Advisory Board (district parliament in Bremen)

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In the city of Bremen , 22 advisory boards are elected to deal with local issues . They are district parliaments with limited decision-making options and their own budget for district-related measures. The background is that the municipal representation, the city citizenship, consists of the city-Bremen members of the state parliament, the Bremen citizenship , and there is no representative body such as B. exists in the city-states of Berlin or Hamburg at the district level .

history

From 1946, 42 districts were initially formed without giving them their own political representation. Of these, only the 14 further away from the city received a local office and an advisory board, the members of which were appointed by the parties and confirmed by citizenship. In 1962 this number was reduced to 13 because Arsten and habenhausen were combined in the new Obervieland district.

Not until 1971 were comprehensive advisory boards and local offices created. Each district received an advisory board. Four new local offices were added to the 13 existing ones, each responsible for two or three districts.

Since the Advisory Council Act of 1989, the citizens of the city of Bremen have been able to elect the advisory councils directly.

Local office managers were proposed by the respective advisory councils and have been elected since 2012. They are then appointed full-time or honorary by the Senate .

Local jurisdiction

The advisory boards are formed for one district each. The districts of Blockland, Borgfeld, Seehausen and Strom, which are directly assigned to an urban district without a district level, each have their own advisory board. The affairs of the districts industrial ports as well as Hohentorshafen and Neustädter Hafen are handled by the advisory boards of Gröpelingen and Woltmershausen. The city of Bremen's overseas port area Bremerhaven is the only district of the city of Bremen that does not have an advisory board.

As a rule, a local office is assigned to each advisory board. Common local offices were set up for

  • Findorff, Walle, Gröpelingen, industrial ports (local office west),
  • Central and Eastern Suburbs (local office Central / Eastern Suburbs),
  • Neustadt, Woltmershausen, Hohentorshafen, Neustädter Hafen (Neustadt / Woltmershausen local office)
  • Schwachhausen and Vahr (local office Schwachhausen / Vahr).

Choice and composition

All Germans and Union citizens who can participate in the election for citizenship in the advisory board area in accordance with Section 1 of the Bremen Election Act are entitled to vote . The minimum voting age is 16 years - since November 14, 2009 due to the electoral law, previously through a deviation regulation in the local council law, which was made by local law of October 16, 2006 (BremGBl. P. 436).

All eligible voters who have reached the age of 18 and live in the respective advisory board area are eligible for election to the advisory board. The advisory council elections have taken place parallel to the citizenship elections since 1991. The voters each have five votes, which can be given to any party or individual candidate.

The advisory boards are made up of politically active, voluntary citizens who are generally organized in political parties. The number of members of the advisory councils has been determined depending on the number of inhabitants in the district and city district concerned.

Working method of the advisory boards

The advisory boards each elect an advisory board spokesperson and his / her deputy by a simple majority, who represent the advisory board in public and before the authorities.

The advisory boards usually meet in public. Public meetings may be recorded and transmitted in picture and sound by the press, radio and similar media or by the advisory board. The local office management publicly invites you to an advisory board meeting in consultation with the advisory board spokesman. A meeting can also be convened at the request of a quarter of the advisory board members. Advisory board resolutions are passed at the meetings with a majority of votes.

For certain tasks, the advisory boards can form permanent and temporary committees and also delegate the final decision-making to them. In addition to advisory board members, citizens who live in the respective advisory board area can also be elected to the committees. For certain tasks, committees can also be formed in which institutions in the advisory board area are represented with the right to speak.

The local office management leads the advisory board and committee meetings, but has no voting rights itself. The members of the advisory boards and committees receive attendance fees, which are usually paid monthly.

Duties and rights

The advisory boards have limited decision-making options.

In general, the advisory councils have the task of advising on all public district matters and taking a position on them, i. H. to receive reports on the affairs of the local office, to deal with requests, suggestions and complaints from the population, to support institutions, associations, initiatives and other associations, to advise and resolve issues relating to the advisory board of the social services as well as applications for budget estimates . The law describes the rights of the advisory councils under the keywords:

  • Information rights (§ 7)
  • Measures and planning (§ 8)
  • Participation rights (§ 9)
  • Decision-making and consent rights (§ 10)
  • Establishing an agreement (§ 11)

Authorities involve advisory boards in their work by asking the advisory boards for opinions. This applies in particular to land use plans, development plans, landscape programs, the definition of redevelopment and investigation areas, building permits, cancellation or change of use of public facilities, social, cultural and environmental policy measures, leasing, buying and selling of public areas and buildings, expansion and conversion of Streets, squares and green spaces, measures for land disposal and drainage, changes in administrative districts and, in some cases, for district-related funds in the departments.

The advisory boards have decision-making rights z. B. in the use of the funds earmarked for the advisory board area (see: global allocation of funds ), in district-related transport measures , in the organization and implementation of community events in the district, limited in the formation of district-oriented partnerships, in own district-oriented social, cultural and environmental projects as well as naming streets and squares.

If no agreement can be reached between the advisory board and the authority, the authority is obliged to submit its request to the competent deputation for consultation with the decision of the advisory board . The advisory councils have the right to be heard at the relevant deputation meeting. In certain cases, the advisory councils can also request advice or a decision from the city citizenship.

To exercise their duties and rights, advisory boards can set up committees, send members to local working groups and other representations, hear representatives from authorities and experts, or inspect files in the local offices.

Global allocation of funds

Financial resources are available to the advisory boards for district-related projects (global funds). Initiatives, associations and private individuals can apply for these project-related funds. The responsible local offices advise on the application.

Citizen and youth participation

The aim of the law on advisory councils and local offices is to ensure that district-related decisions are closer to the citizen. In particular, it is intended to make administrative procedures and decisions transparent, promote civic engagement and achieve a high level of acceptance among citizens. Citizen participation is therefore one of the most important tasks of the advisory councils.

Citizen Applications

Residents who have reached the age of 14 can turn to the advisory boards with suggestions, requests and complaints in matters relating to the district. The advisory boards must discuss these applications within six weeks. The local office will inform the applicant of the result of the consultation in writing.

Youth participation

In 2004 the Schwachhausen Youth Advisory Board was founded, which in the meantime sent two representatives to the Schwachhausen Advisory Board. The Schwachhauser Initiative rekindled the discussion about the political participation of young people in many parts of Bremen.

On October 31, 2006, Paragraph 5a was added to the local law on advisory councils and local offices, which regulates the establishment of youth councils. In the version of the law dated February 2, 2010, youth participation was integrated into § 6 Citizen and Youth Participation. The advisory boards are tasked with promoting and supporting the local political engagement of young people in the advisory board area. To this end, they can each set up a youth council. The members of the youth councils can be granted the right to speak and propose to the meetings of the councils.

There are different approaches to youth participation at the advisory board level:

  • In the quarter (Bremen) an open approach is pursued in the quarter parliament . All young people can have a say there without being elected.
  • In Huchting , on November 5, 2009, a youth advisory board was directly elected by all young people from Huchting who were entitled to vote and aged at least 13 and not older than 17 years. It has 15 members. He has his own budget, which the Huchting Advisory Board made available to him from its global funds. He is elected for two years.
  • In Hemelingen district since May 2015 Youth Advisory Board, in which all voting Hemelinger young people can move on, which takes place every two years choice exists. It currently consists of 11 members.
  • Furthermore, youth councils were then formed in Neustadt and Oberneuland .

Cross-advisory cooperation

A general advisory board was initially set up for cooperation. In 2007 it was renamed the Committee for Citizen Participation and Advisory Board Matters . Here the advisory boards have the opportunity to exchange ideas and coordinate their activities. You get the right to set up an advisory council conference, which meets publicly, by resolution of the majority of the advisory councils. The previous special regulation for Bremen-Nord to form a cross-advisory building committee will be expanded thematically and spatially. The advisory councils have the right to set up joint regional committees.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

All links according to the model § 1 OBG refer to the Local Advisory Council Act. in the version valid since September 30, 2016. Law portal Bremen, accessed on October 11, 2016 .

  1. ^ The election results in the 42 districts of the Bremen election area, Weser-Kurier of October 8, 1951, 1st supplement, online only for subscribers
  2. ↑ Nobody doubts it anymore: Soon local offices in all parts of the city, Weser-Kurier of October 27, 1962, p. 9, online only for subscribers
  3. ↑ § 35 OBG
  4. ↑ a b § 1 OBG
  5. ↑ § 27 OBG
  6. ↑ § 3 OBG .
  7. ↑ § 4 OBG
  8. ↑ § 26 OBG
  9. ↑ § 14 OBG
  10. ↑ § 13 OBG
  11. ↑ § 23 OBG
  12. ↑ Ordinance on flat rates according to the local law on advisory boards and local offices. in the version valid since August 5, 2016. transparenz.bremen.de, accessed on October 11, 2016 .
  13. ↑ § 5 OBG
  14. ↑ a b § 10 OBG
  15. ↑ § 11 OBG
  16. ↑ Printed matter 17 / 366S. Bill. Bremen citizenship, August 18, 2009, accessed on April 1, 2018 (PDF).
  17. ↑ a b § 6 OBG
  18. ↑ www.Jugendbeirat-Schwachhausen.de. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original ; Retrieved October 12, 2010 .
  19. ↑ Hemelingen Youth Advisory Board: Minutes of the meeting from May 13, 2015. Youth Advisory Board Hemelingen, May 13, 2015, accessed on October 24, 2019 (German).
  20. ^ Local office Hemelingen: Youth Advisory Board Hemelingen. Hemelingen local office, accessed on October 24, 2019 (German).
  21. ↑ http://www.rathaus.bremen.de/sixcms/detail.php?gsid=bremen54.c.5645.de
  22. ↑ § 24 OBG