Six aldermen for the municipality of Emmen? Isn’t that a bit much? Several factions wondered out loud this evening. The Wakker Emmen and PvdA factions will hold sway in Emmen for the next four years.
Wakker Emmen will be purveyor to the new council with four aldermen. D66, GroenLinks, ChristenUnie, CDA and VVD, however, lacked text and explanation regarding the choice for expansion from five to six aldermen.
In addition to Mayor Eric van Oosterhout and veterans René van der Weide, Jisse Otter, Raymond Wanders and Guido Rink, the board will consist of Pascal Schrik and Dewy Leal. The six were officially appointed tonight, along with all council and committee members. The appointment of Van der Weide and Otter resulted in two votes against, that of Wanders one. Everyone else was ahead of it.
Six aldermen raised the eyebrows of Joey Koops (D66). He spoke of an exceptional situation, as such an amount is rare. According to him, this had to be properly explained to the voter.
Especially now that there are only two parties in the council and there have been many cutbacks in recent years. “A councilor is relatively expensive, both in salary and in redundancy,” he noted.
GroenLinks also questioned the growing number of aldermen. According to party leader Bernadette van der Woude, the range of duties does not differ much from that from the previous period. Henk Huttinga (ChristenUnie) went along with the argument. But he also expected that the central government will not fail to throw more tasks over the fence at municipalities in the coming years.
Patrick de Jonge (VVD) wondered what that extra strength was needed for. “The explanation is lacking and the portfolio allocation is also not clear.” Rene Wittendorp (CDA) emphatically wanted a good substantive substantiation before proceeding to appoint the aldermen.
René van der Weide (Wakker Emmen) explained that the tasks of the municipality of Emmen have only increased in recent years. Moreover, the municipality still has its hands full with the decentralization that has been implemented since 2015. In that year, the central government transferred the responsibility for youth care, work and income and care for the long-term sick and the elderly to the municipalities. “It takes time to get to grips with that,” says Van der Weide.
Moreover, the municipalities are still waiting for the energy transition and a renewed task for housing. Where about six years ago it mainly came down to pruning housing plans, houses now have to be added quickly.
Finally, more than 430 million euros is currently being spent in the budget of the municipality of Emmen. Significantly more than several years ago, according to Van der Weide. This also results in additional work, according to Van der Weide. A council with six aldermen for a municipality with more than 100,000 inhabitants is not nearly that exceptional, he further responded to D66 member Koops. He also referred to Rotterdam, where the council consists of ten aldermen.
Tonight, the coalition agreement was also presented to Mayor Eric van Oosterhout. The content of the agreement will be discussed by the city council on 2 June.