The municipality of Aa en Hunze is once again investing a lot of money in its own organization. Just like last year, the municipal council wants to invest more than a million euros in staff and improved services for residents. The city council is very critical of the plans.
In 2023, the Municipal Executive wants to be able to spend one million euros on new civil servants. The municipality is also putting half of this in the budget for the coming years. In addition, six tons is needed to better serve residents, such as answering calls and e-mails from residents faster and more effectively.
The group of Municipal Interests already lends the council a hand and gave Mayor Anno Wietze Hiemstra a callback book during the budget meeting last night. The message: just call people back now. That’s not so difficult is it?
Yet Aa and Hunze still do not always manage to do this, mayor Hiemstra admits, but there is no lack of will. “You can call people back decently, we all think that. Only the practice with 250 people is a bit more unruly here. Not everyone always keeps to every appointment,” says Hiemstra.
The substantial investment raises question marks for the VVD. Party chairman Richard Heling would like to know what the investment of last year has yielded the residents of the municipality. “Discussions between residents and external research have shown that the service provided by the municipality can be improved. And we know that it has to be improved.”
The PvdA also has difficulty re-spending more than a million euros on the town hall. “It still turns out to be not enough, we see, for example, that the progress of urgent matters such as housing is getting stuck. But how big do you want an organization of a not too large municipality to grow?” asks party chairman Frits Klein Langenhorst. wonder.
There is also criticism of the municipality’s intention to be able to handle eighty percent of all incoming e-mails by 2026. “What happens to the other twenty percent?” asks VVD member Heling.
CDA party chairman Sonja Hilgenga believes that the municipality is taking a lot of time to achieve that goal. Mayor Hiemstra suspects a mistake in the budget. “That should be 2024.”
The City Council will vote on the budget on Nov.