The new city council meets for the first time on May 5. Because of the corona pandemic, there is a change of location. The council rooms become a boardroom.
Geretsried– The newly elected city council meets for the first time on Tuesday, May 5. Given the corona pandemic, the constituent meeting will not take place in the large meeting room of the town hall. The city administration organizes them in the council room. "There we can guarantee the necessary safety distances for the city councils as well as for interested spectators," explains Thomas Loibl, spokesman for the city.
A look at the archive shows that this is not the first time that the Geretsried city council has moved to the council rooms. In 1984, for example, the constituent meeting was also held there. "The Isarkurier from back then shows that more space should also be given to the increased public interest here," reports Loibl. Martin Walter, who, according to the meeting minutes, was present as a member of the administration, documented the first session with the camera.
Loibl also expects a “larger crowd of interested citizens” on May 5th. Despite the regulations for curbing the corona virus, nothing changes in the fact that the constituent meetings in Bavaria have to be completed by May 14 - publicly, said Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann recently. The old city council was able to help itself by convening a vacation committee (we reported). In the composition of the main and finance committee, it takes city council resolutions without having to be crowded in the boardroom. He was deployed for six weeks, his last meeting is on Tuesday April 28th.
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All 30 new city councilors including the mayor must take part in the constituent meeting. "We therefore decided to move the constituent meeting to the large hall of the council chamber," said Loibl. The agenda has not yet been published. According to the press spokesman, it is planned to say goodbye to the old city councilors. "The constituent meeting will, by its nature, again contain familiar items on the agenda: this includes, of course, swearing in, remuneration, the adoption of rules of procedure, but also the appointment of committees, speakers or, for example, the filling of working groups."
Preparations for the replacement boardroom are already underway. In order to be able to hold secret elections there, voting booths, ballot boxes and disinfectants are provided, explains Loibl. There will also be a seating arrangement that takes into account the distance rules. In the meeting room of the town hall there is an audio system with a recording function to make the minutes easier for the work. Correspondingly, in the Ratsstuben “the sound system is checked, after all a microphone passed from hand to hand is not the means of choice in these times,” explains town hall spokesman Loibl.
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The other dates for the new city councils have already been set: Main and Finance Committee on May 12, Committee for Youth, Seniors, Social Affairs, Culture and Sport on May 13, Building and Environment Committee on May 19 and the first regular City Council meeting on May 26. Loibl: "How and for example where exactly these meetings take place, we will judge based on the assessment of the situation at hand." In terms of the number of members, committees are of course easier to implement than complete city council meetings. "But that doesn't mean that we can find good solutions here if necessary."
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