Commentary series
Part 1
The paradox of a crying city and a relaxed mayor
In terms of city management, the situation in Haifa is dire...
The decision of the Ministry of the Interior to postpone the deadline for the approval of the current budget until the end of March 2022 also foreshadows the continuation of the war of attrition in the council, and also forces the municipal system to continue working under very restrictive conditions. In light of the inevitable damage to the service to the resident, we would assume that the mayor's office will go into high gear, with the aim of preventing serious damage to the residents. We would even expect marathon meetings and consultations to take place in the spirit of the Interior Ministry's recommendations to pull the cart out of the mud.
But surprisingly, the exact opposite process is apparently taking place in the city:
The mayor repeatedly submits the same budget for the council's approval with only partial amendments, and the change council is the one that deals with writing a new budget while creating a meaningful dialogue with the partners.
So in light of the dark situation we are in, how can the mayor's relaxed behavior be explained? Conduct that one of its manifestations is the continuation of pastoral public relations publications of painting basketball courts when at the same time the service to the resident deteriorates alarmingly?
Is it possible that all this is due to the Haifa municipality preferring populism to public responsibility?
When will any municipality fall into populist conduct?
In the light of my experience, I can say that a municipality would be considered populist if they existed about it Three conditions. These conditions, bleak as they may sound, are mainly suitable for the conduct of mayors of two types.
The first type Including mayors who have lost the ability to act significantly in their city. Such a situation usually arises when there is a deep crisis of trust with the residents or in a situation where there is a city council that opposes the mayor's policies. These mayors will turn to populism because they cannot move meaningful things in the city, so they are forced to frequently market small and trivial actions like installing street benches for example as if they were huge public enterprises.
The second type of mayors including those who rule their city without Egypt and without a shred of effective opposition. Their turn to populism is done because it is simply the easiest and cheapest thing to do.
And these are the three conditions for a populist municipality:
The first condition for a populist municipality
Let's assume a scenario according to which there is a large and militant opposition in the city. After all, according to the first condition for a populist city, the mayor will aim for the opposition's hands to always be full so that it will have no time to make populist claims against him.
How do you create such a situation? very simple.
Since the council members in the opposition serve voluntarily, then there is no real difficulty in filling their little free time with a variety of weighty issues. Libel lawsuits, government persecution, threats of dispersal due to the lack of budget approval, procedural exhaustion, sycophancy, accusations of conflicts of interest and more are only a small part of the tactics employed against militant oppositions in Israeli cities. And to the extent that these tactics are successful, the mandate to engage in populism moves from the opposition to the patronage of only one party - the mayor's office.
And why would they prefer to deal with populism there? We already said, it's the easiest and cheapest. Especially when there is nothing else of substance going on in town.
The second condition for a populist municipality
Haifa is not the only city where the mayor has a close chorus on social media. It doesn't matter if it's a choir of bots or of such and such "commandos", all the choirs have the same goal that corresponds to the achievement of the second condition for a populist municipality - lowering the level of expectations of the residents from their city to zero.
why is it important?
Because if a certain city has no visitors, no vision, no approved work plans, no dialogue with all the neighborhood committees, no meaningful dialogue with the public, no dialogue with the media and no objections or alternatives to the mayor's policy, then there is probably no hope for its residents either.
A consequence of this is that in such a city the mayor is free to pull the urban agenda into his comfort zone, while at the same time the clapping choir makes sure that everyone will welcome it. So why should residents expect anything else from their city?
The third condition for a populist municipality
The third condition requires that the communication channels between the residents and their leadership be managed exclusively and unilaterally by the mayor alone. Do you know a city like this?
To be continued…
Error correction, Einat will continue in her position as mayor until the local government elections.
There is no such thing as "local government elections". But yes, there is such a thing as democracy in which the role of the residents is to criticize their representatives.
It's a waste of time, Einat Kalish will continue to have elections until the local government elections as required by law. I ask all the members of the city council to leave the political quarrel between you and approve the municipal budget finally, and without any further postponements. Have a good week.
Dear Trudeau, I am happy to have reports from the municipal auditor and the state auditor from the Yahav period. Happily, there is documentation for the huge loans and deficits he created. Happily, there are fatal reports on the manner of his failed management in every area, which continue to accumulate from the municipal auditor's and the Ministry of Interior's inspections of the state of the municipality until 2018.
This is about destruction, exaggeration, theft, lies, exaggeration, and the smearing of hundreds of omissions during the Yahav period. Let's mention just one. In February 2010, the opposition - the Greens, asked to discuss the state of the fire department in the city. They asked to understand why they have not bought fire engines for years. Escape routes and preparedness exercises. Why, even though it was said that a new fire station would be built in Rumma and it was a mandatory condition for the opening of the Carmel tunnels at the time of their opening and to this day, this decision has not been implemented and Haifa is left with outdated fire stations.
Do you know what Hadova Almog and Yona Yahav did? They used their power in the council to cancel the discussion on the state of the fire brigade.
Do you know what happened that year, 10 months later in December 2010? The Carmel disaster.
Do you know what happened just 4 months after the Carmel disaster? The failed mayor Yona Yahav recalled purchasing fire engines in Haifa.
Now tell me how wonderful his management was. The damages reached NIS 200 million. 4 million trees were burned.
The mayor of Haifa did not consider the difficult firefighting situation in Haifa worthy of discussion in February 2010. In December we received the answer.
This is one issue. You want, I'll give you 50.
The Lord received a city and turned it into a city of ruins.
A mayor who is "relaxed" and does not fight anything for the benefit of the residents. An important thing is that there is a plan to transfer one of the hospitals and Bnei Zion or Carmel to Kiryat Ata - this must not happen, and we have not heard that Klish is meeting or fighting to prevent this from happening. And if they are thinking of transferring, then let them transfer Bnei Zion, which really does not provide a full response, no parking, no MRI in an emergency, and in Carmel there is this response, the Rambam catastrophe screening. It is not possible that in Haifa, a large city in the north, there is no response from hospitals and the only one who gives a response is Beh Carmel - they want to take it from us, it is the mayor's job to fight for us or she is busy naming streets or meeting with a celebrity.
Correction continue your work
Dr. Yariv, I ask you to stop slandering Dr. Kalish. Einat as mayor of Haifa works day and night for the residents of Haifa. There has never been a mayor of Haifa like Dr. Einat Kalish Rotem, a brave woman who cares for the well-being of the residents of Haifa of all ethnicities, peoples and classes in Haifa. I know that some of you hate the mayor of Haifa So please stop slandering Dr. Kalish and Nachshon Tzuk, the acting mayor. The people come to work for all the residents of Haifa, whether they chose her or not. All the best, keep working hard for the beautiful city of all of us, Haifa. Come on Einat To take care of all residents of Haifa. Shalom and blessed Shabbat
Rafi is enough to lick the cliché. She's ruining the city.
Shabat Shalom to you too. Open your eyes and look around
It can be said that for 15 years Yona Yahav buried Haifa in a disastrous socio-economic grave, and Klish is engaged in designing the tombstone and enlarging the grave plot.
There is only one solution that will get us out of Yahav's pit: a professional appointed committee, the appointment of a professional CPA who will examine each position in the municipality, what is its cost, what is its necessity. Making a cut in the huge pensions of public sector employees throughout the country and especially in the senior ranks (15,000 NIS and above pensions monthly),
Canceling dozens of senior standards in unnecessary administrations, 2030, 3050, etc., unifying departments in the municipality and eliminating duplication and checking the necessity of each employee among the 4,500 employees of the municipality, especially in the senior positions that devour 250 million NIS in senior salaries.
From the moment it is carried out, it will become clear that the city has hundreds of millions of shekels to invest in development, construction, rehabilitation, and loan repayment. As soon as the weight called salary expenses for seniors and pensioners is reduced above the city's budget, we will be a rich city that has money to invest in service to the resident, in the construction of magnificent public buildings, in the renovation of promenades without the need for donors, even in increasing welfare and social budgets.
It all starts with the heaviest sections in which no one dares to touch - the mayor is a great hero, but the municipality's workers' committee terrorizes it. Therefore, what is needed is the dissolution of the council and the mayor and the appointment of a called council and professional management.
There is an accountant in the council, CPA Eli Bo Dayan, sounds like he understands a matter and knows how to read salary reports. He can be appointed acting mayor for a year until the elections for urgent economic reform in the city budget.
If the Council of Change folds and again passes an inflated and absurd budget based on development budgets that become current and salary, like in the destructive Yona Yahav era that left us with a huge deficit and the main thing was to plant flowers in the streets... it will be a real disaster and the city will fall further.
You often mess with Yona Yahav, who didn't bury the city but on the contrary, turned it upside down and didn't leave Klish anything to do.... Jonah got a village and turned it into another place, and it's a shame that he was interrupted in his work by barbarian amateurs and other unskilled speakers and the ability to slander them.
Look for the part in Stanley Kubrick's film Metal jacket where the eternal sentence was said:
You talk the talk, yoy'll never walk thr walk
The article explains what we all understand and see:
1 The public is stupid and you believe everything.
2. Klish and her gang do not have the skills to manage a council and a city.
3. You need proven previous experience in city management, and in particular a good familiarity with Mishregi and allocation departments, such as planning and project approval committees.
4. The one who gets bogged down in trivial details and doesn't trust anyone - should run a grocery store and not a city.
5. Small talk and advice are often helpful for spelling and speaking nonsense. Deeds are meant for those who know testimony.
Must share as much as possible
There are no more beautiful words to describe the situation that Haifa is in, it is likely that you used gentle expressions so as not to offend, (even though nothing bothers her) despite your beautiful words it is certainly possible to understand what is going on here... What is not clear is, how did we end up in such a horror movie situation? .
Waiting for part 2...
What a "brilliant" analysis...