"This is absolutely no longer a citizen service": Hot debate about the Wartenberg town hall

Created: 05/07/2022, 19:00

By: Markus Schwarzkugler

The town hall in Wartenberg and the citizen service there were hotly debated in the municipal council.

©Roland Albrecht

Is the citizen service in the Wartenberg town hall really that bad?

In any case, Josef Sedlmaier (CSU) recently painted a devastating picture in the market council meeting.

Wartenberg – He had been told that citizens only had to wait months for an appointment to pick up ID cards.

"This is absolutely no longer a citizens' service," Sedlmaier fumed.

His fellow councilors had different opinions on this.

Christian Leinert, the responsible department manager, happened to be present at the meeting because he was standing in for the administrative manager Werner Christofori, who was on vacation.

"We can't do anything about bureaucracy," he said at the beginning.

In addition, one experienced an exceptional situation due to the corona, one was able to offer a few appointments.

Online appointment scheduling has also been introduced.

As could be heard at the meeting, not every citizen is enthusiastic about it.

In any case, according to Leinert, citizens who stop by the town hall without an appointment have to put up with waiting times.

"We don't know how many visit us on a day without an appointment," said Leinert, according to which there are currently three full-time and four part-time employees in the area.

“The picture outside is not good.

In my opinion, the citizen service looks different”, meanwhile also criticized the second mayor Carla Marx (Neue Mitte).

In the meantime, if there were longer waiting times, citizens would be "sent to the ice cream parlor" next door, while "the girls are sitting with their cell phones" in the town hall.

Franz Ganslmaier (FWG), on the other hand, feels "well looked after" in the town hall, while Melanie Falzetta (Greens) also has a different picture.

She got to her appointment quickly, as did the citizens who were there with her.

“Of course it is an issue that there are now online appointments.

But I think it's also a matter of luck (how long you have to wait; ed.)," said Falzetta, and her colleagues on the council had to laugh.

3. Mayor Bernd Scheumaier (CSU) meanwhile broke a lance for the online reservation of appointments.

He had experienced that a few times in the district office, and it was his turn faster than before.