The Interior Ministry announced that it will dissolve the city councils of Tiveria, Rahat, Yadka and Osfiya since they all did not approve their budget for 2019 within the appointed deadline which the Minister designated. Minister Der'i has summoned their heads for a hearing before their removal. Among these council heads is Ron Kobi, who concurrently announced his intention to run for the Knesset as member of the "Secular Right" party. The other 3 areas are majority Arab.
The northern city of Tiveria has been in the headlines for almost a year since it elected a flamboyant and anti-religious mayor named Ron Kobi, who has become well-known for his attacks on the chareidi residents of Tiveria and elsewhere. The municipal government under him has been disfuctional and as a result it will be dissolved. This is a well-established procedure of the Ministry of the Interior which is often forced to intervene when an elected municipal government is unable to manage the area's affairs properly.
Kobi has quarreled and insulted individual members of the council as well as the community as a whole, and the result is that the council has refused to approve his budget. Without an approved budget a municipal government cannot function.
Yated Ne'eman interviewed the chairman-head of the secular "Lev" party who was a member of the city council up till the beginning of the week and is also a former mayor, Yossi Ben David, asking to hear about the reaction within the city about the dissolution of the council.
Ben David facetiously noted, "In the past eight months, I was able to accrue two titles of 'the former...,' one as mayor, and from Sunday evening, also as member of the city council."
But aside from his aside, "There surfaces a tragic situation for Tiberius and its citizens. It began 5-6 years ago when my predecessor still held the office as mayor. That's when Ron Kobi began his well oiled incitement machine which has been operating nonstop since then up till this very day."
Ben David goes on to reveal some more: "In the last session of the city council on Sunday, we learned that Kobi attempted to bribe the chareidi representatives by offering offices as deputy council members from Degel HaTorah and Shas - to Rabbi David Ohannah, Rabbi Yossi Oknin and Rabbi Pinchas Vaknin. He was not ashamed to repeat his offer at the council meeting in the presence of a large audience, but what he accused me of was for political acts. They said that they had lost their trust in him and refused to accept his offer."
Chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee and Chairman of Degel HaTorah, MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni, spoke to a Yated Ne'eman reporter, referring of the dispersal of the city council and the summons of the mayor to a hearing: "The man doesn't know how to run the city. He did things that a normal mayor wouldn't have done. He struck at the various public interests in the city when his job dictates that one who is chosen to head the city is meant to incorporate the benefit of all the citizens and ascertain the smooth operation of the city.
"Ron Kobi did not know how to administer the city affairs in a professional way and only served his own personal whims which were opposed to the welfare of his constituents. This manner of administration was expressed through the vote of most of the council members against him. It is altogether fitting that he quit his office for the sake of the city of Tiveria and its residents."
As mentioned, the Tiveria city council failed on Sunday, for the fifth time, to pass the budget which Kobi presented. The announcement of the Interior Ministry stated that the vote took place after an extension of two weeks that was approved by Minister Rabbi Arye Der'i, and that no further extension would be given. Alternate councils will appointed to serve up until the elections planned for about four years hence and the deposed council representatives would also be summoned for hearings.
