South Kurzeme to cut local administrations from 16 to eight

South Kurzeme Municipality will reduce the number of city and parish administrations from 16 to eight and reorganize its Communal Administration, LSM reported, citing Latvian Radio correspondent Inga Ozola. Municipal deputies approved the changes in late October.

The reform will replace the current centralized model of combined city and parish administrations with eight local administrations. Their boundaries will follow the historic territories of the municipality’s eight former municipalities. The stated aims are to reduce bureaucracy and enable faster work in cities and parishes. The new administrators will have greater responsibility, and their posts will be filled through open competitions.

Some current administration heads do not support the changes, saying the existing system works well. They will lose their current positions but can apply for the new posts. Vita Cielava, acting head of the Vērgale and Medze parish administrations, said residents contacted her even at weekends about road and other problems, and that the role carried substantial responsibility.

Vērgale and Medze will no longer have separate administrators, but services currently available in the parishes will remain. Cielava said she was unsure how the new system would work and noted that she had found it convenient to contact the Communal Administration to arrange work such as repairing potholes.