There is no time to look for inconsistencies in the work of the previous council leadership and municipality, because then you will not be able to implement your ideas, and it is not my goal to organize a "witch hunt", said the new Jelgava City Mayor Martins Dagis (For!), who has replaced the long-standing mayor Andris Ravins (Greens/Farmers), in an interview with LETA. At the same time, the new leadership has requested reports on the use of the budget in order to better prepare next year's budget. Dagis believes that in recent years, the city's community has become more active, so it should be involved in the city's development with its own ideas and problems, while also creating clear conditions for investors.

You have been in office for just over a month. What have you been able to achieve since your election?

The first job is to familiarize myself with the existing governance system. Even if we have been lawmakers before, running a council is a completely different mechanism. We also go to all the municipal authorities, get to know the administration and discuss priorities.

The first big job will be the preparation of next year's budget, which will start in September-October. To prepare for this, I have already issued an order to all institutions to submit a detailed report on how the budget has been spent so far in 2023, 2024 and the first six months of 2025. Thus, the new council can take a detailed look at the use of funds to date and then decide on the new budget already on the basis of the data.

When we visit the municipal institutions, we see that there are many needs, new things have been built, but the maintenance of the existing ones requires funds, and something has also been neglected.

You were also in the coalition in the previous council. Were there any surprises when you got to know the institutions?

The most surprising thing for me was that the circulation of documents in the municipality is still paper-based. I probably had not signed anything by hand for seven years, but on my first day as the mayor, I was brought documents to sign by hand. It was a culture shock. We will move towards electronic document circulation, and the aim is to do it only electronically from next year. And the funny thing is that the institutions are using a document management solution called Namejs, which means that everything is being done twice.

Given the long term of the previous mayor in the office, do you feel any resistance, any unwillingness to cooperate from the staff in the municipality, in the institutions?

Of course, there needs to be a period of adjustment. For example, the fact that everything will now be electronic was received with a bit of shock. So, we will do it gradually. There is naturally a certain resistance towards the new.

If cooperation fails, will there be changes in staff?

At the moment, there are no major changes planned, most of the staff is staying, working and also open to modernization ideas. We also say to the municipal staff: let us work, let us move forward, let us be a bit more modern, more efficient and we will be fine.

You mentioned that you will ask for reports on the use of the budget, but you do not plan to carry out such a big audit?

It is essentially an audit. In my experience, there is no point in doing joint big audits because they are not of good quality. Here we will see all the use of funds in each institution, in each capital company, and then if we see any irregularities or problems, we can look deeper into the issue in a targeted way.

The finance minister called on local governments to save money. Where can you save money in Jelgava?

At the moment I cannot give a precise answer, because we simply do not know the detailed use of the budget yet. In a few months I will be able to give an answer when preparing next year's budget.

Do you have clear rules of the game from the state on next year's budget, what will be redistributed and what will not?

At the moment, no. The state has declared that we need to make savings in general. The details will be discussed later. So far, the talks have been quite general. The good news for municipalities was that the conversation was not just about giving us money here or there, but we also talked about systemic problems, where we need changes in legislation to make municipalities work more efficiently.

What do local governments need?

For example, in cities, there is the problem of empty plots of land that someone owns. If a piece of land is objectively worth, say, EUR 400,000, the owner often asks for much more from developers who are interested in it. The developer does the math and realizes that it does not pay off. So, the owner sits on the land because the property tax is relatively low. We, as a municipality, should have more freedom in this matter. We as a municipality can define that we want to see a public or commercial facility on the site, and if that is not implemented over a period of time, then we increase the property tax until it is no longer profitable to keep the site unoccupied. This is the Scandinavian experience. In order to do this, one article in the property tax law needs to be amended. This is an elementary issue, but nothing is happening.

Do you see a need for new apartment buildings in Jelgava?

Yes. The housing stock in Jelgava is in a catastrophic state. We need to go in three directions - renovation of apartment buildings, cleaning up the inner courtyards and new construction. We are very rich in resources for building new houses, we have waterfronts that many other cities do not have. The European experience shows that the waterfront is a place where the residential function should be primary. Small trade can come in, but it is not the place to build a huge shopping center. It is a place to create a quality living environment, and the waterfront is the way we can attract people to Jelgava. For example, it is the old market, the right bank of the Lielupe River. This whole area should be primarily used for residential development, plus offices and small retail.

We want to send out a clear message that we are waiting for investors, we are waiting for developers. This is important for clarity. As a municipality, we therefore need to establish clear building regulations, to consult the public at this stage, not when the investor has already come.

How do you currently assess the efficiency of the municipal capital companies and are there any changes planned?

At the moment, we are looking more at efficiency and the budget, and whether there are any complaints from citizens. As far as the management of houses is concerned, most of the houses are managed by Jelgavas Nekustama Ipasuma Parvalde (NIP), and it would not be right to hand everything over to someone else, so that a new monopoly does not form. One option is that NIP is split into lots and auctioned. A healthy market situation would be three or four building managers competing with each other.

We also need to think about what we are going to do with the management of municipal buildings. We are assessing all this, but the principal aim is that if the market can deliver, then there is no need for municipal involvement.

What about the hospital and clinic?

The economic performance of these institutions has always been quite good. This year there are losses, but this is being addressed. No drastic intervention is needed at the moment.

When you look at the projects that are planned or already in the budget, do you also see projects that are too ambitious and that the city cannot afford?

This is a difficult question to answer at the moment as we do not yet know the detailed budget.

Of the projects that are underway, all are scheduled for completion. We also plan to continue with the projects related to storm water drainage, as this is an important issue for Jelgava. This year is not as crazy as last year, but we do not know what will happen in the future.

For other major projects, we will have to see how the funding is available. The sports sector says that we lack sports infrastructure - sports halls. Similarly, schools that have not yet been reconstructed are waiting their turn. These are very expensive projects and everything depends on our financial possibilities. We may have to wait for some projects.

You also mentioned possible renovation of schools. Are you also considering optimizing the school network to make it more efficient?

I think we are one of the leaders in the country in organizing the education system. A lot has already been done in this area. For example, in July we saw that there was a shortage of places in Grade 10, so we opened an extra class.

At the moment, I do not see the possibility of closing down any school. If necessary, a class can still be added in the big schools - the State Gymnasium, Spidola or Secondary School No.5 - but otherwise all the big schools are full. We have already done as much as we can to optimize the school network.

Of course, the demographic situation shows that we may have to think about this in the future, but if our goal is to attract new residents to Jelgava, then we should leave the possibility for their children to study in kindergartens and schools, rather than saying: 'Come and live with us, but wait for five years until we build a new school'.

You have also started to provide live video broadcasts after council meetings to communicate with citizens. Do you plan any other way to reach out to citizens in a more direct and understandable way?

Of course. There are several ideas. One of them is to make short video reels with the latest news in addition to live broadcasts. Of course, we also produce press releases and statements on major events. We will definitely continue the live broadcasts, but in September and October we are also planning face-to-face meetings with residents in the neighborhoods of Jelgava.

These meetings have several objectives. One of the most important is that from next year there are plans to start introducing residents' councils. Each neighborhood will have a representative who will serve on the residents' council. We will discuss the issues of the council at the meeting. The second issue is the new spatial plan, including the waterfront and other development projects. We will also be discussing various topical issues that the residents themselves will raise. We will listen to their stories, answer their questions and look for solutions.

Historically, civil society in Jelgava has been rather inactive. Many people go to work in Riga and in the evening, when they come home, they do not have the energy to take part in activities. However, in recent years we have seen that people are becoming more active, collective submissions are appearing, ideas are coming from the residents themselves. Also, the election turnout in Jelgava at the municipal level has been good.

Before the coalition was formed, your coalition colleagues said that a national, Latvian-minded coalition should be formed. But Jelgava is not just a Latvian city.

Exactly - Jelgava is not just Latvian. I would not say that the coalition should be 'Latvian-minded', but it should be 'national'. There is no problem working with all those who are ideologically Latvian. We are also from different parties, with different agendas. It should be understood that in the municipality we do not deal with national ideological issues, but we deal with economic, communal problems. In this respect, the six parties that often have different positions at national level are, for the most part, of the same mind here in the municipality. Our programs are 95 percent aligned - a common vision, transparency, rule of law in municipal work. We are clear about what we want to do. So why not work together? If someone has a conflict based on national issues, they can do it within their big party, but in local government we work for the common good.

Do you see a possibility to work together in this way until the end of the term, taking into account the differences between the parties?

Yes. Although from the outside it looks like we are fragmented, in reality the vision is similar for all nine lawmakers who make up the "Team of Change". In fact, almost all 15 lawmakers think this way at Jelgava level. Of course, things can change, but if we work honestly and responsibly, I see no reason why we cannot work for all four years.