Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic said on Tuesday that the reorganization of the City Administration would begin on 1 January, with the number of city departments cut from 27 to 16.

“As of 1 January, given the decision of the City Assembly, the City of Zagreb will have 16 instead of 27 departments, which will temporarily be led by acting heads of departments until vacancies are advertised,” Tomasevic said at this year’s last press conference, which he held with Assembly Chairman Josko Klisovic.

It took a year to select office heads due to inadequate legal framework

Tomasevic announced that the Department for the Management of City Assets would soon have its head and spokesperson, who will be selected through a public call, so the new city government will finally be able to manage the city with basic staff.

He warned that it would take them a year to select their department heads due to a completely inadequate legal framework.

He pointed out that for the first time the four-member Management Board of the Zagreb Holding multi-utility conglomerate had been completely selected following a public call.

The call for applications for the Management Board of the ZET city transport company has closed, and considering ZET’s needs vacancies will probably be advertised for a few more members of the Management Board.

The mayor expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of post-quake reconstruction in the city, notably of private properties.

He added that the city administration had demanded amendment of the relevant legislation and that the law on post-earthquake reconstruction had been changed, which meant there was no longer any excuse for the state not to start making the relevant decisions.

He said there had been few applications for EU projects for public buildings, noting that over HRK 300 million had been contracted so far and that they would soon be able to absorb funds.

Billions from EU funds for new water supply and sewerage system

The mayor announced that in addition to further stabilisation, concrete development projects would be implemented next year, which could be seen in the city budget.

Over the next eight years, HRK 2 billion from EU funds should be invested in the modernisation of the water supply and sewerage system, and additional funds will have to be provided from the budget because in the last 20 years no investments have been made in that area.

Tomasevic said they were working on including the tertiary level of wastewater treatment in order to also absorb EU funding for that.

As for the Sljeme cable car system, he said he expected it could start operating by the end of January or in early February.

City Assembly Chairman Josko Klisovic commented on the revised grant scheme for stay-at-home parents, saying that he and the SDP group in the City Assembly would closely monitor its effects, and if they were unsatisfied, they would put forward a proposal to additionally change it.