Nice Premium: Agnès Rampal, you are among the officials removed by Jacques Peyrat. What is your feeling today?
Agnès Rampal: A feeling of sadness! For almost seven years, I have worked passionately in service to my city; it is normal for this to end at the conclusion of the mandate, but being removed three months early makes no sense for the management of the city: within my delegations, I continuously receive requests from the people of Nice and can only advise them to contact the new delegation leaders. In seven years, you meet many people for whom you become a reference; changing officials for three months makes life much more complicated for the people of Nice, not to mention the services!
NP: Do you understand the Mayor’s reaction?
AR: I understand it because he has always acted this way, but I do not approve of it. Nothing forbids having a contrary opinion on a matter. I thought that, given the founded remarks made by certain municipal councilors, the Mayor would have the wisdom to withdraw this deliberation to obtain a true consensus. The last municipal council repeated the same pattern.
NP: How do you feel about leaving your ongoing projects?
AR: As I mentioned, I am sad; projects require a lot of work to be realized, and any small hurdle causes delays, like the third and final part of St Jean d’Angely, which was supposed to be delivered in September 2009. On the other hand, I was very touched by the numerous messages of sympathy and encouragement I received when this “sanction” was announced.
NP: What will be Agnès Rampal’s future in the coming months?
AR: It is clear that I will continue to work; in addition to my part-time hospital doctor role, I will have two objectives:
– The first: to listen to the people of Nice, whom I will continue to meet: it’s through conversations with parents and teachers that I realized there is a real desire for change in the school schedule to move to a four-day week.
– The second: to work toward the success of the campaign by Christian Estrosi: we have a unique opportunity to finally have a Mayor who has been a Minister twice; beyond his personal qualities and love for Nice, he knows all the workings of the State and can contribute significantly to Nice’s development.
NP: At one time, you were imagined as a candidate for the Mayor of Nice. Truth or Fiction?
AR: It’s an idea that never crossed my mind; I have no ambition for that! Moreover, being the Mayor of the 5th largest city in France requires genuine competence that a new official like me has not acquired in one term! The UMP has the ideal candidate, and I will support him to the fullest.
NP: There are four major candidates for the upcoming municipal election. With how many of them could you work?
AR: As the saying goes, “the past is the guarantor of the future,” so I have full confidence in Christian Estrosi, who has proven himself at the General Council, where he succeeded perfectly, as a man of openness and dialogue. If he honors me by asking me to work in his team in a field where I can develop a meaningful project, I will accept.
NP: Both candidates advocate for openness. What is your analysis of this new political trend?
AR: We have changed millennia, and there are no longer two blocs facing each other: right and left; around a common set of values, there are many points of convergence among moderate political parties, and managing a city requires the addition of competencies.
NP: You have spent many years at the head of Education for universities and NTIC in Nice. If you had to summarize your achievements?
AR: I am proud of my achievements in all these delegations:
In higher education, I was able to maintain the construction of the St Jean d’Angely extension and the UFR Staps in the planning contract; I initiated the establishment of Icranet, the extension of the preparatory class dorms at Lycée Masséna (in the premises of the former environmental laboratory), the establishment of the IUP tourism, the creation of the Maison des Chercheurs at the Convent of the Visitation, for which I hope to be invited to lay the cornerstone; and I could also mention the organization of the university entrance forum for our high school graduates and the creation of the internet portal dedicated to Nice students to better support student life.
In education, managing schools daily (maintenance, cafeterias, repairs) required true availability from me. I also focused on two matters that were not current when I arrived: first, improving the quality of our leisure centers: in this area, we have done a lot, but there is still much to do to meet the significant demand. The second matter was successfully changing the school rhythm in Nice’s primary schools after exemplary consultation; implementing the four-day week was a real advance for families’ quality of life. Likewise, creating a single registration file for all extracurricular activities, municipal and associative, under the leisure contract greatly simplified the process for parents.
The domain of NTIC was also fascinating: the development of IT in schools made considerable progress; we also established the National Meetings of the net and NTIC, which will hold its eighth session in 2008 in Nice. In this field, I want to emphasize the creation of cyber-spaces located in various territories across the city, allowing free IT education for all and the importance of complying with a charter of good practices for the installation of new mobile phone masts with mobile operators.
Finally, I had the honor of presiding over the CUM and am proud of the progress made: the CUM is no longer a place where a few scholars meet around niche subjects but an institution open to all audiences around an extremely varied and high-quality program, thanks to the assistance of all the members of the advisory committee.
All this is not “my record,” but what we have achieved together with the municipal services: our municipal services are rich in competent and enthusiastic personalities; if supported by elected officials who believe in their mission, they then give the best of themselves.
NP: Lastly, if you could only remember one moment from your municipal career, it would be…
AR: The joy of children in the leisure centers three summers ago when they were playing, in the heat, in the coolness brought by the misters that were finally installed!
