The five parliamentary groups in the Enser municipal council continue to prepare for the constituent council meeting on November 3rd. Now the five group chairmen have agreed to change the structure of the committees. According to the parties’ proposal, the number of committees should be reduced – a committee for education, social affairs, volunteering and sport (BSES) should be set up. The proposal is to be adopted on November 3rd.
Bremen – With the changed committee structures, politics wants to adapt in particular to changed administrative structures. In the past, there have been repeated discussions about merging the school and culture committee. Even before the local elections, the administration asked to check this again, according to a declaration by the parties, especially since school administration tasks are now also being processed in the social department in the town hall. The group chairmen have taken this up and propose the establishment of a committee for education, social affairs, voluntary work and sport (BSES), which continues to be responsible for questions from the areas of culture and generations.
The topics are closely interlinked so that kindergarten and school development planning, for example, are now bundled in a committee. Without increasing the number of meetings, the new committee could meet more regularly, so all areas would benefit.
Municipal works play a central role
The proposal of the group chairmen goes much further. The responsibilities of the current planning and environmental committee are also to be merged with those of the building and transport committee. This would create a committee for planning, construction and transport (PBV). By bundling planning, implementation and award decisions, synergy effects in politics and administration should be used.
Due to the complexity of the formal planning process and its importance for community development, the committee should have 15 instead of the usual 11 members. A new committee for economy, energy and environment (WEU) takes over the responsibilities for environmental questions and from the main committee questions about the economic development. Both issues have gained in importance and need to be balanced with one another, the statement says. This also applies to questions about renewable energies, which have played a central role not only since the foundation of the municipal works.
These three committees are to be joined by the compulsory committees prescribed by the municipal code – the electoral review committee (WPA), the auditing committee (RPA) and the main and finance committee (HFA). The latter is to get a new responsibility for the digitization of administrative tasks.
The political groups have asked the administration to draw up a new allocation of responsibilities on the basis of their proposals, which will be presented in a joint meeting.
Discussion on chairing the committees
The political groups are still discussing who should chair the new committees.
The local government supports the committee structure proposed by the group chairmen. “The planning and construction committees last year showed that the same topic was discussed in two committees,” explains Andreas Fresen, councilor of the community. In addition, the risk of a committee failing “due to a lack of advisory resources” decreases, which has happened more frequently in the past and can probably be prevented with the new committee structure.
Local council and committee
The local council is elected by the population. He is responsible for all matters relating to local government, according to the municipal code of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Among other things, the council decides on the general principles according to which the administration is to be conducted; the choice of councilors; the definition of strategic goals taking into account the resources. The decision on the election of the members of the committees and their representatives is also taken by the Council. The committees are divided into compulsory and optional committees. In NRW, the formation of a finance committee, a main committee and an auditing committee are mandatory in the municipal regulations. The Council can establish general guidelines for the work of the committees. The council can delegate decisions to a committee, on the other hand a committee has an advisory function.
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