New mayors are elected in 14 of the 17 municipalities in the Miesbach district. Alfons Besel (FWG) in Gmund can sit back and relax because he is not available.
Gmund - in 2018, Besel won the run-off vote against competitor Franz von Preysing (CSU) with 53.26 percent. He will remain in office until 2024. The 53-year-old is an administrative specialist and knows his job very well by running a town hall business. Around a hundred people work for the community; there are 22 full-time and part-time employees in the town hall. We spoke to Alfons Besel about how a mayor can influence local government.
Mr. Besel, several mayors who are elected all around have little to do with administration. How do you become a mayor?
The Bavarian Community Day offers a series of seminars for newly elected mayors, where you can get the basics from an administrative point of view. In addition, there are corresponding further training courses from the Bavarian School of Administration, where you can work out a solid foundation.
Four weeks and then you can?
Oh no! After three to four seminars on topics such as construction law, finance and local law, you should already be in the saddle, because you have no puppy protection, are decision-makers from day one and are therefore fully responsible for everything. In a way you are thrown into cold water. That is why good administration is needed. You can't do without them. I have respect when someone comes from a foreign profession, but master craftsmen also have good knowledge of law and personnel management.
They had it relatively easy there.
Yes, I had no problems, since I had been the managing director in Gmund for 13 years and before that in the construction office for 17 years. Then I was department head in the district office. So I was well prepared and had no problem with administrative management.
What exactly did you change in the town hall when you became mayor?
I didn't change anything significant because I helped shape the administration myself for 13 years. I still introduced small things, for example a staff meeting once a month, where everyone comes together in the town hall and I inform about meetings, projects and political goals so that the administration is on board. We also have a jour fix with our kindergarten and nursery school leaders. In addition, as a mayor, you exert influence in everyday life. We have an open tone here and an excellent team, for which I am very grateful.
All employees know what to do. Does a town hall run on its own?
I already introduced a training budget with my predecessor Georg von Preysing. It was clear to us that good specialists in the town hall are the be-all and end-all for a community, in a positive sense for every community citizen. Because the better he is advised here in the town hall, the stronger his position towards specialist authorities.
Are these training courses compulsory?
No, we decided that. I have to pay everyone equally under collective bargaining law, and I prefer it if I have well-trained staff. We communities, like the free economy, suffer from excessive bureaucracy, where a lot of time and energy is wasted so that the regulations are implemented in compliance with the law.
This makes it easier for you as an administrator.
The following applies: Learned is learned.
What would you advise and wish to the new mayors?
From the mayor's point of view, that he also sees people behind every employee. And from the point of view of the administrator, that he finds qualified personnel, or that he ensures that people can qualify.
Do you need to train yourself?
I always attend further training courses, for example on traffic law issues, liability issues or innovations in local law. There are always changes in the legal system, so a mayor should know about it because every decision must be legally sound. Lifelong learning is my principle anyway.
Are you satisfied with how things have gone since you took office?
Overall I am very satisfied. At the beginning I had to find myself in the representative role of the mayor. On the other hand, the new tasks are astonishingly quick to change the administrative person per se to the designer.
About this series
Until the municipal elections on March 15, we are guests in each of the 17 cities and municipalities in the district to explain the importance of local political issues using practical examples.
You can read all information and dates for local elections here.
You can find all the news and topics relating to the 2020 local elections in the Miesbach district on our large topic page.
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