Beersheba councilor seeks training course to understand budget

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
Beersheba Mayor Rubik Danilovitch has agreed that new city councilors should be given a special "training day" after one new councilor complained that he could not understand the municipal budget discussions recently, reports www.mynet.co.il. Danilovitch said a day would be chosen that would suit all the new councilors elected in last November's municipal elections. According to the report, councilor Ya'akov Ohiyon found himself more than a little frustrated when the council met to discuss the city's 2009 budget recently, and arguments began over various clauses in the hundreds of pages of budget documents. Ohiyon speculated that there might be other councilors who also did not understand the discussions, and said the city should run courses to explain the budget to councilors. Danilovitch responded that Ohiyon was a hard-working councilor who could have asked for explanations from the city treasurer before the council meeting. But he agreed that new councilors needed a training day, and promised that this would be done on a day that would suit everyone.