Joint municipality

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A collective municipality (from “total”, “together”) is a municipality association in Lower Saxony that performs certain public tasks instead of its member municipalities . The member communities remain independent bodies and continue to carry out their own range of tasks independently. Of the 1008 communities in Lower Saxony, 722 are member communities of integrated communities (as of June 30, 2012).

Historical development

In the area of ​​today's state of Lower Saxony, the cooperation or - in some cases - the merging of local communities has a long tradition. The forms of cooperation were initially not controlled centrally and as a result varied. Particularly noteworthy is the association to form overall communities on the basis of real communities in the Osnabrück area that remain independent , while the parishes in the Oldenburg area developed into communities. The first legal bases in the modern sense of the word developed in the 19th century, in particular the revised rural community order of the Kingdom of Hanover of April 28, 1859, the regulations of which continued to apply to the existence of the kingdom until the National Socialist era . The term Sammtgemeinde (with a double m) already appears in Section 20 of this law. It was also used in the municipal regulations for the Prussian state of March 11, 1850, which, however, only remained in force for three years.

The unclear legal situation after the end of the war meant that the Lower Saxony legislature, with the decree of the Lower Saxony Municipal Code (NGO) of March 4, 1955, stipulated in Section 138 (1): "The integrated communities remain in existence". The legal nature as well as the rights and obligations of the integrated municipalities were henceforth regulated in the NGO and since 2011 in the Lower Saxony Municipal Constitutional Act (NKomVG).

Legal character

The legislature wanted to give smaller municipalities the opportunity to strengthen their administrative power. These can combine administratively and establish joint communities (cf. Section 97 (1) sentence 1 NKomVG ).

A joint community should have at least 7,000 inhabitants when it is formed (Section 97 (1) NKomVG). It will not become a unified community , but rather an administrative community of its still legally independent member communities. Like their member communities, integrated communities are self-governing bodies and capable of employers (cf. § 1 No. 2 NBG ), so they have their own legal personality and are subject to the same supervision as their member communities (cf. § 171 para. 2 NKomVG). The joint municipalities can, if necessary, like the district, levy a levy (the so-called joint municipality levy) on their tax shares to cover their expenses (see Section 111 (3) NKomVG).

In order to form a joint community, the member communities must agree on a main statute (see Section 100, Paragraph 1 of the NKomVG) in which the member communities, the name of the joint community, the administrative seat and the tasks assigned (voluntarily) by the member communities must be specified (cf. 99 para. 1 NKomVG). Changes to the main statutes are decided by the joint municipal council with a majority of its members (cf. § 12 NKomVG). After the formation of the joint community, its further fate is no longer in the hands of the individual member communities, but with the representative body of the joint community. The admission or departure of member communities can, however, be made dependent on the consent of the majority of the member communities (cf. § 99 para. 2 NKomVG). In order to complete the formation, the adopted main statute is made public by the municipal supervisory authority (cf. § 100 para. 2 NKomVG).

organs

Joint municipalities have three organs :

The joint municipality committee consists of the joint municipality mayor, who is the chair (Section 74 NKomVG), and, depending on the size of the council, two to ten councilors, whereby in joint municipalities with between 16 and 44 members, an increase of two can be decided ( Section 74 (2) NKomVG). These are filled according to the Hare-Niemeyer procedure , depending on the seats of the parliamentary groups and groups .

tasks

The tasks of a joint municipality include Section 98 (1) NKomVG u. a. the preparation of zoning plans , sewage disposal as well as cemetery and fire services. It also takes over the sponsorship of elementary schools , the construction and maintenance of communal roads, the establishment and maintenance of libraries and sports facilities, insofar as these serve several member municipalities, and can be assigned other tasks to the member municipalities (see Section 98 (2) sentence 2 NGO ), for example tourism . For the areas it has taken over, the joint community has the right to issue the corresponding statutes and ordinances (cf. § 98 Paragraph 1 Sentence 3 NKomVG). The joint municipalities also fulfill all the tasks of the assigned sphere of activity of their member municipalities (cf. § 98 Paragraph 2), such as passport and registration.

The joint municipalities are also obliged to support their member municipalities in fulfilling their tasks (see Section 98 (4) NKomVG). The budget statutes of the member municipalities are also forwarded to the responsible municipal supervisory authority via the joint municipality (see Section 98, Paragraph 6 of the NGO). Joint municipalities also take on the management of the cash transactions for their member municipalities and collect the municipal taxes due for them (Section 98 (5) NKomVG). They can also set up their own auditing office for their member communities, which then takes the place of the district auditing office (cf. Section 98, Paragraph 5, Clause 2 of the NKomVG).

Resignation of member communities

A member congregation can leave the joint congregation in two ways. On the one hand, when it is incorporated into another congregation outside of the integrated congregation. Otherwise, the main statutes of the joint municipality must be changed for their departure (cf. § 102 para. 1 NKomVG). This is not the task of the respective member community, but, as described above, a matter for the joint municipality council. In order for a member municipality not to be excluded against its will, it must agree to a change in the main statute; Reasons for the public good may not stand in the way of the change. The joint municipality and the departing member municipality have to regulate the legal consequences that result from the change by means of an agreement (cf. § 102 Paragraph 3 NKomVG). If this does not come about, the local supervisory authority shall make the necessary provisions (cf. §§ 102, Paragraph 3, Clause 2 in conjunction with § 100, Paragraph 1, Clause 8 of the NKomVG).

Other federal states

In Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt, there is a similar association with the municipality with the character of a regional authority in which the citizens elect their own parliament at the level of the association (see also municipal association ):

In other federal states there are also municipal associations with the character of a federal body without their own representative at the level of the union:

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lower Saxony state government: Lower Saxony in figures , accessed on July 18, 2013.
  2. ↑ Spörlein: The Samtgemeinden in Lower Saxony, Göttingen, 1965
  3. ^ Hannoversches Gesetzblatt I. Department, p. 393.
  4. ^ Schmidt / Stein: The integrated community after the administrative and territorial reform in Lower Saxony . Hanover, 1983.
  5. ↑ digitized version of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek on http://mdz-nbn-resolving.de
  6. ↑ Nds. Law and Ordinance Gazette 1955, p. 55.
  7. ↑ Nds. Law and Ordinance Gazette 2010, p. 576