2023-12-11 14:36:14
In the SN article “Mayor: When it’s time for the ripcord” (SN December 7, 2023), two personalities show how stressful this office is and where you have to pull the emergency brake. The whole discussion was triggered by the surprising resignation of Wals-Siezenheim Mayor Joachim Maislinger, who has undoubtedly done a lot of positive things for the common good and who was often apostrophized as a doer.
But this reputation as a doer boomeranged in spatial planning. Building authority “first instance” drives a mayor into a dead end of responsibility due to various close relationships. In Wals-Siezenheim, residential buildings have been approved over the last seven years, far exceeding local needs, to the benefit of investors, but to the detriment of future generations. With the building permit for the expansion of the gas station and the approval of a food market at the B1/Posch intersection, every sensible traffic solution for the future was installed.
These examples show once again that mayors need to be freed from the burden of being the “first-instance building authority,” as is the case with their Bavarian neighbors. But it is also clear that the members of the local council have to examine themselves, because if everything is accepted without objection, they will not do justice to their task and would have to resign.
The country’s political leaders are called upon to release the mayors from responsibility following the example of their Bavarian neighbors.
Helmut Auer, 5071 Wals
1702305954
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