As of: January 24, 2024, 12:57 p.m
By: Alma Bucher
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Press
Split
The background to the criticism on the one hand and the city administration's approach on the other is likely to be the highly sensitive issue of “sea connections”.
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Starnberg - Eight city councilors from the BLS, BMS, WPS factions as well as the currently non-attached Anke Henniger (formerly FDP) have requested a public meeting of the city council on the current budget situation.
The motivation is, in her opinion, the lack of transparency on the subject of finances: “We refer to the meeting (of the city council; editor’s note) on January 12, 2024,” writes Anke Henniger, justifying the cross-party motion, “there the presenter “Speakers recommended that further discussions be held non-publicly in further closed meetings, that positions be developed internally and then represented publicly together,” said Henniger.
The applicants clearly disapprove of this approach: “We have already taken a critical view of the non-public procedure and have noted this,” it said in a statement to the press.
There is no longer any reason for secrecy anyway, the applicants argue, after “internal presentation documents” were recently made public and published in “Starnberger Merkur”.
Henniger sees a general obligation to address financial issues in public meetings: “The citizens of Starnberg deserve both honest and unsparing information about the budget situation as well as the opportunity to participate in the development of constructive solutions.”
“Sea connections” must be buried if finances are not right
The background to the criticism on the one hand and the city administration's approach on the other is likely to be the highly sensitive issue of "sea connections": Mayor Patrick Janik has been in discussions with the federal and state governments for some time to secure additional funds for the city's once-in-a-century project, which is estimated at 177 million euros - the first mayor had the deadline for these explorations extended again at the end of 2023.
If nothing comes of the urgently needed donations, the “sea connection” would have to be buried in the planned form and the lawsuit against Deutsche Bahn against the city of Starnberg would be formally revived - discussions to be held by consensus would probably lead to a settlement, but that It would still cost the city dearly and would paralyze it for years to come.
The declared opponents of the “sea connection” have exactly the same fear if the city gets ahead of itself with the project despite possible subsidies from the federal and state governments.
These opponents or skeptics also include the applicants - they generally call for more transparency on the subject of finances and call for its public treatment "from calendar week 6", i.e. after February 11th, in the form of a plenary session "and no sole budget consultations." Decisions in the Finance Committee” - the (fundamental) decisions due in the near future are “probably far-reaching”, so the argument goes.
“Brief information” on the budget situation
The application launched by city councilors Anke Henniger (non-attached), Eva Pfister, Josef Pfister, Anton Summer, Stefan Kandler (BMS), Michael Migoli, Franz Heidinger (BLS), Johannes Glogger and Ralf Breitenfeldt (WPS) aims to The aim was to receive at least “brief information” about the budget situation - in this context it was also criticized that the town hall had repeatedly kept a low profile on this matter.
The city leadership, in turn, seems to fear that budget data that becomes public before the consultations are completed could be misused for interpretations that could harm the city in the explorations or negotiations with the federal and state governments.