Documents on desks, air conditioning running, doors wide open, and Mayor Ante Čobrnić claims he is not legally required to show up for work at all.
An incredible video that surfaced on social media on Tuesday shows a man walking his dog on a leash through the hallways and offices of the Tučepi Municipality building. During working hours, as the video's author claims, there wasn't a single soul in the entire building.
"Tell me who's normal here? Look at this," the man begins his monologue as he enters the completely empty municipal building. The footage shows him passing freely through unlocked offices, encountering running air conditioners and documents left on desks without any supervision. "An absolute circus, stamps and papers are just left out for the taking," he commented.
At one point, taken aback by the scene, the video's author also commented on the frequent debates about the number of municipalities in Croatia. "They say, why should we reduce the number of municipalities? It's not just that we should reduce the number of municipalities, this is beyond comment!" he said while touring the empty rooms. On his way out of the building, he stopped by the public warning sign and said, "Be prepared for this, just so you know!" concluding his tour with the word: "Circus!".
The Mayor of Tučepi, Ante Čobrnić of the HDZ, who has been leading the municipality for six consecutive terms, dismissed the claims in the video. "That's not possible; he's harassed us several times already," Čobrnić told the Morski portal, referring to the video's author. He explained that the municipal warden was in the building but "just stepped out for a moment while they did their filming."
The Mayor also revealed that the Municipality responded promptly to the incident. "Today we banned dogs and called the police several times. So, today we banned dogs from entering, put up a no-filming sticker, so now we have it formally too," he said.
When asked how it was possible that no one was in the building during working hours, Čobrnić explained that only four people work in the Tučepi Municipality. "Of those four, two are wardens. I had an injury and was hit by a car. I wasn't there, and I don't have to be there at all. I could serve four years of my term and not be there. That's the law," the Mayor stated.
He added that the other municipal warden was out in the field, and the head of finance was at that moment handling daily bill payments. He also sees a problem in the fact that the Municipality has no deputy mayor. "They abolished the deputy mayor position a few years ago because they said municipalities with fewer than 3,000 residents can't have a deputy mayor, even though we now have 15,000 residents," Čobrnić lamented.
When it was pointed out that the empty building was wasting electricity and taxpayer money, the Mayor briefly replied: "It's terrible, it's really terrible, it's wasted so much it's terrible." When asked about the accessibility of documents, he sarcastically retorted: "Well, are we transparent, are we democratic?" He concluded: "Well, unfortunately, until this incident, we never had any incident situations. Now we've reacted, we've put up a sign that it's not allowed, and that's it."
