Council of Elders

The Council of Elders of the District of Waldeck-Frankenberg plans, coordinates and controls the functioning of the District Council and is composed of the chairpersons of the District Council and the District Council parliamentary groups. The Chairman of the District Council chairs the Council of Elders. The district administrator and the department heads are also invited to the meetings of the Council of Elders to provide information on administrative matters.

The main statutes of the district of Waldeck-Frankenberg oblige the Council of Elders to participate in the preparation and conduct of district council meetings in order to spare the district council lengthy and fruitless disputes about points of order. However, the Council of Elders does not make any substantive decisions about the items on the agenda to be discussed in the district council. It merely determines the organisational direction and also has an influence on the structure of a debate - in particular on the speaking times of the deputies on the agenda items in the meetings.

The Council of Elders is to work towards facilitating cooperation between the parliamentary groups in the district council, for example by settling disagreements in the interpretation of the rules of procedure of the district council. In this way, it supports the chairperson of the district council in the conduct of business. In the Council of Elders, which usually meets in a collegial atmosphere, no votes are taken, but agreements - mostly consensual - are reached.

The Council of Elders of the District of Waldeck-Frankenberg is currently composed of the following members: