Weekly Update 32

April 3, 2025

Hello, everyone.

This week, as an exception, I am sending you the newsletter on Thursday evening because this information is urgent for me.

I have been a council member for eight and a half months now, and this is the 32nd newsletter I am sending you. I hope you have noticed that I am doing substantive work for the benefit of the residents—addressing public issues with officials both within and outside the council. I do not give up or lose heart even when they do not respond to me. But I always remain polite.

I have not lashed out or slandered anyone in my communications—I have simply requested, in a professional and businesslike manner, accurate information and proper administration for the benefit of the community.

This week, the council head crossed a red line in his behavior toward me.

I’ve gotten used to not getting answers, to information being withheld, and to lies—but I kept reaching out and asking because that is the role of the opposition, and more than that, it is the duty of an elected official.

I knew from past experience during the previous term of the current council head, Eli Abutbul, that I might be exposed to threats and danger—I informed my family, and they supported me.

I hope you support me as well.

Two weeks ago, I sent an email to the council chairman and relevant professionals within the council. The subject of my inquiry was an announcement distributed by the council—an announcement intended for teenagers with a certainly worthy goal, but in my opinion as a lawyer, the announcement raised concerns about a potential violation of the teenagers’ privacy and a failure to maintain the confidentiality of their personal information. My concern was also based on an internal audit report by the council’s auditor regarding information security, which was discussed in the Audit Committee of which I am a member. The Audit Committee’s recommendations were approved at the plenary session on January 2, 2024. (Attached is my email)

As I often do, I did not go public or post on social media, but rather, in my capacity as a council member, I contacted the relevant council officials (the Council Chair, Legal Advisor, Secretary, Chief Administrative Officer, Information Security Advisor, Council Auditor, and Education Department) to request a response, an investigation, and the removal of this obstacle.

The council has an external information security advisor, and only he provided a substantive response—that the matter had been forwarded to the council’s legal advisor. The director of the Education Department replied late last Wednesday night, April 2, 2025. Minutes later, the council head suddenly responded in a mass email to all recipients.

The council chairman did not respond to answer my questions, but rather to lash out at me. And this is exactly what the council chairman wrote to me the day after he secured a broad coalition, the day after he passed a budget that everyone except me voted in favor of.

Wednesday, April 2, 11:39 PM

Miriam, Me, Yossi, Omri, Erez, Dani

Miriam, good evening,

I ask that you not respond to any falsehoods that are being spread. There are those who seek to create false headlines, just as they did regarding the budget, and it’s a shame to even address it—it’s simply a shame. Everything she has written is nothing but far-fetched fantasy, and I have personally investigated the matter. There are people who fabricate lies in their imagination, convincing themselves it’s true and then spreading it, but a lie remains a lie and fantasy remains fantasy, and ethics disappear (even if one holds a doctorate in ethics, as in the case of Councilwoman Limor Zar-Guttman, who is a co-signer of my response). This woman is delusional—simply delusional.

Eli

The council head’s email, its tone and style, reminded me—and will surely remind you as well—of the threat made against a business owner in Zichron Yaakov nearly a decade ago: “I’ll destroy your business.”

This email is a direct continuation of the budget meeting held on Tuesday, which the council head opened with minutes of lashing out at me over the post I published regarding the budget.

I remind you that the role of council members is to publish information publicly and to stimulate public discussion on these issues. I stand behind every word I wrote and thank you for the important public discussion that arose as a result, and to those who came to the meeting to protest against the two paid political deputies. Deputies who are not professional appointments but purely political appointments to ensure the council head’s coalition survival.

A coalition that allows him to run roughshod over anyone who stands in his way. Like me.

In a democratic country:

• A council chair must recognize the vital importance of an opposition that fulfills its role
• A council head must know that there is a legal obligation to provide information to council members.
• A council chair must know that in a democracy, transparency is a cornerstone and the public’s right to know is a supreme right.
• A council chair cannot lash out at council members who are doing their job
• Zichron Yaakov will not return to the days of the past when people were afraid to speak out and oppose the council head
• Zichron Yaakov has never been and will never be a dictatorship where everyone falls in line with the supreme leader.

Why did I vote against the budget? Because the budget was managed like a Turkish bazaar. Money was handed out to everyone without cutting other expenses or increasing revenue. Anyone who has served on a corporate board knows that you cannot increase a particular expense without simultaneously reducing another expense or identifying a source of increased revenue. At the 2024 budget meeting held in July 2024, we were then the majority in the opposition, and I remember how for every increase in spending, we were immediately required to reduce another expense. How every single line in the budget was meticulously tracked. How the treasurer insisted on immediate balance. Because a budget must be balanced.

How was the 2025 budget managed? Anyone who approached the council chair in advance received additions or promises of budget allocations for almost exactly what they requested. These included Tzila and Tzachi, who received both a new contract and others who received increases and allocations for areas important to them. This continued at the start of the meeting when the council head announced “amendments” and added tens of thousands of shekels in certain areas.

And I still maintain that many items that were cut or reduced in community and social areas were not budgeted or were zeroed out in the budget book.

You might say this is wonderful—that the council chair listens to everyone, that council members study the budget and receive additional funds. True, but what was missing was the balance—what was cut to make room for these additions. Where will the money come from? You can’t manage a budget this way. When you manage a budget this way, you show that you don’t really care what’s written in it and that you can do anything with money. I sat there and couldn’t believe that this kind of haphazard approach is called budget management. And unfortunately, we know this could end in massive deficits. Just as it already happened with that same council head.

Another way to reduce expenses, which came up in the meeting, is to transfer the cost of community maintenance from the regular budget we voted on—to the TAVARIM, which is a special budget funded by betterment levies paid by landowners and property owners. I asked in the meeting: Where will we get so much money from the TAVARIM?

The council head replied that there will be tens of millions in the development funds and that they plan to do wonderful things with them in the community.

I replied—and I hope this goes on record—that I hope the money does not come from densifying the center of the town and increasing building rights, because that boosts the development funds. And in my opinion, residents would prefer fewer expenses funded by the special funds, and that they simply not cram Zichron Yaakov with construction, turning it into an overcrowded town where you can’t even move.

Anyone who thinks of lashing out and insulting me will find me even more determined, and I will continue on my path as a council member loyal only to you and to the community.

Dr. Limor Zar-Guttman, Esq.

Council Member

Party for the Moshav