Administrative structural reform in Brandenburg in 2019

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The comprehensive reorganization of the public administrations in Brandenburg planned by the Brandenburg state government was designated as the 2019 administrative structural reform. It should include both comprehensive territorial and functional reform. After fierce resistance from the municipal level, the plans were withdrawn in November 2017.

Background: Study Commission 5/2

Berlin Polen Freistaat Sachsen Freistaat Thüringen Sachsen-Anhalt Niedersachsen Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Frankfurt (Oder) Cottbus Potsdam Brandenburg an der Havel Landkreis Prignitz Landkreis Ostprignitz-Ruppin Landkreis Oberhavel Landkreis Uckermark Landkreis Barnim Landkreis Havelland Landkreis Potsdam-Mittelmark Landkreis Märkisch-Oderland Landkreis Teltow-Fläming Landkreis Dahme-Spreewald Landkreis Oder-Spree Landkreis Elbe-Elster Landkreis Oberspreewald-Lausitz Landkreis Spree-Neiße
Counties and independent cities in Brandenburg since December 6, 1993

In the 5th legislative period (2009 to 2014), the Brandenburg state parliament set up a commission of inquiry "Local and state administration - citizen-oriented, effective and future-proof - Brandenburg 2020" (EK 5/2). The commission consisted of seven MEPs and seven experts. The state government was also represented in the commission by the ministerial director Rudolf Keseberg (head of the municipal department) and as a representative by Volker-Gerd Westphal (head of the administrative modernization department).

The central result of the commission's work was that the demographic change, the foreseeable development of public finances and the safeguarding of the efficiency of the Brandenburg municipal administrations make a comprehensive administrative structural reform indispensable.

The final report of EK 5/2 was presented in October 2013.

Recommendations for the community level

The study commission spoke out against a renewed state-wide municipal area reform. All 419 cities and municipalities, including 144 unofficial cities and municipalities, 271 official municipalities and four independent cities, should be retained. Neither can it be determined that there are currently deficits in decision-making, nor is it foreseeable that such problems could arise in the future, even if the population figures in many cities and municipalities continue to decline. With a new reform, however, there would be a risk that the structures that have emerged since 2003 and the citizens' identification with their city or municipality could be negatively influenced. However, this principle does not rule out voluntary associations.

Something different applies to the 200 full-time administrations at the community level, which are responsible for implementing the tasks and decisions of the communities. A growing number of these is already responsible for fewer than 5,000 residents. The Commission therefore considers it necessary to significantly and sustainably enlarge the areas of responsibility of the full-time administrations. In addition to guaranteeing performance standards, this also creates the possibility of transferring additional tasks to the local self-government level. If the number of full-time administrations is not reduced, this will lead to disproportionately high costs per inhabitant in some regions.

The study commission therefore recommended that full-time administrations at the municipal level should be given the minimum number of inhabitants of 10,000 (based on the forecast of the number of inhabitants in 2030 as a target). The area factor has to be taken into account when considering the specific administrative layout.

Brandenburg municipality

The authorities had proved the Commission's view in principle. However, it is advisable to equip these larger administrative units with direct democratic legitimation, because the larger an administration becomes, the greater the risk that it will develop a “life of its own”. With the emergence of larger administrative units that are supposed to carry out even more tasks, the Enquete Commission felt it was essential that the official committees not only consist of delegated members of the communities, but that the members are directly elected. The official committees would then be real regional representations, which could also be constitutionally necessary due to the larger number of tasks.

The commission suggested the further development of the principle to be based on the Rhineland-Palatinate community model. This model provides that both the proxy and the main administrative officer are elected directly. The latter is an expression of the fact that civic participation is wanted in all important decisions. The Enquete Commission suggested that the further developed office be called the “Brandenburg Official Community”.

Establishing official municipalities all over the state of Brandenburg is not necessary. Many municipalities that still have more than 10,000 inhabitants by 2030 could continue to exist as unitary municipalities from the perspective of the commission. However, the Enquete Commission was of the opinion that it is never wrong to create larger administrative units. This means that cities and municipalities with significantly more than 10,000 inhabitants can also participate. Your status as a city or municipality should remain unaffected in this model. Using joint administrations and doing tasks together will not erode identification with one's own city or municipality, as long as local contact persons are retained.

If, despite the strengthening of the offices, it was difficult to transfer additional tasks to the municipalities and the new official municipalities, because these transfers of tasks required significantly more than 10,000 residents, the study commission took the view that these tasks should be carried out in so-called “front” and "back office" activities should be split. The front office should always be the municipal administrations with their branch offices and mobile units.

Recommendations for the district level

Changes were also called for at the district level - in view of demographic change and the associated worsening financial framework conditions. In order to strengthen local self-government, tasks from the state administration should be transferred to the districts. Compensatory and supplementary tasks for the communities, which the districts would have to continue despite the reduction in full-time administrations, could best be carried out by fewer administrations at the district level.

It was recommended to reduce the number of the existing 14 rural districts to seven to a maximum of ten. According to the Commission, this does not mean less closeness to the citizens and less self-administration. The districts would be larger and journeys longer, but even with only seven districts left, the study commission did not consider the legally permissible maximum to be exceeded. A good citizen service is maintained. The new district administrations will also have to maintain branch offices.

Coalition agreement from 2014 to 2019

In their coalition agreement for the 6th electoral term, the SPD and DIE LINKEN determined in September 2014 that they consider a comprehensive administrative structural reform to be necessary in order to maintain efficient self-government even in places with a population decline. Administration services should therefore not only be offered at the headquarters, but also in service points, via mobile offers and increasingly via electronic services. The recommendations of the Enquete Commission 5/2 "Local and state administration - citizen-oriented, effective and future-proof - Brandenburg 2020" provided a good basis for this from the point of view of the governing parties.

District level

The district level should be strengthened through a district reform and the encirclement of independent cities. In principle, a maximum of ten district administrations were considered sufficient. Other tasks currently performed by the state should also be transferred to these. In addition, full financial compensation was promised and, together with the central municipal associations, it was examined whether a separate “Connectivity Act” is required to permanently guarantee the principle of cost compensation (Art. 97, Paragraph 3).

Before the decisions to be made, a model that had meanwhile been presented was planned, which, in addition to the regional characteristics in Brandenburg, was to take into account the maintenance and strengthening of local self-government and democratic participation.

One district cities

Approval for the reform should be made easier for the regional centers, i.e. the previously independent cities, through financial concessions such as partial debt relief, through the relief of certain tasks and through a greater financial contribution to their expenditure from state funds and financial equalization funds. They should also be given the opportunity in the future to carry out those district administrative tasks on their own responsibility, the decentralized implementation of which is meaningful and formative for urban life. The municipal supervisory connection of the future cities belonging to the district should be examined.

Functional reform

Further tasks should be transferred from the state authorities to the municipalities so that they can be carried out more economically and closer to the citizens. The list of tasks of the study commission should form the basis for this.

Local constitution reform

According to the will of the coalition, there should not be another state-wide municipal area reform. The aim, however, was to create a strong municipal administration for usually 10,000 residents. The coalition therefore wanted to promote voluntary amalgamations of municipalities and offices and improve the legal framework for this. In this context, she wanted to include the model of the office, which had been developed into an official municipality, in the municipal constitution. In addition, the legal framework should be created so that municipalities and offices can use a more efficient office for their administrative tasks or have them performed by another municipal administration on a permanent basis.

A further development of the municipal constitution should ensure that civic participation in the municipalities is strengthened and the identity of the grown parts of the municipality is preserved. Districts should therefore be given more freedom in future to make independent decisions about their affairs. In districts with more than 3000 inhabitants, full-time local mayors (“local mayors”) should also be able to work in the future.

Finally, the local government should be evaluated. The age limit for the eligibility of full-time mayors and district administrators is to be raised.

Mission statement process

On December 17, 2014, the state parliament issued a resolution calling on the state government to submit a draft model with statements on the reform elements by mid-2015. The state government dealt with the reform schedule on February 17, 2015. Since then, talks have been held between the ministries on the basis of the proposals of the Enquete Commission 5/2 for Functional Reform I (rural districts) and Functional Reform II (district-municipal level).

Presentation and resolution of the draft model

On May 19, 2015, Minister Karl-Heinz Schröter presented the draft model for the reform at a press conference. This was submitted to the municipal umbrella organizations as well as the trade unions for comment and formed the basis for the government-internal vote, which was completed by mid-June. On May 22, 2015, the Minister of the Interior presented his draft to the main administrative officer.

In the draft mission statement, it was stated that with the administrative structural reform of 2019, the public authorities in Brandenburg should be redesigned. The intention was therefore

  • to expand or create new scope for action and design for the municipal authorities,
  • to facilitate the democratic participation and participation of the citizens and to secure it permanently,
  • to enable the full-time administrations at local level to perform their tasks even more effectively and
  • to be able to react flexibly, purposefully and solution-oriented to future challenges.

It was also planned that rural districts and independent cities in Brandenburg should have at least 175,000 permanent residents and that their area should not exceed 5,000 km². The annex to the draft lists the tasks that are to be communicated as part of the reform, including: a. the sovereign and common good-oriented tasks of the state forest administration and the tasks of the state in the area of ​​supply administration (e.g. severely handicapped identification procedures). Immission control is also to be localized, with responsibility for industrial systems remaining at the state level.

On June 16, 2015, the Brandenburg state government approved the draft of the model for the 2019 administrative structural reform. It was then forwarded to the Brandenburg state parliament.

Public dialogue from mid-2015 to mid-2016

The public dialogue on this draft began with the presentation of the draft model by the Minister of the Interior on May 22, 2015. The governing parties had already provided for this dialogue in their coalition agreement.

The interior minister was in charge of the dialogue, and from the end of August to mid-October 2015 he held a public mission statement conference in every district and in every independent city. These 18 conceptual conferences were followed by a reform congress in January 2016, in which the interim status of the statements and comments made up until then was discussed. Five regional conferences were then held. A conference was held in each planning region in Brandenburg. The second reform congress, originally planned for April 2016, did not take place.

At the conceptual conferences, Interior Minister Karl-Heinz Schröter presented the main features of the planned reform together with other representatives of the state and administrative science. Then there was the opportunity for questions. The following discussions were very controversial. Critical comments clearly predominated. Only a few participants in the mission statement conferences saw the need for reform cited by the state government. Most of the reform content was rejected.

Hearings in the state parliament

The Committee for Internal Affairs and Local Affairs (AIK) held hearings on the draft concept already during the conceptual conferences. Initially, this hearing focused on the delegation of tasks proposed by the state government. The relevant technical committees were also involved in these hearings.

On June 2 and 3, the district administrators, a large number of mayors and administrative directors were heard in the AIK on the possible structural changes. The managing directors of the municipal umbrella organizations also gave statements.

The hearings in the state parliament showed that, on the one hand, there were doubts as to whether the need for reform would persist to the extent that the state government sees it. On the other hand, the municipal representatives viewed the planned key points of the reform very critically.

Administrative structural reform department

In the Ministry of the Interior and Local Affairs, an administrative structure reform unit was set up at the State Secretary with effect from March 1, 2015. She should be responsible for coordinating the entire process.

Proposals from the state government

District boundaries according to the state government's first restructuring proposal from 2016

On October 6, 2016, the state government submitted a proposal for the layout of the new districts. The proposal saw the merger of the Teltow-Fläming and Dahme-Spreewald districts into one Dahmeland-Fläming district , the merger of the Havelland district with the independent city of Brandenburg an der Havel and the Beetzsee ( Potsdam-Mittelmark ) district, the merger of the Elbe districts. Elster , Oberspreewald-Lausitz and Spree-Neiße with the independent city of Cottbus to form a district of Niederlausitz , the merger of the district of Oder-Spree and the independent city of Frankfurt (Oder) , the merger of the districts of Ostprignitz-Ruppin and Prignitz to form a district of Prignitz-Ruppin as well as the merger of the districts of Barnim and Uckermark to form a district of Uckermark-Barnim . The districts of Märkisch-Oderland , Oberhavel and Potsdam-Mittelmark (excluding the Beetzsee office) remained unchanged according to the model. Potsdam would have been the only independent city.

On July 13, 2017, the state government presented a draft law on district reorganization, which provided for the following:

The state parliament should decide on the proposal in the second half of 2017, which should come into force in summer 2019, on the date of the local elections.

On November 1, 2017, Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke announced that the state government had suspended the vote. The reform should not be carried out as planned.

Popular initiative

The popular initiative "get citizens - Stop district reform" surrendered on February 14, 2017 lists with 129,464 signatures to the Brandenburg state parliament. The aim of the popular initiative is to stop the ongoing plans for district reform, to prevent new plans for district reform and to create the legal prerequisites to improve cooperation between the municipalities. The second stage, the referendum, began on August 29, 2017 . At least 80,000 signatures are required for the referendum to be successful.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Composition of the study commission
  2. Final report of the study commission "Local and state administration - citizen-oriented, effective and future-proof - Brandenburg 2020 PDF (parldok.brandenburg.de)
  3. Resolution of December 17, 2014 PDF (parldok.brandenburg.de)
  4. Organigram of the Ministry of the Interior PDF ( Memento of the original from April 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (mik.brandenburg.de) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mik.brandenburg.de
  5. ^ Proposal for the layout of the new districts
  6. a b c d Preliminary proposals from the Interior Ministry for new district names
  7. ↑ Draft law of the state government on the reorganization of the district , accessed on July 5, 2017
  8. Tagesspiegel: Woidke calls off district reform - SPD general secretary resigns
  9. Homepage of the popular initiative , viewed on April 3, 2017