Rhineland-Palatinate City Council
The Städtetag Rheinland-Pfalz eV is the association of 31 medium-sized and larger cities in the state, including the twelve independent cities and the eight large cities belonging to the district. The largest member city is Mainz with 204,010 inhabitants (2014), the smallest Bad Bergzabern with 7,525 inhabitants (2014). Overall, the association represents around 40% of the residents of Rhineland-Palatinate .
Together with the District Association and the Association of Municipalities and Towns , the Association of Cities and Towns forms the working group of the municipal umbrella associations, the leadership of which is assumed by an association on an annual basis.
The Rhineland-Palatinate City Council was founded on August 8, 1947 . The place of the founding meeting was Mainz; however, by order of the French military government, Koblenz was designated as the seat of the association.
Membership of each city in the Rhineland-Palatinate Association of Cities is voluntary - as is the case with all central municipal associations. The association is non-partisan and independent. It is led by a board of directors with 13 members who meet approximately every six to eight weeks. There are five committees for the technical work as well as a large number of special working groups, which usually meet twice a year. The highest organ is the general assembly, which meets annually in autumn. The office of the is located in Mainz.
The most important tasks of the association are:
- the information of the members in all community-relevant questions
- the exchange of experiences between the member cities
- the representation of the cities to the state government and the state parliament (LTGO RP 2011 I 1; § 129 GemO, §§ 11 and 16 GGO of the ministries and the state chancellery, § 79 para. 4 GeschO LT)
- Press and public relations
The respective chairmen of the Rhineland-Palatinate City Council are mayors or mayors of the associated member cities. They are elected by the members of the city council in the same rhythm as the local elections.
- –2003 Gernot Fischer (Worms)
- 2003–2004 Jens Beutel (Mainz)
- 2004-2007 Christof Wolff (Landau)
- 2007–2010 Werner Schineller (Speyer)
- 2010–2011 Jens Beutel (Mainz)
- 2012–2013 Klaus Jensen (Trier)
- 2013-2014 Michael Kissel (Worms)
- 2014–2019 Bernhard Matheis (Pirmasens)
- 2019 Thomas Hirsch (Landau)
- since 2019 Michael Ebling (Mainz)
Michael Mätzig and Fabian Kirsch have been the managing directors of the association since June 2018.