A look back at the work of the city council since the 2019 election shows that one of the biggest problems facing local government cannot be gotten under control: reconciling voluntary work, which is paid for with an expense allowance, with the demands of professional and family life.
The hour-long meetings in the evening – not only in the city council, but also in the specialist committees – are a fundamental problem. This explains, for example, that the majority of city councilors are above the Potsdam average in terms of age. Seniors sometimes have a little more time.
There are possible solutions. On the one hand it is actually about a kind of self-restraint, some people just like to hear themselves talk. And there is still the bad habit, for example, that many new applications are submitted verbosely several times in various rounds.
Henry Kramer has been a reporter for the Potsdamer Latest News for many years. He mainly reports on local politics, crime and education in Potsdam.
However, it is of course difficult in a city council meeting with eleven different factions, because many want to be heard, apart from the search for majorities. Only the people of Potsdam can ensure that not too many factions move into the town hall at the same time for the local elections in a year’s time.
What would certainly work: So-called hybrid sessions for the city councilors have been announced for a long time – this should also enable participation via online access from home. Should such a format actually be made possible before the local elections – it would be one of the best advertising measures for this important honorary post, so that younger Potsdamers in particular, possibly with families and small children, are not deterred by the prospect of mammoth meetings outside the home.
Unfortunately, the views of younger people in particular are not heard as often in the city parliament as might be necessary. The fact that such online models work has already been successfully tested during the Corona period.
