With his chief of staff, Claude Bertrand, two former human resources managers, a former director general of services and his deputy, he was prosecuted for "misappropriation of public funds through negligence", as part of an investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office. (PNF) started in 2017.

His former collaborators were given suspended sentences ranging from three to five months in prison, and fines of between 3,000 and 5,000 euros.

Justice accuses them of not having taken measures (badgers, control service, etc.), for many years, to put an end to inherited practices within about fifteen municipal services, fixed overtime hours without work performed, in violation of labor law.

And this, while the working time was already derogatory, below the 1,607 legal annual hours.

"Customerist"

"Yes, I was negligent and I did not take enough interest in the inner workings of things", declared the former right-wing mayor of Marseille (1995-2020), by videoconference, during a hearing to plead- guilty before the 32nd chamber of the Paris Criminal Court.

The investigations first concerned the Samu social, then extended to other services (libraries, museums, etc.) in this city which employs around 12,000 agents.

In a 2013 report, the regional chamber of accounts estimated the shortfall at 10 million euros per year for the municipal budget, or 280 full-time equivalents.

"Social cohesion has always seemed important to me. When you have strikes, it costs the city's finances even more," pointed out the 82-year-old former mayor, also sentenced to pay a fine of 10,000 euros. .

He also argued that "no" prefect had alerted him "in a very strict and very direct way" to the problem.

The prosecutor, Quentin Dandoy, recalled the "context" which "pre-existed" the arrival of Mr. Gaudin, and stressed that none of the defendants had personally enriched themselves.

"From the term of office of Gaston Defferre (1953-1986), a pact was sealed between the municipality and a union", FO, he retraced, insisting on the "clientelist" policy put in place.

"Known of All"

“The management of working time within the city was known to everyone”, he insisted, also reporting the “dissatisfaction” of the inhabitants with public services which “dysfunction”.

The PNF relied in particular on three reports, public, from the regional chamber of accounts (between 2006 and the end of the 2010s).

The investigation was limited to the period 2013-2018 due to the prescription and the first "measures which reflected a desire to change things" adopted by the municipal council.

Police in front of the courtroom where the former mayor of Marseille Jean-Claude Gaudin was tried, at the Paris courthouse, March 22, 2022 Emmanuel DUNAND AFP

The PNF had initially summoned the defendants to appear for a classic trial.

But the respondents then obtained an appearance on prior admission of guilt (CRPC).

This is based on an agreement between the prosecution and the perpetrator of an offence, which recognizes his guilt.

At the end of the hearing, Judge Bénédicte de Perthuis approved the sentence.

"The sentence seems appropriate given the context of the sensitive issue" of working time "within communities in general and in Marseille in particular", she estimated.

"If I feel bruised, I nevertheless retain the conviction of having worked well for Marseille and the people of Marseille, who elected and re-elected me four times, with collaborators who have always invested tirelessly in their service. But I 'assume', reacted after the deliberation Mr. Gaudin on his Facebook page.

In addition to the symbolic euro, the lawyer for the town hall asked a few thousand euros from the former director of Samu social, sentenced to 10 months in prison for embezzlement of public funds.

© 2022 AFP