At the SSA general meeting, I submitted a proposal for changes to the composition of the board that was basically simple and sensible. It involved each municipality having one representative on the board with voting weight in accordance with population. This would have created equality between municipalities, clearer responsibility and a simpler administrative structure. This was not a radical change but a way to adapt the system to reality and improve it. However, the proposal was rejected.
Instead of going this route, the SSA board's proposal was approved, which provides for a 6-member board and results in the Austurbrú board remaining eight members. Thus, six representatives of the SSA board sit on the Austurbrú board and two representatives from the business, education and culture sectors as has been the case, and the opportunity for reductions was rejected. This is an institution with around twenty employees, which makes it clear that an eight-member board in such an institution is well overburdened. The arrangement is neither simple nor efficient and goes against the views on efficiency that the municipalities themselves have had to adopt. This outcome is also contrary to the wishes of the majority of Fjarðabyggð representatives, who emphasized simplification and restraint in operations.
The operation of the Austurbrúr underlines that this is a real project. There have been rationalization measures and cuts, but despite that, there was a deficit in operations last year and a deficit is expected to continue. At the same meeting, a 6.6% increase in SSA annual fees was also approved, against the wishes of the majority of Fjarðabyggð representatives. Increasing annual fees is not a solution but a postponement of the problem and it ultimately falls on the municipalities, which themselves have had to deal with rationalization in their own operations.
Following the meeting, the Fjarðabyggð town council made the following statement: "Following the SSA general meeting held in Fáskrúðsfjörður on March 20, the Fjarðabyggð town council places great emphasis on the SSA board analyzing the association's finances and operating efficiencies with the aim of not increasing annual fees to the municipalities. It is important to exercise restraint in the operation of SSA as well as other collaborative forums of the municipalities in East Iceland, as is done in the operation of the municipalities themselves. It is therefore necessary for the SSA board to begin this work immediately and submit proposals in this regard at the upcoming autumn session of the association. The Fjarðabyggð town council considers the 6.6% increase in annual fees that was approved despite the disapproval of the majority of Fjarðabyggð representatives at the general meeting to be unacceptable for the municipalities in East Iceland and encourages the SSA board to review that decision in connection with this work."
It is not at all the fault of the staff of Austurbrúar, who do their work with integrity, but rather it is the role of the board to ensure that the business is sustainable.
Austurbrú has just emerged from a difficult organizational change that was, among other things, intended to address deficit operations, but despite that, we still face the same challenges. We have seen before what happens when operations get out of control and the costs that come with working through an accumulated deficit. We should not go down that path again. That is why it is important that elected representatives are prepared to take responsibility and participate in streamlining. If we are not prepared to reduce costs in our own organizational structure, it is difficult to see how we are going to take the next steps in Austurbrú's operations. A simple rule should apply: when we need to streamline, we start with ourselves.
The proposal for a simpler board structure was, in my opinion, a good idea. It would have led to clearer accountability, increased efficiency and real savings. It was not approved, but that does not change the fact that the problem remains and calls for a clearer response than the one that was imposed.