District Administrator Jürgen van der Horst restructures district administration
District Administrator Jürgen van der Horst has begun to realign the district administration of the Waldeck-Frankenberg district. The first step in the restructuring process is the redistribution of the departments. In future, there will be only two full-time department heads, the district administrator and the first district councillor. The two honorary departments that have existed up to now will be dissolved. Instead, the members of the district committee are to be involved collegially in the representation of the district.
"In future, the specialised services of the internal administration will be bundled under the responsibility of the district administrator," says van der Horst, explaining his concept. "The first district councillor will lead a department that focuses on social issues. The responsibilities for finance, human resources, digitalisation, schools and education, building management, climate and environment are now in the hands of the district administrator. In addition, there are complementary areas of responsibility such as auditing, village and regional development, public relations and culture, agriculture, transport, law and municipal supervision. Of the external institutions and authorities, i.e. those not directly located in the district administration, Energie Waldeck-Frankenberg, the Frankenberg district hospital, the Domanialverwaltung and the Kommunalwald GmbH as well as the Nordhessischer Verkehrsverbund belong to the district administrator's department.
The First District Councillor Karl-Friedrich Frese will in future be responsible for the areas of social affairs, health, youth and the women's office. In addition, he retains responsibility for the specialist services of building, rescue services, fire and disaster protection as well as food monitoring, animal welfare and veterinary affairs. In addition, he is responsible for economic development, tourism and waste management, which was transferred back to the municipal administration from the legal form of an independent enterprise on 1 January. The additional external areas of responsibility DELTA Waldeck-Frankenberg GmbH and the job centre also fit into the department's structure.
"During the restructuring process, it was important to me to combine areas of responsibility that belong together in terms of content and have a lot of common overlap," said the district administrator. This shortens information and decision-making processes and thus contributes to more efficiency. It is important to him to achieve a regular exchange at the level of the specialised services and to establish a regular meeting routine, physically or virtually. In addition, he would like to see a critical and open dialogue between politics and administration, which should enable a faster implementation of plans and concepts. "My self-image is to establish a leadership style of openness and trust by being personally available as a contact person whenever possible," van der Horst summarises his intentions.
Background:
Exclusive competence of the district administrator for the allocation of departments: The tasks and competences of the district administrator are defined in paragraph 44, subsection 1 of the Hessian District Code. It literally states: "The district administrator prepares the decisions of the district committee and carries them out, unless district councillors are charged with their implementation. He directs and supervises the course of business of the entire administration and ensures the orderly conduct of administrative business. He distributes the business among the members of the district committee".