WA Councilor Bernd Schäfer criticizes the city of Waltrop: They do not communicate well and the mayor is also violating the principle of neutrality. You see it differently in the town hall.
Councilor Bernd Schäfer from Waltroper Aufbruch criticizes the communication from the town hall. This is insufficient, especially in Corona times, he writes in an application for the competent council committee. And: The mayor violated his neutrality requirement.
Schäfer goes through the various information channels. The city homepage: not very current, especially when it comes to Corona. The “Waltrop-App”: as far as the information to be found there is concerned, a copy of the city’s homepage and “in this context just as useless”. The Waltroper Zeitung: in itself a well-suited quality medium for passing on information, but it doesn’t reach everyone either. The city’s Facebook page: a fast medium, but not particularly well accepted.
Mayor’s website in focus
That leaves the mayor’s website. They are updated regularly, but also “with information that is not always that important”. However, the SPD city association Waltrop is responsible for the website. “Kindly you can submit an application for SPD membership right away. Although this generates clicks for the comrades, it has nothing to do with the mayor’s requirement of neutrality, ”writes Schäfer. Especially since the Waltropern was promised exactly that – a mayor for everyone – before the election. Other means of communication such as Twitter and Instagram played “very subordinate roles” in Waltrop.
As an SPD member, Mittelbach provides information on his side
City spokeswoman Andrea Middendorf says on request that Schäfer’s input will of course be dealt with in the relevant council committee.
In advance she draws attention to the fact that the homepage www.marcel-mittelbach.de, which Schäfer addresses, is a website that is independent of the city of Waltrop. “Here Marcel Mittelbach acts as an SPD member, so that topics of the party can also be found on this page, which is managed by the SPD city association.”
Basically, the city communicates via the Waltrop media and the city’s own channels. These are the homepage, the “Waltrop app”, the official gazette, Facebook and Instagram. “The city of Waltrop provides proactive information and also provides information on citizen and media inquiries.”
Mayor present on social media
As mayor, Marcel Mittelbach also uses social media to provide information on topics relating to the city and his work as mayor and at the same time opens up an opportunity to address him directly in his role as mayor. “The imprint of this Facebook page refers to the city of Waltrop, whose press office is also responsible for the editorial department.” Marcel Mittelbach also maintains a private Facebook and a private Instagram account.
According to the city spokeswoman, the city of Waltrop wants to further expand digital communication channels. “However, the scope is limited by the available human resources.”
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