Weekly Update 74

February 13, 2026

Hello everyone,

• First topic—More brief updates from the last council meeting
• Second topic—The council head is continuing with his plan to damage a national heritage site. The council has submitted to the District Planning and Construction Committee the plan to build an event hall on the historic grounds adjacent to the Great Synagogue. The plan is attached.
• Third topic: A hall designated for educational and welfare activities has been handed over to the synagogue congregation, which holds events there.
• Fourth issue: We are in the year 2026, and the council has no approved budget. Why?
• Fifth issue: Another senior manager is resigning from his position. The operations manager who was appointed to the role during this term is leaving. A call for applications has been issued. Why are so many senior council officials resigning?

First issue: Additional updates from the council meeting held earlier this month

• At the meeting, the Council Head reported that the Ministry of the Interior has not yet approved the appointment of Yitzhak Bela as Zichron Yaakov’s public representative on the Regional Planning and Construction Committee. This means that Zichron Yaakov currently has only one representative on the Regional Committee—the council head. This is because the previous public representative, Itzik Elbaz, resigned and began working as an external contractor for the council.

I would like to remind you that Zichron Yaakov has the right to appoint two representatives: one from among the council members and one from the public. The plenary members vote and approve both representatives.

• At the meeting, we approved a special budget allocated for renovating the Binyamin Pool building on the pedestrian mall. The building is intended for the Tourism Department, headed by the recently appointed Tal Lavi Shomron. We wish her success in her role.
• Good news for residents of the Park HaYayin neighborhood—bus stops will soon be built in the neighborhood, and bus routes will enter the neighborhood. To this end, we approved a supplementary budget at the meeting to match the allocation received from the Ministry of Transportation.
• At the meeting, we approved a special budget for paving Af Al Pi Kach Street. Strangely, we were required to approve 170,000 NIS for the paving, even though there is already a total of 1.5 million NIS in the capital budget earmarked specifically for road paving and resurfacing.

I asked the council head: Why add more funds instead of using the existing money? His response was that the existing funds are already earmarked for paving other roads that we have approved. I have no way of knowing if his answer is correct, what exactly is reserved in the reserve fund, or if it is indeed reserved. Because the treasurer avoids meeting with me and showing me the documents—even though the law requires him to do so.

I hope that the council treasurer, who acts as a gatekeeper—safeguarding all of our money and ensuring it has a clear purpose and funding source—will not “play games” with the council’s funds. Doing so is a criminal offense that will return us to the massive deficit of previous terms.

Second issue: The council submitted to the District Planning and Construction Committee the plan to build an event hall on the historic site adjacent to the Great Synagogue

The council head is not stopping and continues to push forward the plan to build an event hall on the historic site, which is open public land. This event hall will be operated by the synagogue committee and will generate revenue for the synagogue committee. This is only the first step in the destruction of the history of the synagogue, which was built in 1892. The next step, revealed in the council head’s illegal letter to the Registrar of Associations, is the allocation of the synagogue to the committee.

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. This year, the Council for the Preservation of Sites submitted a detailed opinion to the council’s preservation committee opposing the construction of the event hall. Instead, they propose developing the area—landscaping, benches, and the construction of a kitchenette for use by the synagogue’s congregation.

The head of the council led a decision in the Preservation Committee, where he holds a majority, rejecting the opinion of both the Council for the Preservation of Sites and the council’s preservation consultant, and pushing forward with the construction of the event hall. Although the plan’s title euphemistically refers to a “conference hall,” it is later specified that it is an event hall.

A discussion is scheduled in the regional committee, which can recommend to the district committee to adopt the plan, reject the plan, adopt it with conditions, etc. In other words, a decision in which we, the public, have no representation other than the council head, who is a politician.

If the plan is not stopped, it will be a tragedy for generations to come. And further proof of the prioritization of voters over the general population and the history of the Jewish people.

Attached to this email is the plan that has been filed

Third issue: Is there a misappropriation of public space here?

On HaPados Street, there is a public hall of about 120 square meters that was intentionally separated from the synagogue located above it, as it is intended for public activities such as education and social services. So why does it appear that it has been handed over to the synagogue committee to build a kitchen and turn it into a revenue-generating event hall? Why give up valuable public space that could be used for educational or social welfare activities?

In March 2025, I sent an initial email on this matter to the mayor and the legal advisor—they did not respond. They also did not respond to the reminders I sent. For a year now, the mayor and the legal advisor have been avoiding answering, and in the meantime, the public hall has been renovated, a kitchen has been installed, and it appears events have already been held there.

The climax came at the last meeting, when the council chair responded to my inquiry regarding this hall. Since the inquiry consisted of four questions, he answered only two, claiming that according to the law, each question counts as a separate inquiry, and only two inquiries are permitted per meeting; therefore, he would answer only two questions. He stated he would address the remaining two at the next meeting. And so I will not be able to submit any more inquiries for the next session.

In short, they have completely blocked me from receiving information. Instead of the council’s legal advisor being pleased with my inquiries, which repeatedly expose violations of the law and improper administration, he ignores them. He even sits in the session and watches as vital information is withheld from a council member—and remains silent.

Fourth issue: A council without a budget—it is 2026, and the council still has no approved budget

For the public’s information, the Zichron Yaakov Local Council does not have an approved budget for 2026. What this means for us, the public, is that all local authority expenditures and commitments are carried out according to the 1/12 principle based on the 2025 budget. The council cannot commit to or spend funds beyond the monthly portion of various operations (and in some cases, cannot enter into new agreements or expand contracts with existing contractors until a budgetary source is approved). Don’t worry, the salaries of the two deputy mayors, at an annual cost of 1.2 million NIS, continue.

And why does this concern me—and should concern you?—because this is a council where the head of the authority has a broad coalition of 10 out of 15 plenary members. So there is no problem forming a budget majority. The budget has been in preparation since early September.

Therefore, the excuse the council head gave us for the budget delay doesn’t hold up. He said that the deputy treasurer responsible for the budget has been on sick leave for the past three weeks. I wish her a full recovery. But the budget should have been prepared long before that—usually starting in September or October.

This is very troubling to me because the 2025 budget was also submitted with a significant delay of nearly three months.

I do not understand this poor management process.

It is important to note, in the interest of full disclosure, that during Ziv Deshe’s previous term as well, budgets were not submitted by the required deadline, and even if there were extenuating circumstances at the time—such as the COVID-19 pandemic or an opposing council to the head of the local authority that acted to disrupt the council’s operations and cause budgetary deviations that harmed day-to-day functioning and priorities —even then, as a member of Ziv Deshe’s expanded party, I noted that this was improper.

Fourth issue – Another senior manager resigns from his position

This week, we learned through a job posting on the council’s website that the Director of Operations has resigned and a new recruitment process is underway. Heaven forbid that council members be properly informed of this sudden and dramatic change.

And here a troubling question arises: why is yet another senior manager resigning from his position? A manager who joined the council during this term. What are the circumstances behind this problematic situation?

Limor Zar-Guttman

Council Member