DUN'S 100 - 2016

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Local Authorities
578
2016 | DUN’S 100 DUN’S 100 | 2016
DUN’S 100 | 2016 2016 | DUN’S 100
17 Local Authorities (50,000 - 200,000 Residents)
RANK
Bnei Brak Municipality
Bnei Brak, which recently celebrated its
90th year, has over 193,500 residents,
making it Israel’s 10th largest city. The
city has undergone a fundamental revolution with
repercussions and impact on three main areas of
municipal management:
Bnei Brak’s Three Revolutions
Revolutionizing the Budget
Many municipal authorities, municipalities and
local authorities face economic problems and sub-
stantial financial deficits that time and again harm
daily routine functioning and cause difficulties for
residents onmatters like education, parks and lei-
sure, culture, sanitation, traffic andmore. One of a
large number of such municipalities was for many
years Bnei Brak, which underwent major economic
difficulties, and 20 years ago even needed an ap-
pointed committee, which operated for 3 years,
until 19 years ago the city resumed operating as
an electedmunicipality. Anyone who examines the
financial situation of the municipality today, sees
a dramatic revolution, outstanding changes in the
collection of city taxes, cuts in a range of areas, and
today, not only does the financial balance sheet
have no deficits, the city was even recently rated
ILAA+ by the credit rating company S&P Maalot,
which is considered high, and a similar rating to
well-known cities with a solid financial situation.
The Office Towers Revolution
As stressed by the analysis of credit rating com-
pany Maalot, the reasons for the strong budgetary
performance of themunicipality are the successful
completion of the financial restructuring process
undergone by themunicipality, increasing the city’s
tax collection and buildingmany office towers, with
dozens of floors already completed. At the B.B.C.
complex in Bnai Brak’s north, garages and small
factories have made way for buildings, new devel-
opments underway, or about to start. So far, 6 of-
fice and business high-rises have been built north
of the city - B.S.R. 2 - 34 floors, Concord Africa-Israel
- 21 floors, B.S.R. 3 - 35 floors, B.S.R. 4 - 42 floors
and V Tower - 21 floors, Champion (Allied) - 40
floors. Towers under construction are – Hachsharat
Hayishuv - 60 floors, and will be the second largest
building in the country, Lenox - 17 floors, Allied
(Auto Depot) - 25 floors. 2 more towers are soon
be built - Dan Tower &Noa House. One of themain
reasons for the rapid occupancy of the office and
commercial high-rises is the complex’s location
in central Israel with excellent transport links to
the north and south. Rabbi Chanoch Seibert, the
mayor, announced that in addition to the building
plan that has for themost part already been imple-
mented, on the current agenda is the master plan
for a giant office and commercial center – a joint
municipality and Israel Lands Administration plan,
in a compound bordered by: North - Yarkon River;
West - Mivtsa KadeshSt.; South - throughSheshet
Hayamim St., East - Geha Highway.
Residents Services Revolution
As part of Mayor Rabbi Chanoch Seibert’s policy
to give residents that make enquiries at the mu-
nicipality a feeling of a desire to help and make
life easier on a range of municipal matters, with
not only words and declarations but also deeds
and actions, computerizing queues and simplifying
processes have been implemented in the Bnei Brak
municipality’s two large departments - engineer-
ing and revenue – which receive large numbers of
residents every day of the year. As part of improving
services and streamlining the engineering depart-
ment, a computerized process has been arranged
for the local planning and building committee,
which has implemented a revolution in shorten-
ing the time from filing a request for approval to
obtaining a permit. Today, according to engineers
and architects who file requests like these in other
municipalities, Bnei Brak is one of the fastest cit-
ies in the country. As a part of the service revo-
lution, a machine was installed at city hall at 58
Jerusalem St. called the “Self-Service Municipal
BanKat.” Operating 24 hours a day, in addition to
withdrawing cash, comprehensive information and
a range of municipal forms are dispensed, bills for
the municipality and other municipalities can be
paid, mobile phones can charge up air time, and
much more. As part of a range of information that
can be obtained from the machine are details of
bills, details of properties, tax, water, parking and
fire department payments, forms for tax discounts
with legal information on thematter, request forms
for a certificate from the land registry, procedures
for building permit applications, discounts and ap-
plication forms for allocations for the disabled, and
municipal obligations related to themunicipalities
automation company.
Esta b l i s he d
1924
L i n e o f B u s i n ess
Municipal Services
Bnei brak
Tora Chinuch Chasidut City that it aworld
58 Jerusalem St., P.O.B. 2,
Bnei Brak 5144503
Tel: 972-3-5776500
Fax:972-3-5795796
Chanoch Zeibert
Mayor *
B.B.C Complex - A compound of office and commerce towers in northern Bnei Brak
A new park, established recently in southern Bnei Brak
* See Top Executives Profiles - Page 582