Town Council

General presentations

• SB040377 – Minutes of the Planning and Building Officer

  Minutes from the processing meetings of the planning and building officer on 28.11.12 and 05.12.12 were presented. Item A was dealt with by the building officer in accordance with the Building Act no. 160/2010. $line$ Presented.$line$

• 1101401 – User-directed personal assistance, review of rules and financial status of the pilot project

  Item 3 from the minutes of the FJÖH meeting of 28 November. Hrönn Hilmarsdóttir attended the meeting.The Family Council agrees to propose to the Town Council: “The Town Council of Hafnarfjörður approves the rules with the amendments made“.

  Gunnar Axel Axelsson spoke. Geir Jónsson interjected. The Hafnarfjörður Town Council approved the proposed motion with 11 unanimous votes.

• 1210069 – Secondary schools, school boards, election

  Postponed at the town council meeting on 5th December.

  The following proposal was put forward regarding the main and alternate members of the school board for Flensborg School and the Technical College of Hafnarfjörður: Flensborg School: Main members: Ingvar Viktorsson, Svöluhrauni 15 and Albert Már Steingrímsson, Skipalóni 8.$line$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$1TP4 Anna Kristín Jóhannsdóttir, Drekavöllum 18 and Kristján Valgeir Þórarinsson, Hellisgata 33.$line$$line$Iðnskólinn í Hafnarfirði:$line$Aðalmenn: Jóhanna Axelsdóttir, Reykjavíkurvegur 23 and Bjarni Bjarnason, Hellubraut 8.$line$ Alternates: Gunnur Baldursdóttir, Blikaás 18 and Bjarni Snæbjörnsson, Fagrabergi 14.$line$$line$No other nominations were received, and the above were declared duly elected to the boards of Flensborg School and the Technical College in Hafnarfjörður.

• 1211090 – Master Plan of Hafnarfjörður, South Town, amendment

  Item 6 from the minutes of the SBH meeting of 5th December. A proposal from the Planning and Building Department was presented for an amendment to the general plan regarding Hringbraut 17 and the plots surrounding St. Joseph's Hospital. $line$ The Planning and Building Committee approves the advertisement of an amendment to the Master Plan of Hafnarfjörður 2005-2025, South Town, Suðurgata – Hringbraut, dated. 27.11.2012.$line$Skipulags- og byggingarráð makes the following proposal to the City Council of Hafnarfjörður: „The City Council of Hafnarfjörður approves the publication of the proposal dated. 27.11.2012 to the amendment of the Master Plan for Hafnarfjörður 2005-2025, Suðurbær, Suðurgata – Hringbraut, in accordance with Articles 30 and 31 of the Planning Act no. 123/2010.“$line$

  The Hafnarfjörður Town Council approved the proposed motion by 11 unanimous votes.

• 1201159 – Minutes of 2012, for presentation to the town council.

  Minutes of the Town Council from 13th December. $line$ a. Minutes of the Harbour Board from 27th November. $line$ b. Minutes of the Culture and Tourism Committee from 27th Nov. 2018.$line$Minutes of the Planning and Building Committee from 11th Dec. 2018.$line$Minutes of the Family Council from 12th Dec. 2018.$line$a. Minutes of the Sports and Leisure Committee from 3rd December 2019$line$Minutes of the Environment and Operations Committee from 12th December 2019$line$a. Minutes of the Board of SORPU bs from 26 November. Minutes of the Education Committee from 10 December.

  Kristinn Andersen spoke under item 2 – Work and Activity – in the minutes of the Town Council meeting of 13 December. Guðrún Ágústa Guðmundsdóttir made a point of order. Kristinn Andersen replied to the intervention. Gunnar Axel Axelsson made a second intervention regarding Kristinn Andersen's previous speech. Helga Ingólfsdóttir spoke under the same item. Gunnar Axel Axelsson made an intervention. Helga Ingólfsdóttir replied to the intervention. Gunnar Axel Axelsson made a second intervention. Helga Ingólfsdóttir replied to the second intervention. Eyjólfur Sæmundsson made an intervention on Helga Ingólfsdóttir's previous speech. Helga Ingólfsdóttir replied to the intervention. Eyjólfur Sæmundsson made a second intervention. Helga Ingólfsdóttir replied to the second intervention. Eyjólfur Sæmundsson made a short remark. Helga Ingólfsdóttir made a short remark. Eyjólfur Sæmundsson made an intervention.

• 1212008 – Financial benchmarks, 10-year adjustment programme - second reading

  A 10-year adjustment plan for financial benchmarks, in accordance with the provisions of the Municipal Government Act 138/2011, was presented. The City Council of Hafnarfjörður approved, by 9 votes at its meeting on 5 December, the 10-year adjustment plan for financial benchmarks. The City Council of Hafnarfjörður approved, by 9 votes at its meeting on 5 December, to refer the 10-year adjustment plan for financial benchmarks to a later discussion in the council.

  Guðrún Ágústa Guðmundsdóttir, the Mayor, took the floor and put forward the following motion: “The Hafnarfjörður Town Council approves the proposed 10-year adjustment plan for 2013-2023, provided that the assumptions on which it is based are met, that the municipality fulfils the financial criteria of the provisions of the Municipal Government Act no. 138/2011 and the regulations on financial criteria and supervision of the finances of municipalities in 2019.“$line$$line$Rósa Guðbjartsdóttir took the floor. Eyjólfur Sæmundsson made a point of order. Eyjólfur Sæmundsson took the floor. Kristinn Andersen made a point of order. Then Valdimar Svavarsson took the floor. Eyjólfur Sæmundsson made a point of order. Valdimar Svavarsson replied to the intervention. Eyjólfur Sæmundsson made a second intervention. Lúðvík Geirsson took the floor. Geir Jónsson made an intervention. Lúðvík Geirsson replied to the intervention. Geir Jónsson made a point of order. $line$$line$The Hafnarfjörður Town Council approved the proposed motion with 6 votes, 5 abstained.$line$$line$Rósa Guðbjartsdóttir made the following statement on behalf of the representatives of the Independence Party:$line$$line$“Hafnarfjörður did not meet the debt ratio criteria according to the Local Government Act of 1 January last year, and must therefore submit a 10-year adjustment plan on how the municipality intends to achieve this. Local Government Act as of 1 January last year, and must therefore submit a 10-year adjustment plan on how the municipality intends to achieve the target of having its debt ratio fall below 150%, whereas it has been above the 250% limit for several years.$line$ $line$The plan shows in black and white the tight financial position the municipality is in, with an extremely heavy repayment burden and financing costs, or around 3.6 billion króna annually for the coming years, are crippling the municipality. The assumptions behind the plan and the figures presented here are that the exchange rate will remain fixed during the period, interest rates will stay unchanged, revenues will increase steadily, and that only 370 million kroner will be spent annually on new projects. Furthermore, there is still complete uncertainty as to how the refinancing of the 11 billion króna Depfa loan will be handled, and what the terms might be. $line$ The proposed 10-year adjustment plan is therefore a kind of appeasement plan and a well-made Excel spreadsheet, where many uncertainties are missing for it to be considered a realistic document.“$line$$line$ Valdimar Svavarsson (sign), Rósa Guðbjartsdóttir (sign), Kristinn Andersen (sign), $line$ Geir Jónsson (sign), Helga Ingólfsdóttir (sign).$line$$line$Gunnar Axel Axelsson made the following statement on behalf of the representatives of the Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Green Party:$line$$line$“Adjustment plan based on new financial rules$line$$line$The preparation of a ten-year adjustment plan is based on new financial rules for local authorities which came into force with the new Local Government Act at the beginning of this year. The Act provides for the obligation of municipalities to maintain a balanced budget. It stipulates that operating revenues and expenditures are to be balanced over a three-year period, the so-called balance rule. $line$ The balance rule stipulates that the combined total operating expenditure for Parts A and B in the accounts, over any three-year period, shall not exceed the combined regular revenues.$line$ The new law also provides for a specific criterion regarding debt, the so-called debt rule. $line$ The debt rule stipulates that the total debts and liabilities of the A and B parts of the accounts shall not exceed 150% of regular revenues, according to the calculation methods described in Chapter IV of Regulation No. 502/2012.$line$Secording to the Act, local authorities are required to demonstrate that they can meet the above-mentioned conditions within 10 years.$line$Meets the balance rule every year and the debt ratio on 7 years$line$$line$The 10-year plan of Hafnarfjörður municipality shows that the municipality meets the balance rule every year and, based on the assumptions of the adjustment planof the amortisation plan, the municipality will meet the debt ratio financial benchmark in 2019. The plan is based on the same assumptions as the three-year plan that has already been approved. It is based on macroeconomic forecasts for wage growth, loan repayments, and index-linked adjustments, with interest calculated in accordance with current agreements and depreciation rates remaining unchanged year-on-year. No income from land sales is expected for the years 2017-2023, and expenditure is estimated at 370 million króna per year for the duration of the period. $line$In light of the above assumptions, it is safe to state that the adjustment plan is presented with caution and shows that, based on current assumptions and the significant and positive progress that has been made in adapting the town's operations to the changed circumstances following the crash, mThe City of Hafnarfjörður will comply with the balance rule every year and will be well below the statutory 150% debt ratio considerably earlier than new legislation requires, without an increase in revenue, for instance from land sales or increased economic growth. $line$The plan shows that the operation of the City of Hafnarfjörður is in good balance and has full capacity to meet its social and financial obligations into the future.“$line$$line$Margrét Gauja Magnúsdóttir (sign), Guðrún Ágústa Guðmundsdóttir (sign), Gunnar Axel Axelsson (sign),$line$Eyjólfur Sæmundsson (sign), Guðný Stefánsdóttir (sign), Lúðvík Geirsson (sign).