According to Bank of Israel data, in October there was a decline of 27 percent in credit card purchases in Ashdod, and assuming that those who use cash are also counted, the rate of trade in the city declined by about 40 percent. In an interview with "My City," the municipal podcast of Israel Hayom, city council member and former Yamina Party CEO Stella Weinstein reveals a model that will increase consumption in the city that local authorities can implement in times of emergency.
"Today the structure is such that most of the decision-making and activity powers are in government ministries, whether in matters of education, finance, municipal tax collection – and the authorities are completely dependent on government ministries," she says. "My model says that this should be decentralized and the decision transferred to the local authorities. This is an unnecessary and unnecessary detour. The model I'm talking about, I call 'your city's poor first,' in which the local authority becomes a consumer who drives local businesses like a locomotive – not just a regulator.
Sailboat Square in Ashdod, Photo: Rafael Ben Ari
"Today we are used to the Authority issuing tenders and there are 2-3 large companies in the economy that win, and they provide services to all local authorities. I say get out of that perception. Let's change it and start with the basic services. If there are catering, cleaning, engineering and architecture services – first of all contact the internal businesses. Secondly, initiate business activities. I proposed this model in my local authority, they say that at the moment they are afraid of the road. Thinking outside the box doesn't happen. There is a fixation."
She said authorities should develop an online sales site through which products can be purchased from local businesses.
Asked where the government ministries are, she replied: "I was in the government, they keep the budgets close to them - and I saw how every beginning of the year the mayors make a pilgrimage to repeat the openings and a ritual of give me and I will give you and beg. We are in a time of war – and there is no time for that, and perhaps the war is an opportunity to shake the country from that centralization."
State Comptroller Engelman (Archive), Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Liora Shimoni, the chief investigator in the State Comptroller's Office who will examine the failure on the home front, also does not spare criticism of the government in an interview in My City. "Throughout the years, there have been programs that have been done in different ministries – it was expected that the same programs would be opened," she says. "In this case, these plans did not materialize – and it may be a good thing that they did not materialize. The fact is that this did not happen, or they were not recognized, or they were planned and did not fit the situation that was created, and even when they began to act – the process of treatment was a failure. How long does it take you as a country – as someone who has the responsibility to ensure public safety – to organize? Hour? Two hours? Week? This is what the State Comptroller is talking about – he mentions and says that such a long period of time for organizing is unreasonable – and throughout this period failures and inability to provide a response were discovered."
Full interviews on the "My City" podcast from Israel Hayom. Listen to the episode - and other interesting episodes
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