several town halls are considering legal action

No mandatory hat, no foggy glasses, no one euro coin to find at the bottom of the bag to lock your locker. The return to school took place without a swimming pool, this week, for the inhabitants of around thirty municipalities, after the operator of aquatic centers Vert Marine decided, Monday, September 5, to close establishments on the grounds of rising energy prices. The basins remained of oil among others at Limoges and Montauban, but also in Meudon, Mantes-la-Jolie, Saint-Jean-de-Monts, or even in one of the swimming pools of the 19^e district of Paris.

Vert Marine’s energy bill went from “15 million to 100 million euros”that is “the entire annual turnover”, argued the company to justify its decision. Compensation that would be based on users would amount to multiplying entry prices by three, which is “unthinkable”, she added. If the city of Rivesaltes (Pyrénées-Orientales) quickly negotiated to reopen its swimming pool – by accepting to assume half of the additional energy cost –, most town halls were scandalized by the strong way used by Vert Marine, which often warned them at the last moment, and also denounced a decision ” brutal ” that“unilateral” which disregards the requirement of continuity of public service.

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“The manner is more than cavalier”, regret to the World François Dagnaud, the mayor (Socialist Party) of the 19^e capital district. He claims to have been warned only on September 5 that the Pailleron swimming pool would not reopen its doors on the 7th, as planned after a summer closure. And reveals that the Paris City Hall has already sent a formal notice to Vert Marine, while recalling its availability for dialogue.

Subscriptions taken despite the closure

Other elected officials plan to go to litigation. “The hypothesis is very largely on the table”, confides Raphaël Cognet, the mayor (various right) of Mantes-la-Jolie, faced with the closure of the swimming pool managed by the urban community, of which he is one of the vice-presidents. The city councilor is all the more upset since two days earlier, fifty registrations were registered for water polo. Monday, September 5, he assures, subscriptions were taken despite the closure.

“We are looking, with the legal services of the community of municipalities, how to assess the delegation of public service”, says the mayor:

“Vert Marine, I entrust them with the equipment so that they absorb the problems. They would have come to see me in July, I’m not saying that we would have found a solution, but at least we would have sat around the table, we would have discussed! »

Thursday afternoon, Vert Marine had not responded to requests from the World. “On the form, I recognize the brutal aspect but we had no choice”, defended himself Jean-Pascal Gleizes, the general manager of the operator, in an interview with The Gazette of the Communes. The manager claims to have apologized to the communities, while detailing the situation of his company: “Each day that passes is an additional cost of 200,000 euros (…). If we continued like this, we would not end the year. (…) We have responsibilities vis-à-vis the continuity of the public service and we are at fault with regard to this obligation; but we also have a social responsibility with 2,000 employees. »

Find a new delegate

Mr. Cognet plans, if the law permits, to urgently relaunch a call for tenders to find a new delegate. Even to transfer the management of the swimming pool to the local community, under direct management. This is the choice made by the city of Montauban, as reported The Midi Dispatch : a clause in its contract with Vert Marine provides for this possibility, at least temporarily, and the town hall has offered the 31 employees to continue their work under its own supervision.

Read also: Public swimming pools, expensive equipment particularly vulnerable to rising energy prices

By finding the door closed on Monday, many bathers discovered that their pool is not managed by their elected officials, but by a private service provider, in the form of a public service delegation (DSP). These assemblies concern 30% of the equipment commissioned since 2005, according to a 2018 report by the Court of Auditors.

The conventions are “frequently unbalanced to the detriment of the public person”

However, in this document, the Court finds that “this management method is generally not chosen after an in-depth comparative analysis of its strengths and constraints”such that the DSP conventions are “frequently unbalanced to the detriment of the public person”. Otherwise, “the control of the execution of these contracts by local authorities often remains superficial”. Clearly, according to the Court, elected officials do not sufficiently assert their interests in the face of the private sector and do not sufficiently monitor the activities of their delegates.

“Complexity of swimming pool management”

“Our DSPs, we follow them better and better”, on the contrary defends Raphaël Cognet, the mayor of Mantes-la-Jolie, who concedes, however, that when it comes to “very technical law”it is difficult for a municipal team to recruit agents with adequate skills – the same profiles are found elsewhere, according to his observation, “better paid by our delegates”. Moreover, in his view, because of the complexity of swimming pool management, “it is not illogical that we turn to people whose job it is: when professionals take care of it, it induces savings”.

Read also: Aquapolis, the aquatic center of Limoges, closed: “Every day that passed, we spent the equivalent of ten days of electricity”

The quarrel with Vert Marine should not become the trial of DSPs in general, abounds François Dagnaud, in Paris. The chosen one of 19^e recalls that the Espace Pailleron is not just a swimming pool, but also a solarium, a fun pool for the little ones, an ice rink and a fitness centre. “Who imagines that the City of Paris would have agents to give aerobics lessons? », illustrates the chosen one, for whom the choice of DSP for this equipment has not been made “randomly and for no reason”. This option allows in particular, according to him, to offer a significant time amplitude, until 9 p.m., and to open on weekends.

Still, he would review his position if the arm wrestling between town halls and Vert Marine were to establish that the delegate is justified in suspending his public service mission depending on the hazards. In particular, underlines Mr. Dagnaud, in respect of the maintenance of the teaching of swimming, already disturbed by the health crisis. According to a Public Health France report published in 2021drowning causes a thousand deaths per year, “which makes it the leading cause of death by accident in everyday life among people under 25”.

Julien Lemaignen