SIX HAIL MUNICIPAL COUNCIL MEMBERS OFFER

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RIYADH 000799

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/21/2018
TAGS: KDEM PGOV PREL SA
SUBJECT: SIX HAIL MUNICIPAL COUNCIL MEMBERS OFFER
RESIGNATION

REF: 08 RIYADH 00791

Classified By: Consul General John Kincannon for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d
)


1. (U) On May 11, 2008, six members of the Hail municipal
council presented their resignations to the President of the
Hail City Municipal Council, Abd al-Aziz Ibrahim al-Toub.
Citing a lack of progress in council performance, the members
left two options for Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs
Prince Miteb bin Abdulaziz: empower the municipal councils
with their proper authority or accept the members'
resignations. The resigning members were particularly
frustrated by what they viewed as underhanded municipality
tactics, for example giving the councilmen little or no time
to consider budgets, not properly presenting legal aspects of
proposals, withholding municipal information from councilmen,
and not acting in good faith to implement council resolutions.


2. (C) COMMENT: The charges follow very closely in both
content and tone the complaints voiced by the four opposition
councilmen of the Dammam Municipal council (reftel). In
their May 11 editions, Saudi daily newspapers "Okaz" and
"al-Shams" noted this similarity, reporting that the Hail
council actions seemed to mirror those of Dammam, with Hail
members taking the next step by actually offering their
resignations. This matches what Dammam opposition council
members have told post, insisting that their frustrations are
shared by councils throughout the Kingdom and that their
actions would bring similar movement in other councils. But
while the Dammam opposition council members are intent to
portray this as a critical moment of decision in the SAG's
overall municipal council policy, Dammam council member Aref
al-Ashban views things in a less severe light. On May 3,
al-Ashban, who is not part of the Dammam opposition, told
post that he believes Prince Mansour bin Miteb will allow
both the Dammam and Hail cases to progress on their own
accord, forcing the councilmen to come to some resolution,
the councils maturing without intervention by the central
government. (NOTE: Although Mansour is Deputy Minister of
Municipal and Rural Affairs, he is the ministry's de facto
day-to-day leader. END NOTE) END COMMENT.

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Translation of Hail Councilmen's Resignation Letter
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3. (SBU)

KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA
MINISTRY OF MUNICIPAL AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Hail Municipal Council

President of Hail City Municipal Council

May peace and God's blessings be upon you.

We refer to the executive bylaws on Municipal Councils as
decreed in Resolution No. 66866, Paragraph Two, Section One,
dated 12/11/1426 AH, which states, "In a municipality,
municipal councils shall assume authority and exercise the
authority of reports and oversight."

The office of the mayor has prevented us from fulfilling our
responsibilities. It is our deep interest to see this trust
that has been bestowed upon us fully fulfilled.

Unfortunately, budgets have been referred without being
presented to the Council, and, if presented, the Council was
given insufficient or no time at all to study them, which
sometimes was limited to a mere day. In other cases, the
legal aspects and implications were missing. We feel the
Council has made no progress in its performance; required
information has been withheld from its members and, in the
case of Council resolutions that were passed, there were no
serious efforts to implement them. We can identify the weak
points if there is anyone with a desire to elevate work
standards to a point where they would meet the objectives of
the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques
through His Highness the Minister of Municipal and Rural
Affairs.

We are firm believers in the importance of municipal councils
and it's our wish and desire they succeed in achieving the
objectives for which they have been established.

However, in light of the spurious obstacles we face, we, the
undersigned, hereby state that it is our desire to
discontinue our work in the Council. We shall suspend our
participation in Council deliberations starting from meeting
No. 46, scheduled for Sunday, 6/5/1429 AH (May 11, 2008).


RIYADH 00000799 002 OF 002


We ask that our request be forwarded to the Minister who may
hopefully activate the role of municipal councils or, given
the present circumstances, accept our resignation.

Signatories:

Hail City Council members: Hitash Hedhairi al-Hamzani; Saud
Abdullah al-Tamami; Odai Saeed al-Hamzani; Abd al-Aziz Fahd
al-Mash'hour; Abd al-Aziz Mohammad al-Ateeq; and Abdullah
Sulaiman al-Mutliq.

(APPROVED: KINCANNON)
FRAKER