“Even though the media-fueled grand events aimed at hyping announcements that are not always followed by corresponding effects are recurrent at the General Council, we could have hoped, especially in an election period, for a bit more restraint from its President when we were invited to a working session as part of the update of the 2011-2015 departmental gerontology plan. This is particularly true since, through Noël ALBIN, we had repeatedly requested, in public sessions, that elected officials be involved in the drafting process of said plan.
Alas, it was once again nothing but a media spectacle filled with plenty of goodwill and pious wishes but with few concrete answers to such a crucial issue in our department, which has the unfortunate distinction of being below the national average in terms of the public/private distribution of available facilities for dependent elderly people.
But beyond its questionable nature during election times, what is most serious is that we discover on this occasion that the work on drafting the plan is already well underway without us ever having been consulted. Worse yet, the President even proposes next month as the deadline for the unveiling of this plan!
We thought we had reached the height of hypocrisy with the supposed consultation on pension cuts, but it seems that the WOERTH method has found followers. When it comes to such an important subject, with a total funding of 1.1 billion euros over the next five years being discussed, it is unacceptable for the elected officials to again be confronted with a done deal and asked to vote on an already fixed plan.
The same applies to the representative trade unions of the personnel who were not even invited to participate in this public session.
We therefore solemnly ask the President of the General Council to refrain from any electoral haste and to take the necessary time to involve both elected officials and union representatives in the drafting of this plan.
This does not bode well for the great debate that is supposed to take place at the national level on maintaining autonomy and managing dependency.”
