"On a separate table in the municipal council": this elected member of the majority slams the door on Sillans-la-Cascade... and moves to Tunisia
The news came as no real surprise in the middle of summer: Alain Agred, elected in 2020 on the majority list led by Mayor Christophe Carrière, has chosen to resign. After many years of tension and deep disagreements , the municipal councilor is leaving the local scene, tired, he says, "of the way institutions are governed." These disagreements are now irreversible.
His letter(1), supported by arguments, was sent to the town hall and the prefecture. His departure was not the result of a whim. Since the election campaign, signs of disagreement had multiplied : campaign expenses discussed at the last minute, initiatives organized in parallel without consultation, "in the communications sector in particular" . A first crack in the team, which will only widen over the months.
"No longer invited at all" to certain committeesIn a municipal council composed of about fifteen people without opposition, the councilor struggles to find his place. His divergent votes quickly put him on the sidelines, to the point of finding himself seated "at a separate table" during meetings.
Attempts at compromise fail, and bitterness sets in. "It's not good to go against the mayor's advice. Decisions are made unilaterally," he explains.
He denounces the growing feeling of being kept at a distance . "I already announced that I had professional obligations every Monday, but then I found myself randomly summoned to committees where I was supposed to sit, or never at all, such as the traders' committee. For almost two years now, I have not been invited at all to town planning or finance committees."
The episode of the purchase of the walls and the business of the restaurant Les Pins , "without stock or equipment, with the bakery and the hotel" - for an amount of one million euros (after municipal works) which he considers hallucinatory in a village of less than a thousand inhabitants - crystallizes the tensions. It was in September 2021. "Moreover, the mayor had an absent elected official vote, which I reported to the prefecture!"
In the area of finance, which he knows well, he alerted the prefecture and the Cada (Commission for Access to Administrative Documents), demanding greater transparency. Their actions proved him right, but remained without concrete follow-up. "I didn't pursue it because I would have had to commit personal funds to take the matter to the administrative court."
A complaint in 2022Added to this are the more personal injuries: writings he considers defamatory . The climate is becoming unbearable. He filed a complaint for defamation and discrimination in March 2022. A procedure initiated without result.
So Alain Agred has decided to turn the page. After eight years in the region, involved in several public institutions – the Primary Health Insurance Funds (CPAM) in Toulon, among others, the Departmental House for Disabled People (MDPH) in Ollioules, and the Regional Health Agency (ARS) – he is now looking to another horizon: Tunisia .
"I've wanted to leave for a long time. This time, it's decided," he confides. A departure that is both "forced" and chosen, as a way to regain control of his career. Before packing his bags, he slipped a leaflet into mailboxes. It's a questionnaire for constituents to gather their wishes for the future term "which I will pass on to future lists."
And to clarify about the mayor: "His legal troubles (2) do not surprise me. If I had not decided to move, I would surely have run in the next municipal elections. We talk a lot these days about the lack of respect towards our elected officials. It's true. But sometimes, mayors also have to show respect."
1. State services inform that "Mr. Agred's resignation letter has arrived at the prefecture. (...) Mr. Agred being a municipal councilor, his resignation is effective when the mayor acknowledges receipt, which he did on August 20th."
2. Christophe Carrière was due to appear before the Draguignan Criminal Court on April 30 for moral harassment of two municipal agents (see our April 19 edition) . The hearing has been postponed until December 2.
Contacted, Mayor Christophe Carrière refuted Alain Agred's arguments.
"Everything is false. When we invite him to the Monday morning committee meetings, he doesn't show up. He says he's never taken the matter to the administrative court, but that's false. He's already done so, and his request was rejected. He's opposed all our decisions, even the recreation center. Everything passed by majority vote except him. As for the request to send the lettered accounting, it doesn't exist. I can't provide what doesn't exist. It's true that he raised an error regarding a vote by an absent elected official, but we corrected it, and in any case, it doesn't change the outcome of the vote. Today, he's leaving, which demonstrates his interest in the village... As for the December 2 hearing, I'm calm. I have nothing to reproach myself for."
Var-Matin
