It is only one of more than 1,300 places, but one with symbolic power – in several ways. In a joint motion, the two strongest parliamentary groups in the district assembly – the CSU and the Greens – have called for the creation of a position in the district office to deal with the issue of biodiversity in the district. After the quarrels at the budget consultations last year, in which the Christian Socialists and the Greens clashed violently, the two parties got together this time. Schwarz-Grün, and in particular the two faction leaders Stefan Schelle from the CSU and Christoph Nadler from the Greens, worked out a position plan for the district office of District Administrator Christoph Göbel (CSU) in the coming year, past the other parties at several meetings.
After the “disaster” last year, Nadler told the SZ, it was important to work with the CSU to set up a “balanced job plan” with which everyone can be satisfied – the district council, the district administrator and the employees in the Court House. “And there is also a democratic aspect at stake,” said Nadler, “the citizens must be able to rely on the authority functioning and that their concerns will also be dealt with”.
The species protection agency is a very special one and at the same time embodies a problem for which the state government is responsible and which the municipalities have to pay for. After the popular initiative “Biodiversity and natural beauty in Bavaria”, which was introduced in 2018 and was successful, Prime Minister Markus Söder accepted his demand in full and at the same time promised the districts to create appropriate government agencies, which consequently also have to be paid by the Free State. In the first round of these positions, however, the district of Munich went away empty-handed, which now prompted the CSU and the Greens to create the post themselves – and also to pay from the district’s budget. “Because the issue is too important and we can’t wait,” said Green parliamentary leader Nadler.
It is a recurring annoyance in the district council that the Free State has transferred and continues to transfer more and more tasks to the districts for which it is actually responsible. The municipal level then has to bear the costs. These responsibilities include, for example, gun control, land-use planning, the veterinary office, the immigration authorities or the accommodation of refugees – as well as the vehicle registration office. Only a fraction of the more than 1,300 employees in the district office are actually state officials and are paid by the Free State. So there can hardly be any talk of the principle “who buys, pays”.
Garching’s mayor and SPD district councilor Dietmar Gruchmann was therefore critical of the proposal by the CSU and the Greens to create a body for biodiversity, which is to be explained again this Monday, November 29th, in the district committee. “We don’t always have to go in advance in obedience. We should rather wait for the state to come,” he said. In addition, the tasks of a person responsible for biodiversity in the district office should be defined in more detail, said Gruchmann. Otto Bußjäger from the Free Voters warned against building “parallel structures”; In the southern district, for example, there is already the landscape maintenance association, which already takes on many tasks in landscape maintenance. “We want to avoid that we just write concepts that don’t come out,” said Bußjäger.
Green group spokesman Nadler said no one wanted to take anything away from active initiatives. “We just believe that we have to bridge the gap until we get the job from the state.”