The Committees

These are intended to improve the performance of the City Parliament, by the particular Councillors’ systematically attending to specific matters and hence being able to work on these more intensively and with higher expertise. Thus, in the Committees the actual thematic work is done. Here all decisions are prepared before they go to the Finance and General Purposes Committee and are finally discussed and decided in the Council of the State Capital.

Normally a Committee, having elected a chairperson from among their number, convenes once a month. If required, a Committee can also be summoned for a special session. The majorities in the Committee are equivalent to those in the Council. Individual representatives in the Council or particularly small party political groups are not entitled to vote. Nevertheless, the groups holding the majority in the Council do not automatically take the chair, but rather, following a particular distribution key, the opposition can also provide chairpersons of Committees.

At each Committee session the administration is present with the appropriate Head of the Department or a deputy, and with the Elective Officer from the administration, to inform the Committee about new enterprises, current problems, interim assessments and other issues from within this particular Committee’s area of responsibility. Decisions about proposal memos from the administration or about requests from the Council are reached in the committees.