RIGA, Dec 17 (LETA) - The Riga City Council at an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday dismissed Ilze Purmale as director of the City Development Department.

Purmale was dismissed on the basis of a Labor Law provision that allows dismissal of an employee because the employee has acted unlawfully in the performance of their work and has therefore lost the confidence of the employer.

In such a case, the employee is to be dismissed with immediate effect.

Purmale said at the council meeting that the explanations she had given during the disciplinary procedure had not been properly examined. She stated that she and the City Development Department remain of the opinion that the department's employees acted professionally, responsibly, and lawfully.

Purmale also considers that the municipality should not be held responsible for a company's misconduct and should not be directly liable, financially or otherwise.

Purmale is therefore ready to continue to defend the interests of the department and the municipality.

Purmale added that she and the disciplinary inquiry panel had differing opinions, it was not useful to go into details at the council meeting, and that court would decide who was right.

"Accountability and fairness are among my most important values and I am not prepared to give them up under any circumstances. The values are mine, the choice is yours," Purmale said as she concluded her speech.

As reported, Purmale was earlier suspended from her post because of problems in the Skanste revitalization project.

Edgars Bergholcs (United List), Head of the City Development Committee of the Riga City Council, pointed out that on his initiative, the issue of the responsibility of the City Development Department for possible negligence in the implementation of the project was raised.

"As the head of the committee, when studying the project documentation, questions arose about the quality of the decisions taken, which resulted in the failure to prevent possible ground contamination in time. I do not understand how such attitude to environmental safety issues could have been tolerated, given the public purpose of the project," said Bergholcs.

According to him, this is a case where the responsible municipal official should take full responsibility for the action or inaction.

On October 8 this year, Riga Mayor Viesturs Kleinbergs (Progressives) instructed the city's Executive Director, Janis Lange, to launch an investigation into the City Development Department for allegedly insufficient and delayed land remediation works carried out as part of a development project in Skanste.

It has been established that Purmale, acting within the scope of her competence, could not have been unaware of the department's long-standing unlawful conduct. Therefore, she was obliged not only to look into the nature of the problem at that time, but also to solve it in a legally correct manner, preventing adverse consequences, according to the information released by the municipality.

The municipality has forwarded the results of the analyses on the quality of the soil to the State Environmental Service (VVD), stressing that all further actions should be carried out in close compliance with their recommendations.

A disciplinary board will be set up under the responsibility of the City Executive Director and will give its final opinion within one month, as required by the legislation.

Following the report of the service review, Bergholcs has proposed that the City Executive Director suspends Purmale from her position for the duration of the disciplinary investigation.

Purmale told LETA that she would appeal against such a decision. Purmale is convinced that both she and the department have worked with integrity and professionalism, which is why she has decided to fight, not only for her own sake, but also for the sake of the department's reputation.

Moreover, this is to avoid financial consequences for the municipality. If the municipality is found to be responsible for the situation, it will have to pay for the removal of the contaminated soil left in the dump. This could cost as much as EUR 5-8 million.

Purmale was appointed Director of the City Development Department in 2020, when the municipality was under an interim administration.

As reported, an inspection was carried out at the Riga City Council to assess the implementation of the Skanste revitalization project. The municipality was concerned that not all contaminated soil had been removed during the Skanste revitalization project.

Riga Mayor Viesturs Kleinbergs (Progressives) informed earlier that there is a possibility that some of the works related to the remediation of the site have not been carried out or have been carried out differently than foreseen in the remediation plan, therefore there is a risk that soil that is contaminated and had to be removed elsewhere is both in the adjacent area and could be in the children's playground.

LETA found out that the contaminated soil in the Skanste neighborhood is located on the land plots of Projekts B10, owned by former insolvency administrator Maris Spruds and his family members.

In May 2025, one of the largest urban projects in Skanste was opened - a multifunctional park, new streets and a landscaped area of 15 hectares, LETA was informed by the Riga City Council. The project took a long time to complete and became more expensive over time.

The first phase of the Skanste revitalization project was implemented with co-financing from European funds, a state budget grant and co-financing from the Riga City Council. The total cost of the project is EUR 21.7 million, of which EUR 4.6 million from the European Regional Development Fund, EUR 670,334 from the state budget and EUR 16.5 million from the Riga City Council.

After the opening, it was discovered that the sewerage system in Skanste Park was sinking, and the municipality had been warned about this possibility in advance, the Baltic Centre for Investigative Journalism Re:Baltica reported.

During the design of the sewerage system, not all the necessary calculations were made.

During the search for a contractor, one of the bidders warned the municipality about the possibility of sinking the facility into the muddy soils in the area if the sewerage system was built according to the originally proposed design. However, ignoring the warning, the Riga City Council refused to carry out additional expertise.