Jerusalem Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky recently initiated
proceedings to dismiss the municipality's staff attorney,
Attorney Yossi Chavilav, by sending letters to Deputy
Interior Minister Ruchama Avraham and Local Government Center
Chairman Adi Eldar, notifying them of his intention to
terminate Chavilav's service.
A short time earlier Mayor Lupoliansky sent a letter to
Attorney Chavilav reading, "Due to complaints that have
accumulated on the desk of the City Council regarding your
work as legal advisor to the municipality, and since your
period of employment has ended according to the contract
signed with you, I have decided to begin proceedings to end
your employment."
Attorney Chavilav is primarily known to the chareidi
community for preventing funding transfers to talmudei
Torah, blocking land grants for botei knesses and
religious institutions and other moves against the Torah
world. Chareidi City Councilmen noted that Attorney Chavilav
was aware of the lack of lots for new public institutions and
that certain neighborhoods had no beis knesses.
Not only chareidi representatives but other members of the
City Council and high-ranking officials also regularly fell
into disputes and had poor working relations with Attorney
Chavilav. In many instances he would refrain from defending
the municipality and not represent it in various legal cases,
which encouraged the opposition to file complaints against
the municipality and municipal employees. Various letters
sent to Attorney Chavilav regarding his lack of concern for
these matters raise suspicions of impropriety, including
listing work hours improperly and helping an employee exempt
herself from towing fines.
In the letter he sent to the Interior Ministry and the Center
for Local Government, the mayor wrote that since Attorney
Chavilav's official period of employment ended over six
months ago, dismissal proceedings are unnecessary. Yet he has
elected to follow these procedures since it is stipulated in
the hiring contract the municipality signed with Attorney
Chavilav.
The letter also enumerates instances of flawed work relations
with nearly every official at the municipality and concludes
that he cannot be entrusted with such a position. "This is
not a case of legitimate professional disputes or isolated
incidents but a string of incidents that have created a
tainted set of working relations and potholes that make day-
to-day work between the Legal Advisor and the other municipal
departments impossible. Letters of reprimand and criticism to
the Legal Advisor have become commonplace. This is true
regarding the City Treasury, which has repeatedly been
compelled to inform the Legal Advisor of deviations from the
municipality's budget regulations, particularly as relates to
employee personnel at the Department of the Legal Advisor.
There has also been substantial friction between Attorney
Chavilav and the directors of the Department of Human
Resources and the City Engineer. Attorney Chavilav's work is
marked by poor work relations that almost completely
neutralize the effectiveness of the office of the Legal
Advisor and cause it significant harm."
The letters constitute a necessary part of the dismissal
process. The Center for Local Government and the Interior
Ministry are expected to convene a meeting to reply to the
claims lodged against Attorney Chavilav and at the City
Council's upcoming meeting a two-thirds vote (21 councilmen)
is needed to finalize the Legal Advisor's discharge.
Deputy Mayor Rabbi Eli Simchayoff says, "The Municipality
wants to employ an efficient legal advisor who operates in
accordance with the law and who provides the city suitable
legal services while striving to make his work more
efficient. We don't need someone who makes use of his
position as a tool to propagate his opinions solely to
highlight his name in the media.
"Attorney Chavilav is at odds with most of the city
councilmen, except for a few friends in the opposition, and
even with the majority of top-ranking officials in the
municipality. The fact he insists on retaining his post and
is compelling us to carry out such a procedure demonstrates
that other places are less than eager to hire him. The
proceedings the mayor is executing are vital for the Torah-
based educational and religious institutions, which have been
regularly discriminated against during Attorney Chavilav's
term. In general this move will undoubtedly contribute to all
of the city's residents. We hope during the upcoming City
Council meeting we can complete the dismissal procedure in
order to limit the damage Attorney Chavilav causes as he
lashes out in all directions in his final moments."
