigny-sur-Orge was justified in refusing to recover these expenses,” say the judges.

Olivier Vagneux was therefore ordered to pay €1,800 in legal fees to the municipality in this dispute, and above all a fine of €1,000 to the public treasury for this “abusive recourse”.

“The judge may impose on the author of a request that he considers abusive a fine of the amount cannot exceed €10,000. authorizes the Code of Administrative Justice.

Dismissed in four appeals, he had to pay €7,200 in legal fees to the city

“Besides the fact that Mr. Vagneux is the author of more than 300 applications pending before the court, this request […] aims to obtain the annulment of a decision […] refusing to recover the paltry sums exposed,” justifies the administrative court of Versailles.

Two other fines of €500 each for “abusive recourse” were also served on him in two other requests, this time relating to the legality of the “replacement of resigning members represented in the various municipal commissions”.

The opposition elected official will also have to pay €1,800 in lawyer fees to the municipality in each of these two files.

He will finally have to pay €1,800 for the same reason to the city after the court found nothing wrong to the “multi-municipal agreement for pooling municipal police officers and missions” of Viry-Châtillon and Savigny-sur-Orge.

He wins his case in another appeal against the city

In a fifth judgment dated the same day, the person concerned, however, won his case in another aspect of this judicial standoff.

This time he asked that the municipality make available a “common premises”, for him and the other elected representatives of the opposition, “in decent conditions” and “on par with those in which the mayor receives his citizens”.

The one he had at the time “is not up to standard” to accommodate people with reduced mobility (PRM) and is “located 650 meters from the town hall”.

“In municipalities with more than 3,500 inhabitants, councilors not belonging to the municipal majority, who request it, can have the loan of premises free of charge common”, it is true that the law provides.

The city ordered to pay him 500 euros

The internal regulations of the municipal council of Savigny-sur-Orge itself provides that “municipal councilors not belonging to the municipal majority have a common premises located in a municipal building”.

However, if the mayor has since provided the four opposition groups with “permanent premises”, this was not not the case on the date the appeal was filed…

The city will therefore have to pay €500 to Olivier Vagneux “in compensation for moral damage which he suffered due to the illegality of the decision.”

M.J. / PressPepper

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