I amsterdam - Having a Say

A genuine policy change (e.g., a new parking policy or a major change to a development plan) always has to go before a Council Committee and the Council. Changing an implementing decision (e.g., creating more bicycle stands in a street than was planned) can often be done by contacting the civil servants involved directly or by going to an appeal committee to lodge an objection against the granting of planning permission.

There are various ways in which the Amsterdam population or people can make their opinions known to the city or neighbourhood government. These are described below:

Civil Servants
Where civil servants feel that changing an implementing decision will lead to a policy change, they submit the proposal to the Councillor for the neighbourhood or the relevant city Alderman. Civil servants do have some freedom to take decisions themselves or submit them to their department heads, but not much. They can, however, provide useful information about what can and cannot be done, and what you have to do to get something done if it can't be done right now, ie get in touch with a Councillor or Alderman.

Consultation
On certain important decisions, the city or neighbourhood government will first consult with residents and other interested parties. Consultation means exchanging views in order to arrive at satisfactory proposals or finalise outline proposals. The government may invite residents and interested parties to consult with, for example, investors or financiers, or residents may themselves request consultation if they hear that plans are being prepared.

Consultation is based on recognition of the fact that all participants have their own valuable contribution to make. Residents are people who know not only the local environment but also the atmosphere of the area or district, and local sensitivities. A good example of consultation is the way in which the Bijlmermeer was redesigned.

Public Comment
Less far-reaching that consultation is the notion of 'public comment'. Suppose that the city or neighbourhood has prepared plans and spoken to the financiers and developers. Before the civil service presents the proposal to the Alderman and Council Committee, it will sound out the opinion of neighbours and interested parties. The plans can still be changed somewhat to take account of their objections.

Sometimes the main decision is notified as a fixed resolution, but you can still comment on its parts. A good example here is the setting up of a care centre for drug addicts; the fact that it's going to happen is firmly established and will be announced at a public information meeting. People can, however, comment on the way in which neighbouring residents will be able to monitor the smooth running of the establishment.

Hearings
A hearing is a special meeting of a council committee regarding an important subject, at which councillors hear affected parties' opinions of a proposal on which a decision has to be taken. The official stage is now over. Councillors can however alter the proposal of the alderman in a committee meeting or in a council meeting by means of amendments or change proposals.

Comments to the committee
The procedure for making comments to committees is similar to a hearing, but with one important difference: There is no separate meeting of the council committee. In case of many agenda items, you can register with the secretary of a Council Committee as a commentator 24 hours before the meeting, in order to comment on a topic on the council committee's agenda. At the start of the debate on that agenda item, commentators or civilians can speak for a maximum of three minutes. After that, the councillors exchange their views. Because councillors have often made up their minds on the subject already - maybe in consultation with other members of their political party - you have to argue strongly to convince them.

Getting in touch with Council Members
Anyone can telephone or write to a Council member or request an interview. You don't have to be a member of his or her political party. You should however come up with a specific question or comment. It is not so easy for Councillors to deal with truly personal matters. For anything to do with housing, benefits or passports you have to go through the official channels.

You can however talk to them about abuses, or topics on a council committee's agenda: subsidies, planning applications etc. Or indeed about things which ought to be on a Council Committee's agenda but aren't. If you want to contact a councillor by e-mail, you can send your message to the e-mail address of his or her party.

Contacting an Alderman or the Mayor
Aldermen, as well as the Mayor,  do not have much time for dealing with individual Amsterdam civilians. Their working day is taken up with discussions, meetings and the review and study of documents. You can call their secretaries to make an appointment, but their schedules are often fully booked.

You can send questions or comments to the mayor and aldermen via e-mail regarding issues in which they are involved.

Letters to the Council
Sending a letter to the Council is one final way of making your voice heard. You can send a letter to the Council stating your opinion when a topic is on the agenda. But by then it's often too late: Councillors have already discussed the matter in a committee meeting and the parties have adopted their positions. You can however send a letter (known officially as a 'Council Address') concerning a topic which is not yet on the Council agenda. The city must always reply to a Council Address if the letter is sent to 'the Council', is signed (ie not anonymous) and asks a clear question.

The Council decides at the next meeting which Alderman and Council Committee should deal with the letter. The writer receives a letter setting out the handling procedure and, if his letter is to be discussed in a Council Committee meeting, he or she will be invited to attend.

Referenda
Amsterdammers can ask for a referendum to be organised if they disagree with a decision that the Council has already taken. The city government will organise a referendum if approximately 24,000 Amsterdam residents entitled to vote ask for it. Basically, the rules for organising a referendum are as follows:

1. Two days before the council takes a decision, at least 242 signatures of Amsterdam voters must be handed in, announcing that they plan to organise a referendum on a certain decision. The Council will then take the decision (or perhaps it will decide not to), but the Council of Aldermen will not implement the decision until the result of the referendum is known.

2. Within three weeks of the Council decision, approximately 6000 signatures must be handed in, so that everyone knows there is a good chance of getting a referendum. The city has two weeks in which to randomly sample the signatures to check that they come from 6000 different Amsterdam voters.

3. Once the City has approved this second set of signatures, the organisors have six weeks in which to obtain the remaining 18,000 signatures. These are also checked by random sampling.

Experience shows that an organising committee needs to get at least 10% extra signatures, because there is always a certain amount of redundancies (e.g. Amsterdammers who have moved out to the suburbs and sign the petition on the street). The city has to hold the referendum within four months for the Council to have verified that the correct number of signatures has been obtained. For the detailed rules, see the brochure and the referendum bye-law.

Public Information
Public information can be given out at two different times: Either at the start of consultation or public comment, or at the end. A public comment meeting at the start of a consultation or public comment procedure must ensure that the same information is available to all participants. Public information at the end of a public comment procedure is intended to let Amsterdammers know what the city government has decided.

Projects sometimes go ahead without prior public consultation, but public information is given out later. Projects to help drug-addicted prostitutes are an example. However, the neighbourhood may well then be consulted on the way the project is to be managed.

Lobby Groups and Action Groups
Amsterdammers have found many ways of getting together to put forward their interests or ideas, e.g. through shopkeepers' associations, tenants' associations, transport groups and the like. You can ask them for information, become a member or enlist their support. Area coordinators bring together or support groups of people living in their area. The city and neighbourhood governments seek regular contact with these groups.

Advisory Councils and Advisory Committees
The city has appointed advisory councils and advisory committees made up of experts and/or representatives of lobby groups. Amsterdam has about 30 advisory councils and advisory committees, such as the Sports Council, the Arts Council, the Senior Citizens' Council, the Planning Board and five minorities advisory councils. Most of these councils can give advice to the city government upon request or without being asked. In this way, the city council can incorporate the opinions of expert Amsterdam civilians and their organisations into their policies. The advice of these councils and committee does not however take the place of public comment and consultation.

Raising Objections
Every day, the city government, the neighbourhood governments and their civil servants take many minor decisions, which may however have major implication for individual Amsterdam people. The granting of planning consents, tree-felling consents, exemptions and the like is a case in point. The sub-committees publish notices in various Amsterdam newspapers, such as the Amsterdams Stadsblad, stating the decisions they intend to take. Interested parties, such as neighbours, can write a letter stating their objections to consent being granted. The authority must examine the objections before granting the consent. It may then attach further conditions to the consent, or refuse the consent altogether. The notices tell you where the applications can be inspected, the address for sending letters of objection and the date by which letters of objection must be received.

Appeals
If the authority grants a  consent or an exemption, you can lodge an appeal if you think that your interests are harmed unduly. If you wish to appeal against a decision of the authority, you have to lodge your appeal with the body that took the decision (the council, the neighbourhood council, the College of Aldermen or the Mayor). If this body rejects your appeal, you can often take it to a higher level - to the Province of Noord-Holland and the Crown.

Making Complaints
If you feel that a civil servant has treated you unfairly, you can submit a complaint to the director (or neighbourhood secretary) of that civil servant or department. All city government organisations have complaints procedures, so that they can thoroughly investigate comments of citizens concerning the behaviour of their staff. For complaints about the police, you can write to the Police Complaints Committee at City Hall.

Make sure that in your letter or mail you describe what happened, stating when and where it happened and what, in your opinion, was wrong. If you now the names of the people involved, state them. Anonymous complaints will not be processed, so you must also give your name and address.

Only if the director fails to take your complaint seriously may you then take it to the city ombudsman (Telephone +31 (0)20 625 9999). He or she will investigate complaints about city services and departments. You can also submit complaints to the ombudsman about neighbourhood civil servants, if your complaint has not been properly handled by the neighbourhood itself.

The ombudsman will not deal with your complaint if you have taken the matter to the courts or to the Secretary of State, if the case is more than one year old, if it is nothing to do with the city government or if it is a matter of general city government policy (i.e. it cannot be about "the parking policy", but it could be about how you were treated by staffmember X when you did so and so.)

There is a city complaints committee for complaints about public comment procedures organised by the city. This committee can also be reached at City Hall (the Public Comment Complaints Committee). You can also send an e-mail. The Public Comment Complaints Committee only assesses whether the minimum requirements laid down in the public comments by law were followed in the public comments procedure. The neighbourhoods councils invite public comments and consultation on the decisions which they themselves take. If you have a complaint about the public comments procedure of the sub-committees, you have to take it to the sub-committee itself.