Dear Darmstadt residents,
I want to be Lord Mayor of Darmstadt because I want to create opportunities - opportunities through education, opportunities through digitization and opportunities through a new and collaborative way of doing politics. To make this possible, I am constantly looking for and finding new solutions to current challenges in my role as department head. Whether it's childcare bottlenecks at elementary schools or new digital access for citizens: I can help people. That motivates me to make even more possible in Darmstadt.
In the following, I describe what is important to me:
Every euro invested in education is returned two and three times over. That's not just a saying, it's a proven fact. Since I became head of our city's school department in October 2021, this idea has spurred me on. In the meantime, we have already achieved a lot, but there is still a lot to do!
My biggest lever here will be the Eigenbetrieb Immobilienmanagement (IDA), which is already part of the Lord Mayor's portfolio. IDA has a very large influence on the schools, starting with the janitors and building operations and extending to new buildings and renovations.
My goal is to ensure that both schools and daycare centers are always in top condition and receive the support they need at all times. If elected, I will immediately initiate measures to achieve these goals even better than today. Attracting skilled workers plays a major role in this, which brings me to my second top goal: I want to be able to guarantee a childcare place for all elementary school children by 2026.
The Darmstadt city administration is one of the city's largest employers and its services have a very high impact on citizens. As head of the digital department (since October '21), I know which screws we still have to turn in the next few years to make significant progress.
As Lord Mayor, I would be in an even better position to do so: The "Human Resources" and "Organization" departments based at the Lord Mayor's office are the central linchpin here, as digitization can only make progress if it is accompanied by a change in processes and culture. My goal is for us to have digitized all processes in the administration by 2028.
This not only provides us with faster response times for citizens, but also with significant cost savings thanks to leaner and more efficient processes.
The climate crisis is the greatest challenge of our time. With the Eigenbetrieb Immobilienmanagement, I will ensure that the city not only continues on its current course, but intensifies it even further, for example by constructing or refurbishing municipal buildings in such a way that they produce more energy than they consume. The BMI calls such buildings "Efficiency House Plus".
But it will also be a matter of working with the rest of the magistrate to find intelligent solutions for our future mobility. I, too, would generally like to see more public transport and fewer cars in the city center, but we also have to think about commuters in and out, who also have legitimate needs.
Just the other day I was in Prague, where they take an interesting approach: On the outskirts of the city you can park excellently and cheaply, with a directly connected public transport connection you can quickly get to the city center. So you save the traffic jam and the search for a parking space and in the end you reach your destination faster. Many other European cities (e.g. Strasbourg) are now using this system and have been able to significantly upgrade their city centers and reclaim space. I would like to create the same for Darmstadt!
Having been entrepreneurial myself for a long time, I know what matters to companies: On the one hand, access to administration that is as barrier-free and digital as possible, which is important for all companies.
On the other hand, companies also need spaces to start up in the first place and also to grow. Hub31 is already a very good local option, but we need more of it in our city. Through targeted location marketing, I will ensure that companies find the right skilled workers here locally.
As Lord Mayor, I will form a new department for the topics of art, culture, citizen participation, science and honorary office (however, a seventh department will not be necessary for this, as mine would become vacant if elected).
For the department, Volt will propose an expert woman if I am elected, so we want to make the magistrate more female overall despite my candidacy. A major goal of the new department should be to look at the above-mentioned topics from a much more international perspective, here I think there are many opportunities for further European networking (and beyond).
However, the background to the new formation of the department is also that I consider the above-mentioned areas to be too important for them to run alongside the department of the mayor. I see my core task as ensuring that the administration runs efficiently and that political projects can be processed as smoothly as possible by all the departments involved. As Lord Mayor, I will still be the highest representative of our city, but a healthy balance must be found so that other tasks do not suffer as a result.
In the election campaign, I want to prove that I can score points not only with my own well-founded opinion, but also by bringing people with different opinions together again.
In my time as a department head so far, I have noticed too often that many citizens basically have similar goals, but that there seem to be massive communication problems. I would therefore like to talk to as many people and organizations as possible and identify common perspectives.
In general, I see the personal conversation as the most important means of communication. Therefore, if you want, you are welcome to book an appointment with me! Otherwise, for me it is true that I will not lead an anti-election campaign. I find it inappropriate and populist to incite against other candidates and their ideas. Instead, I would rather score points with my own ideas.
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