Since Manhi's supervisor of kindergartens, Nava Tal, left for greener pastures, the position has been vacant.
By PEGGY CIDORschoolgirl(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
About a year ago, some high-ranking officials decided to take advantage of the good conditions offered by the municipality in the framework of the rehabilitation plan, and leave their jobs for greener pastures. One of them, Nava Tal, was responsible for kindergartens in Manhi (Jerusalem Education Administration). Since then, the job, despite its importance, has been vacant.
That more than one significant position at Kikar Safra remains unoccupied is also symptomatic of the somewhat problematic way important positions are filled at the municipality. Take, for example, the fact that due to internal wars between the upper echelon and the workers' union, the position of head of the Culture Department is still vacant after more than two years.
So the position of head of the kindergartens remained vacant for quite a few months before someone at Kikar Safra came with a bright idea: Deputy Mayor Shmuel Shkedi, feeling it was time to reward his very capable and widely appreciated personal assistant, Avi Gispan, decided it was time he became the assistant to Manhi director-general Benzi Nemet.
At Kikar Safra (surprise, surprise) the idea was welcomed. But alas, Nemet already had a personal assistant - Dvora Givati. But hey, it's Manhi, which still has no head of kindergartens, right? Kikar Safra apparently made the connection and the tender for the job was suddenly published. Givati was encouraged to apply, thus clearing the way for Gispan - it's genius I tell you.
Well, genius, maybe - but successful, forget it.
Nemet, who thought he had found a way to get rid of an unwanted assistant, firmly supported Givati's candidacy.
But Givati had a skeleton in her closet (or desk). A few years ago, she faced a disciplinary hearing at which she was found guilty of moonlighting while on duty for the municipality. Sources in City Hall say that when Givati applied for the new position, Nemet already knew about the hearing, but didn't stop her.
Thereafter, municipal comptroller Shlomit Rubin opened a new investigation into Givati's behavior and discovered that she had even presented a declaration stating she had never attended a disciplinary hearing. So now the whole issue is in the hands of the city legal adviser, good old Yossi Havilio.
Word at Kikar Safra has it that Mayor Uri Lupolianski, sniffing a sticky situation, refused to get involved and cleared the way for the high-ranking employees of the fifth floor to deal with Shkedi.
Meanwhile, everybody is stuck: Nemet still has Givati by his side; Shkedi is without what he thought would be an easy victory for his assistant; and the city of Jerusalem, in place of a kindergarten head, is stuck with a high-ranking employee who turned out to be... rather sticky.
Only Havilio is back on the frontlines, holding the professional fate of a few good men and women from Kikar Safra in his hands.
City Hall had not responded to In Jerusalem's request for comment by press time.
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