Patong Mayor forced to quit

PATONG: Members of the Patong Municipal Council have forced the resignation of the town’s Mayor, Pian Keesin, by rejecting his budget plan for the coming year. Pian lost by a vote of nine to two, the two being the mayor himself and Councillor Surasak Maneesri. Councillor Sakorn Cheua-yuan, who is secretary to local Member of Parliament Chalermlak Kebsab, said that the reason the budget was not approved was that Pian and the team he had picked to run the town had succeeded only in “making Patong worse”. Pian’s opponents, Sakorn said, were of the opinion that the municipal team had been unable to make things easier for tourists, with the result that tourism revenues had declined, and that it was therefore time for a change in the town’s management. Until his successor is chosen, however, Pian will stay in his seat, albeit in a caretaker role. It is clear that the ex-Mayor does not intend to leave quietly. After the vote, he sent a letter to Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi, urging him to investigate a variety of alleged activities of other Council members. These allegations will certainly be robustly denied by those Mayor Pian accuses, setting the scene for what promises to be a slanging match of mythic proportions.