Jutta Fiener is happy that Augsburg is now entering the 21st century, as she puts it. Fiener is a city councilor for the Social Group, a coalition of the SPD and the left. She has long worked part-time to look after her children, but this puts her at a disadvantage when it comes to the allowances that full-time employees and the self-employed receive for their council work. “It’s unequal treatment,” complains Fiener. She is therefore suing the city of Augsburg in consultation with the regulatory officer in order to have the question fundamentally clarified. Irrespective of this, the city councilor is delighted that a commission in Augsburg is now to develop proposals on how city council work can be better combined with work and family life – we are talking about childcare during meetings and fewer committees in order to keep the overall effort lower.
“The question of the compatibility of mandate and family and work was already on my mind in the last election campaign,” says Augsburg Mayor Eva Weber (CSU). Some potential candidates would have canceled although they would have liked to – but they could not have lifted the municipal honorary post. Weber therefore wants to defuse the situation in good time before the next local elections in 2026, and she is not alone in this request: other cities such as Nuremberg have already organized childcare during city council meetings. Weber also emphasizes that it’s not just about mothers and looking after children. Some city or municipal councils reach their limits because they are caring for relatives. Still others have disadvantages in their jobs because they invest a lot of time in their part-time job as politicians: they not only have to attend meetings, but are also supposed to be active in the community or in the district and mostly still have honorary posts in clubs.
So Weber already has some discussion approaches for the newly appointed commission in Augsburg: representation regulations, meeting times, number of committees and bodies. The city council meets eleven times a year, lasting several hours. In addition, there are around 110 meetings of the various committees, mostly weekly parliamentary group meetings and numerous other meetings of advisory boards, association, supervisory and board meetings. “It’s a mammoth task,” says Weber, especially in larger cities. Parents, single parents, carers: With the existing regulations, it is becoming increasingly difficult to form a diverse city council. Weber announced that he would merge the finance and foundation committees in the future in order to save time. The meetings of the Augsburg City Council are currently starting at 2.30 p.m., and that too must be put to the test.
Hybrid sessions can have issues with child support
During the Corona crisis, it was helpful for many local politicians that Bavarian city and municipal councils were also allowed to take part in hybrid meetings, i.e. at home in front of the computer. The corresponding regulation will now be permanently installed in the Free State. Verena von Mutius-Bartholy (Greens) from the Augsburg government partner of the CSU, however, has just had bad experiences as a young mother. She has used the regulation several times that you can take part in meetings digitally up to six months after the birth of a child. Now she is denied parental allowance because the expense allowances for her city council work are taken into account. Mutius-Bartholy is therefore suing the Free State.
Johannes Becher is also familiar with such cases. There is also a colleague on the council of his hometown of Moosburg in Upper Bavaria who spent four hours in a meeting the day after an operation because the majority was tight and an important decision had to be made. She struggled with the aftermath of her injury for months. “It would have been better for her if she had taken half a year off from the city council and had her successor represent her during that time.” Becher sits on the city council of Moosburg, but is primarily a member of the state parliament for the Greens. As a spokesman for municipal issues, he has long been committed to making the work of voluntary municipal politicians easier.
Becher suggests that municipal or city councilors can be temporarily represented by their successors if they are unable to carry out their mandate for a few months. This would not only help parents or people who need a break to care for relatives. Young politicians in particular would then have the opportunity to spend a semester abroad without having to give up their mandate right away. The temporary replacement isn’t an idea that Becher came up with. “In Austria, this possibility has existed for decades and it is used actively.” Two years ago, Becher launched a corresponding legislative initiative, which, however, failed due to the vote of all other parliamentary groups in the state parliament. “We’re staying tuned,” says Becher: “I haven’t heard of a better model.”