The Kamianka-Buzka City Council broadcast the banquet, and the mayor commented on the scandal
The Kamianka-Buzka City Council in Lviv Oblast accidentally posted a video on YouTube showing staff members having a party in the council chamber. After the video quickly went viral, the situation gained widespread attention. Mayor Oleg Omelyan stated that he takes responsibility for the incident, but complained that those involved were “unjustly portrayed as criminals” on social media.
The incident occurred on June 5. The video has already been removed from the city council’s YouTube page, but local Telegram channels have shared screenshots of it.
The photos show 24 employees standing in a large hall along a long table, holding paper cups. On the table is food, including several boxes of pizza and soft drinks, and on the floor are bottles of hard liquor.
Omelyan denied that there was a large amount of alcohol present. He noted that celebrations are not typically held at the city council, and the gathering shown in the video “was the first time this year during a lunch.”
“Unfortunately, local government today is extreme in everything. You can’t go anywhere because you’re local government. We have military funerals, and unfortunately, only local government officials attend; everyone else is busy. People just wanted to modestly eat some pizza at lunch and celebrate a little, but now they’ve turned everyone into criminals. I guess they don’t have anything else to write about… It happened, it’s unpleasant, we’ve drawn conclusions to prevent such things from happening. But they didn’t happen—this is the first time,” said the mayor.
He didn’t say exactly what the employees were celebrating. He said, “Someone came to me and said they wanted to eat pizza for lunch.” The city council also hasn’t figured out how the live stream started.
Omelian stated that he takes responsibility for his employees.
“They’ll punish the mayor because, without a doubt, the mayor is to blame for everything. When things go well, everyone is involved, but when they don’t, the mayor is to blame. I told you that I’m to blame for everything, but you want to write more so you can get more subscribers, so everyone will say how bad the Kamianka-Buzka City Council is. I told you that I’m to blame for everything; I let this happen. I’m upset about what happened, and I blame myself for it. Why should I blame anyone else?” he told reporters.
Oleg Omelyan said this in a comment to the publication Zaxid.net.
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