Hans Mönninghoff Erster Stadtrat (Deputy Chief Executive)
Head of Economic and Environmental Affairs Department
What is a „Erster Stadtrat“?
The City has five “Stadträte” as Head of five Administration-Departments. Should the Lord Mayor (he is the Representative and the Head of the City-Administration) be absent, one of them, the “Erste Stadtrat” represents him as the head of the city administration composed of approximately 8000 people. The five “Stadträte” are elected for an eight year term by an honorary city council composed of 65 representatives who are themselves elected by the city’s voters; during this term “Stadträte” can only be voted out of office by a two thirds majority. The title „Erster Stadtrat“ is used only in Lower Saxony; in other Federal States often the title „First Mayor” is being used. In English speaking countries a person in this function normally is called Deputy Chief Executive or Vice-Mayor.
The Lord Mayor’s representational activities are nevertheless usually assumed by three honorary deputy mayors, chosen from the City Council who also act as its representatives.
A. Directly attached organisational units of the Department of Economic and Environmental Affairs
The following six departments comprising approximately 1800 employees (excluding seasonal and eventual workers) report directly to the Counsellor; these are:
Dept of Buildings Management (approx. 195 employees)
- Owns and operates close to 600 city buildings (schools, child-care centres, administration buildings, etc.) worth approximately 1.5 billion euros
- Facility-Management
- Architectural and Engineering services
Dept of Urban Economic Development (approx. 80 employees)
- Business promotion activities that include building maintenance and development, company acquisitions and commercial placements, collaboration with the regional entrepreneurial development office and hannoverimpuls-GmbH, business sector reactivations marketing of development sites through real estate fairs
- Leasing/administration of city-owned residential and commercial real-estate including various restaurant locations
- Single-family housing office, construction credit for families with children
- Coordination of weekly and farmers markets, organisation of special markets (i.e. Christmas market) issuing permits for special events special commercial use of city-owned areas.
Department of the environment and green areas (approx. 800 employees)
- Preventive environmental protection (environmental impact assessments, Eco audits, environmental reporting systems, ecological construction, Climate Protection Unit; soil management including long-standing polluted areas). Water/garbage/air surveillance activities fall however under the responsibilities of the Hannover Region (merger of Hannover with 20 surrounding communities) government factory inspection office!
- Free space and facility planning in the department of green areas
- Tree protection and natural reserve protection as long as these activities do not fall under the Hannover regions responsibilities.
- Building, maintenance and development of the public green spaces, cemeteries, park spaces (except Herrenhausen gardens attached to the Department of Culture), green areas adjacent to the thoroughfares, recreational areas, landscape areas, city forests.
City operated drainage facilities (approx. 460 employees)
Operation and maintenance of waste-and rainwater networks in the state capitol and additional wastewater sanitation activities of five surrounding cities by two large wastewater treatment plants.
City operated port facilities of Hannover (approx. 90 employees)
Logistics-systems service provider for all port and rail facility affairs on the four ports located on the waterway known as the “Mittellandkanal”; Building and grounds management in these port facilities, container lines to the Hamburg seaport as well as complementary services; attached to this facility is also the Hafen Hannover GmbH (100 % wholly owned) along with the port of Misburg (Misburger Hafen GmbH) (37 % owned by the city of Hannover).
City operated Hannover Congress Centrum (HCC); (approx. 100 employees)
- Operation of the Congress-, Meeting- and Event centre with 1.300 events occurring annually, drawing in close to 700,000 visitors.
- Day-restaurant, Event-catering, Catering for the privately run City hotel next door
- Catering services for the AWD-Arena (soccer stadium)
- Organisation of its own events Congress management
These six above mentioned departments have a yearly operating budget (personnel, etc) of close to €260 million and have access to additional investment funds of up to €120 million annually. The most important investment items for 2010 are as follows: 54 Mio. € building restoration, €39 million Wastewater infrastructure, €12 million real estate acquisition for business development.
B. Supervision of City Investments/Interests
In addition to directly administering the abovementioned departments, the Director of Economic and Environmental Affairs has a coordinating function for all business development investments made by the City of Hannover. (Exceptions to these are the Messe AG and the “Sparkasse Hannover” savings and loan bank, which are directly overseen by the Lord Mayor himself.) We thereby differentiate the following two areas of responsibility:
1. Regional Responsibilities of Hannover Holding GmbH
All Economic development centres in which both the Region of Hannover and the City of Hannover have participatory interests are bundled together under the Hannover Holding GmbH, composed of a three-headed management team made up of:
- one full-time Managing Director
- the economic departmental head of the “Region Hannover”
- the economic departmental head of the City of Hannover
Hannover Holding’s substructure is divided into two areas:
Regional Economic Development of the “hannoverimpuls GmbH” (annual budget approx €6 million) consisting of approximately 55 employees whose main focus of development centres on automotive- and information technologies, energy and environmental protection, biotechnology, healthcare as well as production technology.
“hannoverimpuls” supports the economic development of the 21 regional communities and is heavily involved in the area of business start-ups.
Additionally, hannoverimpuls is the „regional competence centre” for economic development resources of the European Union (EFRE), which currently administers €24 million exclusively available for company start-ups.
Development of Marketing- und Tourism activities in the “Hannover Marketing und Tourismus GmbH” Agency (HMTG), (annual budget approx. €7 million)
The HMTG is a 50% owned affiliate of Hannover Holding (the remaining 50% is shared by 23 Hannoverian companies). Its main task is the supra-regional promotion of Hannover, using a central internet-website known as www.hannover.de (another 100% owned affiliate of Hannover Holding), as well as newspaper inserts and other extensive marketing activities. This agency has among its various offerings, the Tourist Information Office located at the main railway station as well as an accommodation locator service, ticket advance purchasing service, a congress and tour group service, guest care service (with city tours, package tours), the promotion of Hannover as a tourist destination and its own events (i.e. Fireworks competition).
2. Some further important additional supervisory board mandates held by the Director of Economic and Environmental Affairs:
Flughafen AG
The Director of Economic and Environmental Affairs represents the City of Hannover on the supervisory board of the “Flughafen Hannover GmbH” airport authority (35-%-share of capital); this airport is Germany’s tenth largest, with a yearly passenger volume of approximately 5.5 million passengers.
union-boden GmbH and Expo-Grund GmbH
Supervisory board member of the 100 % owned affiliate company known as union-boden GmbH (operates 8 parking houses, owns 13 childcare centres, 3 small shopping malls and various commercial facilities). Additionally, union-boden is the 100 % owner of the Expo-Grund GmbH agency, which owns the “Expo-Gewerbepark” grounds.
Abfallwirtschaft Region Hannover (aha) waste management agency
Represents the city of Hannover in all aha meetings; this public agency coordinates the regions waste management activities as well as the cleanliness of all of Hannover’s public spaces.
Regional Climate Protection for the City of Hannover
Being responsible for all energy matters concerning the City of Hannover’s utility company „Stadtwerke Hannover AG“. Member of the Board of Trustees that gives out yearly awards from the “Pro-Klima” fund (€5million in funds available for financing environmental protection activities), as well as an Advisory Board Member of the environmental protection agency known as “Klimaschutzagentur Region Hannover GmbH” (an association composed of 65 companies and institutions).
Brauergilde AG
Supervisory board member of a Hannoverian beer brewery with a total annual production of approx. 250.000 hectolitres of both the Gilde und Lindener brands of beer.
The Team
Svenja Koebe |
personal advisor |
Tel.: 168-4 50 38 |
Marcus Belitz |
controlling |
Tel.: 168-4 04 82 |
Monika Meyer |
office manager; oversees coordination of appointments and meetings |
Tel.: 168-4 50 39 |
Gabriele Röthlinger |
secretary |
Tel.: 168-4 54 58 |
eMail: eea@hannover-stadt.de
www.sustainable-hannover.de
