"Klagenfurt Living"

Hardly any data or fire protection and keys missing

Klagenfurt's Deputy Mayor Philipp Liesnig criticizes the many shortcomings at "Klagenfurt Wohnen" and calls for political responsibility and more power for the new managing director of the property management company.

"Despite the legal obligation, fire safety cannot currently be guaranteed in the city's apartments," says Deputy Mayor Philipp Liesnig, painting a bleak picture of the situation and explaining: "We cannot say with certainty that the apartments are equipped with the prescribed fire detectors." According to Liesnig, the situation is made more difficult by the fact that the city does not even have all the keys to the properties and there is no complete information.

No data protection agreement
The hacker attack also revealed a problem for Liesnig. "Thousands of personal data were stored by an external company, but there is no data protection agreement for them, which would actually be necessary," criticizes the deputy mayor. "And we're also talking about bank details, salary statements and, in some cases, health data." The hacker attack also makes day-to-day business more difficult: "Without access to the databases, the administration is unable to work." However, he supports the new managing director Gerhard Scheucher: "He's doing a great job, we need people like that!"

Liesnig now believes that Mayor Christian Scheider has a responsibility. "He must not look the other way here, he must investigate and then draw conclusions and consequences," he demands. "In the case of smaller employees, there are immediate consequences for misconduct, only in higher positions is there no clarification." There seems to be good cooperation with the new Deputy Mayor Alexander Kastner, who is also the housing officer. "He is a level-headed man with handshake quality," says Liesnig.

However, Team Kärnten is not taking the accusations lying down. "As investment officer, Liesnig could have intervened in the Klagenfurt housing case long ago," says club chairman Patrick Jonke.

More storeys and vacancy tax
On the subject of "affordable housing", the city deputy wants the city to offer more. "We need to start stockpiling land. In addition, a right of first refusal for the state and municipalities would be a legitimate demand. Together with a vacancy tax, we could get rental prices under control," explains Liesnig. "In addition, living space should be used more efficiently through redensification, i.e. more storeys." He wants to streamline procedures, make them faster and more efficient.

Liesnig is hoping for a decision on the municipal director next Tuesday: "There is already a considerable delay, the new municipal director must start work as soon as possible - Klagenfurt needs this like a morsel of bread." According to Liesnig, the new man will then earn "less than 10,000 euros a month" for his work.