Ādaži Council to Have Three Deputy Mayors, Each on a Lower Salary
Ādaži municipal council approved changes to its rules of procedure at an extraordinary meeting, providing for three deputies to the council chair instead of two. The municipality says total costs will not rise, but some councillors object.
The municipality of Ādaži has begun changing the structure of its political leadership. At an extraordinary meeting on 7 October, the council adopted amendments to its rules of procedure, while changes to the municipality's statutes are still moving forward. The council chair is expected to have three deputies rather than two.
What will change
Under the new arrangement, the deputy chair posts on the Development Committee and on the Education, Culture, Sports and Social Affairs Committee will be abolished. The Development Committee will be led by the deputy mayor for development, who will receive no separate pay for it. The Finance Committee will be the only one to keep a deputy chair.
The new third deputy mayor will be responsible for governance: the municipality's efficiency, organisation of the administration, e-government, information technology and artificial intelligence solutions, as well as coordinating resident councils, communities and association initiatives and the participatory budget.
A new order of substitution for the mayor is also planned. When the chair is absent, the deputy for development steps in first, then the deputy for governance, with the deputy for municipal functions third. Deputy mayors will also have to report on their work once a year.
Costs
The municipality stresses that taxpayers will face no extra costs. Each deputy mayor's pay is to be set at 4,206 euros a month instead of 4,474 euros, and several other paid political posts will be eliminated. The statute amendments will go to public consultation from 8 October.
Councillors object
Officially, no candidate for the new post has been named, but the Latvian Association of Regions says it is intended for councillor Imants Krastiņš. Councillor Arnis Rozītis, from the same association, does not oppose reorganisation as such but believes it needs a more detailed assessment. In his view, the problem lies not in the number of deputies but in the leadership itself.
Rozītis recalled a 2022 bribery case in which he was offered 30,000 euros to vote in the mayoral election. The person who offered the bribe, Jānis Višķers, was convicted and given a two-year prison sentence. The aim of the bribe was to secure Krastiņš's election, but there is no public basis to claim that Krastiņš organised it or took part. Rozītis's assumption that Krastiņš may have known is the councillor's own opinion, not a fact established in court.
Rozītis also criticises planned changes to the leadership of the Education, Culture, Sports and Social Affairs Committee, backing current chair Kerola Dāvidsone and opposing the possible nomination of Zintis Varts.
