Christian Schiller started his third term of office as independent mayor of Herrsching in May.
After the local elections, it was not just a matter of organizing the new municipal council under difficult corona conditions.
Schiller speaks of a year with special challenges and hopes that everything will work out again next year.
Herrsching -
Mr. Schiller, there were elections in March, and there were major changes in the composition of the local council.
How did the work play out?
The cooperation with the new council has started well, but it will take some time until we are a well-rehearsed team with the new members.
Due to the restrictions caused by Corona, there were no prerequisites for uncomplicated cooperation, for example due to limited contact options or the prevention of informal conversations, which are otherwise common and helpful.
That is a noticeable disadvantage.
In the next year there are some projects that should be tackled this year.
It is very important to work out the basics for a new children's home in Am Fendlbach.
We started with this in the last meeting.
Completion is planned for 2024.
I'm also looking forward to the new parish hall in Widdersberg and to the fact that we can finally start with it.
We might even finish next year.
Then the years of back and forth will come to an end.
In order to finally be able to demolish the old Hurlehaus at the elementary and middle school and still offer accommodation for the homeless, we are building a new homeless shelter.
Are there any homeless people at all at the moment?
No.
We have a homeless person whom we were able to accommodate in a guesthouse in Fürstenfeldbruck.
But it will close soon.
What is the next step with the traffic concept?
We have increased the budget for the transport concept for next year from 100,000 euros to 200,000 euros.
There are some measures to be taken.
For example, new road markings or the implementation of area-wide 30 km / h zones.
In addition, additional crossing aids are planned for Rieder Straße.
These are now being tendered and are expected to be built in spring 2021.
The municipal council wanted to set up an environmental working group in addition to a transport working group.
Because of the pandemic, he has not yet been able to meet.
Are video conferences conceivable for a non-decision-making body such as a working group?
Basically yes.
However, this is difficult and time-consuming.
Video conferencing takes a lot of preparation and demands great discipline from the participants.
Citizens who are not experienced in committees, such as representatives of the senior or youth advisory council, also work in the working groups.
The question is whether it will work, whether everyone involved has the technical requirements and can handle them.
If you only meet once or twice a year, the routine is missing and spontaneous discussions are difficult.
In fact, I personally prefer to have these sessions physically.
Citizens' meetings in Herrsching usually take place in spring.
This year not because there was an election campaign.
Are you taking up the idea of some of your counterparts to come up with a video message?
We are currently discussing this.
Here, too, the question of effort and benefit arises.
For colleagues, the duration of the participants' stay on the Internet in front of their screen was on average just twelve minutes.
Citizens have already started contacting us by email, Instagram or phone.
We have several dozen inquiries every day.
We take every contact seriously and answer it.
I take a lot of it with me to the municipal council in an unbureaucratic way.
I always look forward to direct contact at citizens' meetings.
It's just different with video.
I hope that we will be able to invite citizens to meetings again in the spring and I am thinking about whether we will then also record them so that citizens can access them on the Internet and watch them with a time delay.
You had already published an annual report at the beginning of the year.
Yes, and of course it was distributed to all households again.
I assume that due to Corona the attention was lost a bit.
We have been preparing the report every year since 2009 with up to 50 pages.
I think we are the only ones who do this on such a regular basis.
The annual report is also available online on the municipality's website.
The next one is already in the works and will appear as usual at the beginning of the new year.
Corona has also changed everyday life in the town hall.
Are there any measures you would stick to after the pandemic?
Yes, for example making appointments.
If someone has an emergency, we are of course still there.
But the appointment arrangement has straightened out a lot in the town hall, especially in the residents' registration office.
There are no longer long waiting times there.
The citizens in particular benefit from this.
Incidentally, the mask requirement is very exhausting for our employees throughout the day.
When you look back on this year, how do you sum it up?
It was completely different work and there were completely different challenges. To the delight of my family, I've never had so few evening appointments. On the other hand, those that took place anyway were much more time-consuming to prepare than before. For me, it was a particularly challenging year with completely new experiences, and not just because of the local elections.
