City of Jena publishes advertisements for new election officials

Following the start of the new term of office of the Lord Mayor on 01.07.2024, the City of Jena is now publishing the advertisements for electoral officials for the new legislative period (careers website). Four committed, responsible, decisive and open-minded personalities are being sought to head the city administration's departments. The closing date for applications is 12.08.2024.

Additional department head position to better distribute the workload

The decision to add a further head of department position to the current three was made in view of the Thuringian municipal code, which provides for up to four full-time aldermen in addition to the directly elected mayor for cities with a population of over 100,000. The number of aldermen is to be determined by the city council at its meeting in August, at which the amendment to the main statutes is to be decided. The main committee has already recommended this resolution for approval.

For a long time, but especially in the last five years, municipal tasks have been steadily increasing. The many and partly overlapping crises have exacerbated this situation.In order for the city administration to be able to cope with this abundance of tasks, to avoid overload situations for employees in the future and to ensure an efficient city administration, there are to be four full-time aldermen in addition to the Lord Mayor in future.

More even distribution of tasks within the administration with new departmental divisions

The following measures are to be taken to distribute the growing tasks in the administration more evenly:

• The office of Lord Mayor is to be separated from the departmental responsibility for the area of culture, which until now has been held concurrently.
• In terms of the number and range of tasks, a better balance between the departments can be achieved in the management of the buildings by adding other suitable areas from the other buildings to the areas of Department 4, thus creating two new departments from Department 4 that are sensibly tailored in terms of content. As a result, all departments will be slightly smaller than the current ones in future and their size ratios will be more balanced than they are today.
• The mayor's office and thus the deputy mayor's office will be reassigned according to a more even distribution of tasks.

In future, the tasks of the city administration will be carried out in the following divisions:

Central Services division - remains assigned to the Lord Mayor as before.

Finance, Security and Citizen Services division- will be supplemented by the assignment of the mayor's office to this division.

Urban Development and Environment division - remains as before, except for the area of climate protection/adaptation.

Education, Youth, Culture and Sport division - The specialist services for youth welfare and youth and education, which have always been very closely interlinked, will be combined with responsibility for culture (previously with the Mayor) and sport (previously in Department 2).

Social Affairs, Health, Immigration and Climate Division - The Migration and Integration team (previously a staff unit at the Mayor's Office) and the Immigration Office (previously in Department 2) will be part of this new department together with the Social Services Department. The topics of health and climate protection (previously individual offices in Department 3) are also increasingly being considered in relation to each other, for example in the development of a heat action plan. These areas will therefore be bundled into one department.

The next steps until the position is filled

The deadline for applications for all alderman positions is 12.08.2024, preferably via the online application portal at karriere.jena.de

The posts of councillor for the areas of education, youth, culture and sport as well as social affairs, health, immigration and climate are to be filled by 01.10.2024. The deputies for Urban Development and Environment and for Finance, Security and Citizen Services will be filled on 01.02.2025.The office of Mayor will also be filled on 01.02.2025.

At the City Council meeting on 21.08.2024, the City Council will be presented with the resolution to amend the main statutes, according to which the City of Jena may appoint four full-time electoral officials in addition to the Lord Mayor.

Once all applications have been received, the Personnel Department will screen suitable candidates as part of the orderly selection process. The Lord Mayor will then propose a suitable selection of candidates to the City Council on this basis.

The City Council is expected to decide on the election of the aldermen at the City Council meeting in September.