Let’s start with the numbers: 384 motions, 203 agendas and 1,088 questions. Here, in summary, is one of the activities of the city councilors from October 2021, that is, from the installation of the newly elected after the Municipal elections, until last June 13.
A premise. Those who follow the work of the Palazzo Marino assembly know that these are proposals or requests for further study – addressed by the councilors to the Board – that are not always analyzed by the chamber and, in some cases, even when they are approved by the Council they do not always become concrete acts of the executive. Yet motions and orders of the day are the acts that show the ability to propose of those elected at Palazzo Marino. Who are the workaholics of the acts to be presented to the City Council? The Democratic Party councilor Rosario Pantaleo confirms the primacy already achieved in 2023, with 106 proposals presented out of a total of 587 motions and orders of the day. But hyperactive, since 2021, have also been – on the center-right opposition front – the Forza Italia member Alessandro De Chirico, the Lega members Alessandro Verri, Samuele Piscina, Pietro Marrapodi and Deborah Giovanati, the Brothers of Italy Riccardo Truppo, Enrico Marcora and Francesco Rocca. In the centre-left majority, however, in addition to the record holder Pantaleo, the Democrat Alessandro Giungi, the Green Carlo Monguzzi, and the reformist Giulia Pastorella stood out for a high number of proposals or questions to the Sala Council.
In recent weeks, the most popular topics in the documents presented by those elected to Palazzo Marino have been the war between Israel and Palestine, the future of the San Siro stadium, the state of abandonment of the former Palasharp, honorary citizenship for Julian Assange. Another “hot” topic is mobility, with Marco Mazzei (Sala list) among the most proactive. It was his motion, approved by the chamber, which called for the 30 km/h speed limit to be extended to the entire city. A goal that is too ambitious, according to Mayor Giuseppe Sala, who has decided to proceed gradually, extending the 30 km/h speed limit first and foremost to areas near schools.
The case of the motion on the city at 30 km/h also serves to understand that – as mentioned above – not all motions and agendas approved by the Palazzo Marino assembly become administrative acts. In fact, these are proposals addressed to the mayor and the council, who can then decide whether to implement them to the letter, only in part, or ignore them because they are considered impracticable for political, technical or economic reasons.
One last curiosity. In addition to the workaholics of motions, agendas and questions, there are also councilors who have not considered using these acts to present proposals or raise issues. Scrolling through the table that, as mentioned at the beginning, takes stock from the beginning of his mandate to today, the FI councilor Gianluca Comazzi, who is also the regional councilor for Territory, has not presented a single motion or agenda, but has used the instrument of the question to ask the councilor for Security Marco Granelli to account for the Animal Protection Unit of the Local Police.
