District Representation

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In Germany and Austria, district representatives are political bodies that administer city districts or city districts.

Germany

In North Rhine-Westphalia , according to Section 35 (1) of the NW Municipal Code , there is an obligation to subdivide an independent city into districts. District municipalities are free to divide their urban area into districts. The district councils are by the municipal reorganization new to the municipal code was added to unincorporated cities and municipalities continue to own parliament to grant.

No fewer than three and no more than ten city districts should be created. For each of these city districts, a district council must be formed, which may consist of eleven to nineteen members, whereby the number of members must always be odd and, like the council, is elected for five years. The district council elects a district head from among its ranks , who by resolution of the city council may also use the title district mayor .

The district council is responsible for all matters of its city district ( all- responsibility in the city district), it has to observe the general guidelines issued by the council of the municipality. In practice, many municipalities have issued regulations governing the decision-making and hearing rights of the district representatives.

In other federal states, too, there are representatives of the people below the council level (see: District Council for Berlin, District Assembly for Hamburg, District Council in Lower Saxony ). There is an elected district mayor only in Berlin, Lower Saxony and individual cities in North Rhine-Westphalia .

Austria

In Austria, there are district representatives as an assembly elected every 5 years by the electorate of the respective district currently only in the 23 districts of Vienna and in the 17 districts of Graz . Each of the individual district representatives is headed by a chairman. This is often the district chairman . The political districts or administrative districts in the federal states are not democratized administrative units. The district captain is appointed by the state government and is a civil servant, not a politician.

Vienna

District representatives in Vienna consist of 40 to 60 elected members, the district councils, depending on the size of the district . The district head is superordinate to them . As a result of the decentralization of the Vienna administration in 1998, the financially underfunded and politically insignificant district representatives became reasonably important bodies. As a result of the reform, the decision-making authority of the districts includes, for example, the maintenance of kindergartens and compulsory schools, the maintenance of side streets and ensuring their traffic safety, the establishment and maintenance of parks and playgrounds, and the management of pensioners' clubs . The districts receive a fixed budget to carry out these tasks. Due to the many fixed items (school renovation, road maintenance), the district councils only have a small budgetary leeway that can only be expanded through savings and / or loans or advance payments. At present, the annual expenditures required for school renovation alone exceed the total budget in many districts.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website of the city of Hanover on the district council and district mayor