Book Review | Jan Vapaavuori’s book reveals a man’s incomparable confidence in his own abilities – The former mayor now shares his views on what really happened at City Hall

In the spring of 2018 Mayor of Helsinki Jan Vapaavuori (Kok) speaks at a tourism conference in Qingdao, China. He says that Helsinki should invest in quality rather than quantity in tourism.

“It may be that I was the first mayor in the world to say this out loud at a big tourism congress,” Vapaavuori writes in a recent book The first mayorin which he repeats the stages of his mayoral term (2017–2021).

In the book, Vapaavuori explains how he notes with satisfaction that his speech was noted by the tourism influencers and authors gathered at the conference, although the insight does not seem very strange to an outsider.

Episode reflects the Free Mountain the book spirit. It becomes clear that Vapaavuori has unparalleled confidence in its own ability.

It is an important feature for the leader, but – as the book at least shows between the lines – it also drives Vapaavuori into difficulties.

The memoir on the mayor’s office offers the reader a detailed description of the twists and turns of Helsinki’s municipal policy during the previous term. A lot is being started, and without a doubt, with the efficiency of Vapaavuori, things will also be completed. The perspective in the book is emphatically on the Free Mountain, and self-reflection will eventually remain superficial. The latter, of course, belongs to the type features of the chosen type of literature.

In the book, the busy mayor praises the world in numerous, in his own words, high-level seminars. In 2020, he will take part in at least six international events in one week, albeit remotely due to the corona epidemic.

It also appears that the mayor resolutely conducts meetings, for example during the coronation period, the material of which he was thoroughly acquainted with. He also mentions that he has received good feedback on his briefings.

On the other hand, the corona awareness events are also a real example of how Vapaavuori managed to create a face for Helsinki’s political decision-making. After changing the freeboard Juhana VartiainenHelsinki ‘s leadership seems to be a little more ambiguous.

Free mountain The book also draws its views from the biggest municipal policy controversy in previous years, from the collapsed central tunnel project to the efforts to renovate the Lapinlahti hospital area.

The former mayor of the street work streamlining project points to his clear failure. According to the interpretation of the Free Mountain, the slow pace of the reform was mainly due to shortcomings in the legislation. The current maintenance law does not give the city the right to prevent or accelerate the making of socially important excavations.

The truth is that approximately most of the trenches are made by the city itself, by the energy company Helen or by the Helsinki Region Environment (HSY). Ownership policy could not be sharpened even in Vapaavuorikka.

The problems of the huge bureaucracy of the city of Helsinki are also being addressed. The former mayor says he acted as a mediator when conflicts escalated within the city’s organization.

It is a public secret that the City Office’s Department of Economics and Planning and the urban environment industry, which plans to use land, are often on the verge of building new rail connections, for example.

“The situation between the various units of the office was quite inflamed from time to time, and I had to spend a lot of time and energy easing it and even normalizing the co-operation even in some way,” Vapaavuori writes.

Free mountain itself wasted badly on the outcome of the negotiations on the land use, housing and transport mal agreement after the parliamentary elections. In the book, he sets out his views on what has happened in the news.

Read more: More information on Helsinki mayors’ disagreements: Sinnemäki approves agreement despite Vapaavuori ban, Razmyar names mayor incapacitated

In the Mal agreement, the municipalities and the state of the Helsinki metropolitan area agree on the goals of housing production and the state’s participation in regionally important transport projects.

The fact that in many mal agreements Espoo has received more money from the state than Helsinki is still rubbing off. Once again – in the 2020 negotiations described in the book – Espoo received about 137 million euros in state money to build the Leppävaara – Kauklahti city line.

According to the city’s bylaws, the negotiating mandate was, to the chagrin of Vapaavuori, the deputy mayor of land use In Anni Sinnemäki (green). When Sinnemäki approved the mal agreement against Vapaavuori’s will, in which the state will participate in the Vihdintie high-speed rail project with more than one hundred million euros, Vapaavuori signaled his dissatisfaction with, among others, the Prime Minister Sanna Marinille.

Marin did not answer.

Vapaavuori would have been ready to fire Sinnemäki if it had only been possible.

Read more: Jan Vapaavuori barks at the government, the mayor of Helsinki

In addition to comparing the sums of money in Espoo and Helsinki, Vapaavuori, although he does not mention it in his book, was operating a new flight path between Tampere and Helsinki. There was no readiness in the mal agreement to finance the flight path that had only run at the idea level.

The free mountain was not comforted by the fact that in the wing of the mal agreement, Helsinki got the state to commit to the implementation of the Museum of Architecture and Design.

Although Sinnemäki did not receive any high-profile kicks, such were distributed during the Free Mountain season.

After the city’s internal audit revealed shortcomings in, among other things, the management and control of the city’s Helnet network, the city’s chief information officer was fired. Vapaavuori also barked publicly about the underachievement of his ex-subordinate.

The dispute over the dismissal of the Chief Information Officer is currently being considered in the Administrative Court.

Read more: Helsinki-fired high leader challenges fired

The Helsinki Rescue Commander also received a clear request from Vapaavuori to retire. The background was a fine imposed by the Regional State Administrative Agency on the level of readiness of the rescue service, which the Helsinki Rescue Service refused to take Vapaavuori seriously.

Disgust at underperformers seems to have been one of the main themes during Vapaavuori’s mayoral term. In his memoirs, Vapaavuori says that he tried to make a change of rhythm in the city so that the city’s machinery of more than 40,000 employees would work more efficiently.

Although the distances to Sinnemäki are several times during the season, Sinnemäki will eventually receive the biggest thanks from Vapaavuori for his professionalism. Some high-ranking officials, on the other hand, are so completely ignored that Vapaavuori’s opinion is not unclear.

During his season, Vapaavuori was criticized for intervening too easily in the problems or for coming into the situation with a little too much buzz when intervening.

Read more: The weakened intervals between the mayors of Helsinki have already made headlines several times over the past year – HS found out what is really going on in Helsinki’s management

In the book, Vapaavuori admits that the criticism was not completely unfounded. In Vapaavuori’s view, however, the critique of the multidimensionality of the real state of affairs drowned out.

“The big change I made in the way the city is done and my leadership leadership and ability to do so was considered by many circles to be perhaps my greatest strength. Now the idea that the opposite would be the case was being built into a narrative, ”Vapaavuori writes.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of Vapaavuori’s mayoral period was his attempt to depoliticize the mayor’s office. This effort is also extensively presented in a recent work. As a justification for the effort, Vapaavuori gives at least the fact that “the everyday life of the townspeople is apolitical”.

From the outside, Vapaavuori’s desire to rise above politics raised and raises eyebrows. A long-line Coalition Party member selected from the Coalition Party list will not become neutral overnight with his or her own announcement.

For the Free Mountain, however, this is disappointing. In the book, he accuses the Greens and Social Democrats, for example, of party politics in various twists.

And Vapaavuori does not spare. Plenipotentiary, Member of Parliament Atte Kaleva get to know the icy rage of Vapaavuori when trying to change the status of the Malmi field in connection with the processing of the provincial plan. According to Vapaavuori, Kaleva’s behavior was “simply shameless”.

Some revelations The first mayor contain. Vapaavuori says that at one point Fortum was interested in buying Helen’s district heating network, but the matter did not go beyond initial feelings.

Correspondingly, Helen proposed a merger with Vantaa Energy. The mayor of Vantaa listened to his troops Ritva Viljanen refused politely.

Vapaavuori also says that he came into contact with the police when someone had made a request for an investigation into the violation of the corona regulations.

Vapaavuori had had a remote interview with the Finnish Olympic Committee at City Hall during the corona closures. He had obtained permission to do so from the city’s infectious disease doctor, so police found the report unfounded.

“You never know where your nearest opponent is lurking,” Vapaavuori thinks.

Read more: Jan Vapaavuori’s book argument: Sdp pulled Eveliina under the keel of Heinäluoma when the city center tunnel was dug – “Left a mark”

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