One of the four Tallinn city officials shamed in a letter to Mayor Edgar Savisaar for not paying part of their salaries back to the party in the form of patronage has said he is leaving his post and the Center Party.
“It is my own decision, my moral position. Nobody forced me to quit. The situation had become uncomfortable for me,” Johannes Merilai, adviser to Deputy Mayor Taavi Aas, told uudised.err.ee on Wednesday.
He said the letter and the ensuing scandal drove him to leave the party and his post.
Merilai said he had paid the Party fees from his salary, but lately irregularly and a debt to the party had grown, but added that as a Tallinn city official, he has served residents of the city, not the party.
The scandal broke two weeks ago when Savisaar, the head of the Center Party, asked for the resignation of four city officials for failing to tithe a 5 percent fee to the Center Party, on top of membership dues. Two of the four officials, both members of the party, resigned a day later.
Priit Toobal, Center Party's secretary general, said in a press release that all Center Party members holding positions in the Tallinn municipal government had agreed in 2005 to pay 5 percent of their gross earnings to the party.
Eesti Ekspress published a list of positions that are required to pay the 5 percent levy. The list has 69 names, including the positions of the mayor and his five deputies, their advisers, heads of the city's districts, department heads, board members of Tallinn's foundations and business undertakings.
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