Weekly Update 23

January 31, 2025

Hello everyone,

Summary: This week’s newsletter will cover four topics:

• Cancellation of the improper job posting for the position of Director of the Culture Department at the Zamarin Community Center Municipal Corporation, and publication of a new, legally compliant job posting.
• What is a municipal corporation and who is actually responsible for it? Our community center is a municipal corporation.
• The event hall the council head wishes to build – a further update regarding the plan submitted by the council head to the District Planning and Construction Committee—without the knowledge of council members—to build an event hall on the public open space adjacent to the “Ohel Yaakov” Great Synagogue in the center of the town.
• A variety of Tu Bishvat events—organized by the council as part of Tu Bishvat Week.

Topic 1: The tender for the position of Director of the Culture Department has been canceled, and a new tender will be issued in accordance with the law

In last week’s newsletter, I reported on a violation of proper administrative procedures regarding the tender for the position of Director of the Community Center’s Culture Department. I updated all members of the Community Center’s management, the Council Chair who heads the municipal corporation, the Audit Committee, and the Community Center’s external legal advisor in a letter I sent regarding this matter.

Following my appeal, the external legal advisor decided to invalidate the tender. This is despite the fact that, to our knowledge, the Human Resources Committee met with the candidates who submitted their resumes. A new tender was published the day before yesterday that complies with legal requirements (I have verified this). Below is the response from the legal advisor that was sent to me:

Dear Sir/Madam,

“After reviewing the matter, I hereby respond that under the circumstances, there is no concern regarding a violation of due process.

It should be clarified that due to the early departure of the Director of the Culture Department, Mr. Yoel Wirba, there arose an urgent need to fill the position immediately. Consequently, an urgent announcement was made to fill the position.

After reviewing the matter and taking into account the urgency, it was recommended that the procedure be canceled and that a job posting be published immediately in two newspapers and on a website.

Furthermore, it was approved to shorten the application period to 7 days following the aforementioned publication, in accordance with Regulation 5(b) of the Municipal Regulations (Tenders for the Recruitment of Employees in Local Authorities), 1979.

Karin Cohen Oren, Esq. | Head of the Municipal Corporate Law and Local Economic Development Department

Charcon, Ben Ami, Asher & Co

First, I would like to thank the Community Center’s legal advisor for the prompt review and proper handling of the matter, namely the cancellation of the flawed tender and the issuance of a tender in accordance with the law.

However, with all due respect, I do not accept the conclusion at the beginning of the letter, and therefore I replied as follows:

To Attorney Karin Cohen Oren, Legal Advisor to the Zamarin Municipal Corporation

I thank you for the comprehensive and prompt review, and especially for the commitment to issue a proper revised tender.

We remain divided on the question of whether proper administration was exercised here. I believe that publishing a tender that does not comply with the guidelines of the Ministry of the Interior and the municipal corporations constitutes improper administration. Hence my appeal to you.

 The proof is that a new, proper tender is being issued, and the review/selection committee will reconvene in accordance with the new tender.

I will follow up on the new tender.

Sincerely,

Dr. Limor Zar Gutman

Council Member

Second topic: The Zamarin Community Center is a municipal corporation. What exactly is a municipal corporation?

To fulfill some of its functions, a local authority may establish a municipal corporation to carry out these activities on its behalf. This is exactly how the Zamarin Community Center’s municipal corporation manages the center and the various cultural, recreational, and community activities it offers. This role is legally assigned to the council, and thus the authority’s powers are delegated to the community center.

There are over 600 municipal corporations in Israel, with an estimated annual budget of over 14 billion NIS, carrying out a wide range of municipal activities—from infrastructure development and economic initiatives to providing educational, sports, and cultural services to residents. For example: parking lot management companies, the municipality’s economic corporation, and others.

A municipal corporation is required to operate like a business corporation—it has a board of directors/management. It may be headed by the head of the local authority; however, as the number of corporations under the authority increases, other elected representatives from the authority may be appointed. The Zamarin Community Center is headed by the mayor, alongside whom serve two other council members elected by the full council (Natanel Goldberg from the New Covenant party and Tzachi Baruch from the Memory in the Heart party), 3 public representatives who are also elected by the full council (currently one is missing), and 3 additional council employees who do not work for the corporation and are also approved by the full council. Candidates for membership on the board of directors from among the public representatives and municipal employees are required to undergo a suitability review and receive approval from the Corporations Authority at the Ministry of the Interior. This authority also oversees all municipal corporations (to which I also wrote a letter).

Like any business corporation, there must be a supervisory mechanism consisting of two members of an audit committee and an external legal advisor. In the case of the Zamarin Community Center, there is an external law firm selected through a lawful tender process that handles all of the corporation’s legal affairs. The council’s legal advisor does not handle the corporation’s day-to-day affairs, except in specific cases.

The following departments operate within the Zamarin Community Center municipal corporation: the Culture Department, the Jewish Culture Department, the Senior Citizens Department (H.Z.B. Club), the Dance Center, the Sports, Clubs, and Recreation Department, after-school programs, the Conservatory, the Youth Department, and the Young Adults Department. Until about a month ago, the LGBTQ+ community was also part of the community center’s departments. In addition, there are various administrative roles.

There is no dispute that the Zamarin Community Center has reached new heights in its activities over the past few years and has provided high-quality, optimal solutions to a variety of community needs in the town. We hope this will continue to be the case.

Third issue: The plan submitted by the council head to the District Planning and Construction Committee to build an event hall on the public open space adjacent to the Great Synagogue. A brief reminder—

• The event hall is planned to be built on open public land where construction is prohibited.
• The event hall is planned to be built in an area for which the Ministry of the Interior submitted a plan in 1983 and which was declared a national heritage site; therefore, both the Council for the Preservation of Sites and the Haifa District Committee have opposed it in the past.
• The plan was submitted without informing the council members, who to this day have not seen the plan. (Because it is inconceivable that there would be an urban building plan and a plan number without it having been submitted)
• The plan was submitted without a meeting of the council’s preservation committee having taken place.
• I continue to monitor the situation and submit inquiries regarding this plan. Since the council head did not provide us with the plan he submitted, I contacted the chair of the District Planning and Construction Committee this week to request a copy of the submitted plan. Once again, I received no response from the committee.
• I am not giving up and will continue because this is a critical issue for the community.

Fourth and happy news—come celebrate Tu Bishvat Week with a variety of activities organized by the council

A variety of activities for the whole family—see the attached flyer. Mark your calendars and come enjoy—for your sake and for the environment.