Weekly Update 14

November 30, 2024

Hello everyone,

This newsletter will address two topics: a critical aspect of the council’s functioning—emergency preparedness. Second, the upcoming council meeting, which will address a range of critical issues that mark the beginning of the community’s economic collapse and a return to a massive deficit.

A week ago, in the previous newsletter, we described the community’s preparedness for significant extreme weather events involving heavy rain and drainage, and how the damage could have been mitigated. Not prevented, since this was an exceptional rain event, but certainly mitigated.

Is the community prepared for an emergency?

Over the past few years, the council and the emergency response system have practiced a variety of emergency scenarios, which meant that the authority’s performance during the emergency starting on October 7, 2023, was at its best. The council chair has changed, but the emergency situation remains, and it was necessary to continue with routine activities and drills on emergency matters. Because only these are the key to optimal preparedness in the event of an emergency.

We were informed this week via a post on the Council’s Facebook page about an exercise conducted by the Council’s emergency response units. First, we welcome the fact that the drill is taking place at all, but there is a very big “but”: Is it only 9 months after Council Head Abutbul took office and 4 months since the new security officer joined that a comprehensive drill of the emergency response units is finally being conducted?

We would expect this to be the very first priority for an elected head of the local authority and a new security officer upon taking office, especially in the midst of a war. Such a drill was expected to take place no later than September. It is true that there have been a few routine meetings of the emergency headquarters. But these were few and far between and certainly do not contribute to maintaining an adequate state of readiness in which all emergency units and the volunteer network are practiced.

I would like to remind you that a few months ago we highlighted the irregular and possibly illegal procedure involved in the appointment of the new security officer, Sahar Lipshitz. We forwarded all the material to the State Comptroller for review, and the matter is still under investigation.

And now to another critical issue in the life of the community: this coming Tuesday, December 3, 2024, at 6:00 PM, a council meeting will be held to discuss a range of issues critical to the future of the community.

The projects seeking approval at the plenary session—as important as they may be—are being pushed through in a rush. These three issues are:

The construction of two new schools on land designated for the Zichrona plan and the addition of a new wing to the high school. These items were added to the meeting agenda only last Thursday evening, November 28, 2024—just four working days before the plenary session. This is in violation of the law and established procedures.

The law requires that the agenda, which includes budgetary items, be sent to council members at least 10 days before the meeting. The purpose is to discuss, review, ask questions, and obtain as much information as possible before approving the request. The concealment of these critical issues is being carried out in an even more serious manner—

Attached is the agenda, where you can see items 13–15, which ask us to approve a “small amount” solely for Phase A of preliminary planning at the program level for the schools. Ostensibly, this involves approving three small sums that we are not expected to oppose, but in the least transparent and proper manner.

Beyond the discussion of building new schools—which we always welcome—it is important to understand that these are to be built within the Zichrona plan area, the hill above the Moshava High School adjacent to the Halomot neighborhood. A massive neighborhood where approximately 1,250 housing units are planned, plus another 250 units of assisted living. This will result in an increase of 12,000–13,000 residents. I will mention that Ziv Deshe, while serving as council head, returned a check for 53 million NIS in betterment funds to the Israel Land Authority as part of his opposition to the method and timelines by which the Israel Land Authority sought to build the neighborhood. These funds constituted a “honey trap,” as the council’s calculations estimated that developing the neighborhood would require approximately 120 million NIS. The developers who purchased land from the Authority and were already eager to bring in cranes and bulldozers to the site filed a petition with the court against the council about a year and a half ago.

The council won! The court accepted the council’s position that, in accordance with the approved zoning plan, development must begin only 10 years from the date the plan was approved. That is, in about 7 to 8 years from now. Additionally, the council argued before the court that it cannot develop the area in the coming decade because, based on analyses by the council’s appraiser, this would lead to its financial collapse, and it must wait until the new employment zone (adjacent to the Mall) is established, the Wine Park, and the development of road infrastructure and other public buildings required in the town, and only then proceed with the construction of the Zichrona neighborhood. In court, the council argued that it has no intention of carrying out any type of development in the Zichrona complex—neither infrastructure nor public institutions, etc.

The judge rejected the developers’ claim and accepted the council’s arguments. This was a tremendous victory for the position led by Ziv Deshe, as the decision means the council will only have the option to begin developing the neighborhood in about eight years.

On the surface, Council Chairman Abutbul is declaring everywhere that he, too, will not support the establishment of Zichrona in the next eight years.

Is that really the case?

Abutbul plans to build the new Keshet school and the new yeshiva high school on Zichrona land in areas where the expropriation process for public use has just been completed. This land falls within the Zichrona plan.

However, in its written defense to the court, the council stated that no development of Zichrona (infrastructure, public buildings, etc.) would take place until 10 years have passed since the approval of the Zichrona plan, and on this basis, the developers’ claim was dismissed. The moment the Council expropriates land from Zichrona—even if it is for the benefit of schools—it is considered development of Zichrona. And this could immediately reignite the developers’ demands to build the neighborhood.

The approval of the construction of the two new schools means one thing: a significant catalyst for the start of construction of the Zichrona neighborhood or funding the construction from the council’s budget, which does not exist, leading to a massive deficit. Again. What is the rush?

The council did not hold a fundamental discussion—is it right to expropriate land from the Zichrona project, which would lead to the neighborhood’s construction? What are the existing alternatives, and how do they plan to finance their costs (usually 50% funded by the Ministry of Education)? And there are alternatives that were not discussed at all because the council head rushed to complete the process of expropriating public land from the Zichrona plan. Meanwhile, there are suitable plots already owned by the council.

Regarding the Keshet School—there is an alternative that was promoted during the previous term on land covering approximately 9 dunams in the Neve Sharett neighborhood, specifically the Gibor complex and the Golan Hazan field. A plan has been prepared for the construction of the Keshet school building, which includes two sports fields, a small auditorium, a library, laboratories, dozens of additional parking spaces, and more. This will also lead to the development and upgrading of the southern neighborhood, as all public spaces—such as the library, labs, auditorium, sports fields, and more—will be available for residents’ use after school hours.

Regarding the Tanachic High School – there is an alternative site of 10 dunams on the lot adjacent to the country club and the community center. Anyone who reads the newsletters knows that the council now wants to build a multipurpose building for retirees on this site. However, a plan to build the yeshiva there had already been advanced, and the Ministry of Education had already approved a preliminary program for the site; due to transportation and traffic issues at the location, the matter was postponed. Currently, according to the agenda for the upcoming meeting, a transportation plan for the complex will be presented to ensure safe traffic flow—so why not build a school on this land, which is owned by the council?

Here is the flawed process that keeps repeating itself: there are no substantive discussions in the council; council members are hiding the truth and merely asking us to approve a “small sum.” We will demand a special, in-depth meeting where we will address the community’s educational needs based on the master plan for education prepared during the previous term.

Attached is a link to a post on this topic on the Open Forum—please visit and comment. Your involvement is critical. The opposition will struggle to block such a move without strong public support.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1XVPiTn6Rh/

Another way you can support this effort is by attending meetings in person or watching remotely. Council meetings are held in the council building on the 4th floor in the conference room and are open to the public. The meetings are broadcast live on the council’s Facebook page. I invite you to attend or watch the meeting.

Agenda—please read.

Yours,

Dr. Limor Zar-Gutman, Esq.

The “Lema’an HaMoshava” Party