The crisis of the Covid 19, she fundamentally changed the role of mayors ? In the crisis that we just experienced, they were more than ever in the first line. A new situation that has changed the essential relations between local elected officials, and the prefect, representing the State.
last October, a survey found that the mayors were elected the most popular in the eyes of the French. 67% of our fellow citizens found them honest, competent and dynamic. They are today even more closely to their voters.
Three elected, Philippe Saurel, President of metropolis and mayor of Montpellier, a city with 290 000 inhabitants, Jean-Patrick Courtois, mayor of Macon, a medium-sized town at the edge of the Saône with 35 000 inhabitants, finally Stessy Speissmann mayor of Gérardmer, a small town at the edge of the lake which bears his name, rich of 8000 souls recognize the recent of their function. They have all been taken aback by the magnitude of the problems to solve with the crisis of the sars Coronavirus.
” We had to work in the immediacy and in the moment “, explains Philippe Saurel, ” a temporality in which the public service is not used “. But, it is for the President of the metropolis of 290,000 people that the changes have been the most well-known : “this crisis has been brought closer to the voters “.
Completed the strategic meetings in the long term, the daily of the mayor of Montpellier is now focused by the resolution of practical problems.
At Macon, the mayor who is in his eighth term, has reactivated the cells he had been put in place at the time of the heat wave. Its services were taken, for example, news of all the pensioners who were registered in the town hall. “We were already much on the field, but today, we have a relation still more direct and closer with our voters,” insists Stessy Speissmann, who acknowledges having a lot asked of the 200 agents of the town hall during the crisis. The use of new means of communication, such as video conferencing has not been necessary in Mâcon or in Gérardmer, on the other hand, it has been essential to Montpellier.
as Well, the mayor has-t-he scheduled videoconferences with the 126 school principals, which lasted more than four hours to restore the “mammoth local” road. “I had never had any contact direct with them before,” says the mayor, who insisted : “The different leaders were able to meet and interact, and recognize de facto that no one was privileged, and that we seek always the most appropriate solutions possible.”
If the three mayors have turned into distributors of masks that they have had to order themselves, and sometimes even be produced because of a deficiency State is endemic on the subject, all have been forced to take economic measures in favour of merchants and businesses. On a daily basis again, they were arrested.
” While the revenue decline, we have to spend more to help the local economic fabric. This is not easy, ” says the mayor of Macon.
Regarding the reports with the prefects, if the first magistrate of Montpellier recognizes a regular job and fruitful with the representative of the State ” which had not existed in this form before the crisis “, this has not been the case in Gérardmer, where the mayor was obliged to go fishing for information from a prefecture that has little helped, – probably more inclined to take care of the nearby city of Epinal is the prefecture of the Vosges.
The three elected officials admit today to have been on a war footing from morning to evening. “A crisis management situation non-stop,” they say in substance. Remains to be seen whether their constituents were fully aware of this role of “nanny” every day life. The mayors themselves are convinced that they have played well in this role.
“Protector, it is, in essence,” explains the mayor of Macon. And whereas the city of Gérardmer confided : “I am a former firefighter volunteer, it has served me well, it is in my nature to listen to the people”.
“In dealing with this point of daily life, we had almost a role of caregiver,” says Philippe Saurel, who is himself a dentist. Remains to know su his constituents have appreciated to be well taken care of. Verdict at the polls on June 28.
The editorial team conseilleCoronavirus: mayors rural combatDéconfinement and coronavirus: what the mayors are they accountable to?Déconfinement: the mayors do not want to be “suicide bombers”SujetsPhilippe SaurelJean-Patrick CourtoisStessy SpeissmannMairesAucun comment
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