Turnaround in digitization: The Unterhachingen municipal council does not want to meet partially online and has therefore rejected so-called hybrid meetings with the votes of the SPD, FDP, Free Voters and Neos. At a vote in the committee in May, 27 council members were in favor of such a change in the rules of procedure. Only one person voted against digital participation at the time. The CSU and the Greens are appalled by the change of heart of their colleagues. You speak of a “grossly wrong decision”.
Before the vote, both groups had once again urged the other to approve the administration’s “very good resolution proposal”. This provided for a maximum of twelve out of 30 members to be able to take part in meetings via “sound-image transmission” at the same time and, in the case of non-public meetings, to ensure that the transmission is only perceived by them. The administration had increased the originally planned quota of six online participants to twelve after the debate in the May meeting. The addition to the Rules of Procedure should apply from this July. But already in the meeting of the finance committee a departure from the previous broad approval became apparent.
“We do not understand that,” said Claudia Köhler (Greens) in the local council. In spring 2020, due to the protection against infection and out of consideration for members of risk groups, no specialist committees had met for several months, but – despite very important agenda items – only the holiday committee with a smaller number of members. The Bavarian State Parliament has made hybrid meetings possible through a law and has left the municipalities with extensive freedom in structuring. “It remains to be seen whether hybrid meetings generally bring relief to volunteers and whether they can become standard in terms of professional obligations and the connection between volunteering and family,” she said. The law therefore provides for a new regulation in any case from 2022.
Michal Durach (CSU) also warned: “We all have digitalization as a task. I ask you to vote unanimously for it and not for step backwards.” His group colleague Korbinian Rausch recalled that schools, universities and even small businesses had brought this about. He is convinced that this also enables more participation by young people and professionals. But these appeals died away in the great hall of the Kubiz. With 14:13 votes, there was a narrow majority for the hybrid meetings, but in this case the approval of two thirds would have been necessary.
The fears that many seats in the conference room could often remain empty in the future are apparently great. Julia Mittermeier (Free Voters) justified her rejection “For some it could be a license not to come to the local council”. Peter Wöstenbrink (SPD) also does not consider hybrid meetings to be necessary. In the committee meetings you could be represented and in the local council he preferred “face to face”. A personal meeting with the citizen at such meetings is also important.
CSU parliamentary group leader Rausch and second mayor Johanna Zapf (Greens), who are among the youngest in the committee, sharply criticize the result of the vote. The colleagues had set “a sign against progress, against the initiative of the Free State of Bavaria and the federal government, against the ability to act in the pandemic, against the compatibility of family, volunteering and work,” they write in a joint message.