Weekly Update 85

May 15, 2026

Hello, everyone.

Last Tuesday, a three-hour council meeting was held. Two of those hours were behind closed doors—no cameras and no public access. The closed session was devoted to two issues that I will report on in detail in the next newsletter. The next newsletter will also present other decisions made at the meeting and extensive construction plans. In my opinion, these plans are far too extensive given the council’s budget. The council treasurer and legal advisor were not present at the meeting, and we were only told in passing that they had traveled abroad on behalf of the council; however, we received no explanation regarding the purpose of the trip or its budgetary source.

• First topic: I have a website as a council member!! Thanks to volunteer residents who, together with me, invested hundreds of hours in setting it up. All the material I’ve written and submitted is available and will be preserved forever.
• Second topic: During the meeting, a motion I submitted to hold a new discussion on reducing property tax discounts was considered, and it was decided that a follow-up discussion will take place ahead of the 2027 ordinance.
• Third topic: An increase in blue-and-white parking rates. Why, and which discounts residents will and will not receive.
• Fourth topic: We voted in favor of adding funds to the budget for the construction of the HaHita School. Despite the promises, construction will only be completed just before the start of the school year.
• Fifth topic: We also discussed at the meeting where there are serious drainage problems throughout the town, what has been addressed, and what still needs to be addressed.

First topic: I have a website thanks to dear volunteers

Some happy personal news—resident volunteers who, like you, read the newsletter, contacted me about two months ago and offered to set up a website for me as a council member that would compile all the weekly updates, inquiries, and requests I’ve submitted, as well as the minutes of all council meetings during this term. And all of this with a fast and excellent search engine. The minutes are indeed available on the council’s website, but they are inaccessible because you cannot search them. On my website, you can.

These residents and I have collectively invested hundreds of hours to create a truly impressive website in both Hebrew and English!! I paid out of my own pocket for the licenses and tools the site uses. The content is, of course, mine, and I am solely responsible for it.

This endeavor and the website have given me so much strength and joy, knowing that there are people who see and appreciate my tremendous effort in this role and want to contribute to increasing transparency. As I already wrote in the first weekly update published on 8/16/2024—

Knowledge is power

Knowledge creates transparency.

Visit the website—there’s a nice video of mine explaining the site’s purpose. Browse through the sections. Use the search engine. You can type in any word—drainage, your street name, and more. It’s now also easier to invite friends—there’s a sign-up form in English on the site. Send your friends a link to the site.

https://4zichron.org/

Second topic: A motion I submitted and discussed regarding property tax discounts.

Motion: Hold a re-vote on the decision to reduce property tax discounts

Submitted by: Council Member Dr. Limor Zar Gutman, Esq., “For the Colony” faction

On 12/2/2025, a discussion was held in the Council meeting regarding the reduction in the scope of property tax discounts granted by the local council. This is the decision that was adopted. A decision that I also voted in favor of in light of what was presented to us:

At a special session on March 23, 2026, which dealt with the 2026 budget, the budget book presented the fact that in 2025, 3.5 million NIS in property taxes were not collected compared to what was set for collection in the 2025 budget. In light of this fact, I ask the Council to reconsider the decision in Section C. After all, if the council had collected the 3.5 million NIS in property taxes for 2025, there would have been no need to cut the discount for the vulnerable population in need of a property tax discount. If we have the option to avoid harming the vulnerable population, it is our duty as elected officials to choose that option.

Proposed Resolution: At the next regular session, the plenary will revisit and discuss Section C of the resolution regarding property tax discounts for 2026.

My request above to hold a further discussion follows cases I was made aware of only after the meeting. I now realize that there was missing information, which came to my attention after calls from disabled and nursing-care residents who own private homes or single-family homes—as is customary in Zichron Ya’akov—whose property tax bills increased by 7,000 to 10,000 NIS per year due to the reduction in the cap. Not a gradual increase, but an immediate one in a single year and for the years to come. These people are not asking for a one-time discount through the Discounts Committee, to which they are required to apply every year—but rather a correction of this distortion.

Fortunately, a substantive discussion took place during the meeting regarding the proposal, in which the mayor explained that the 2026 tax ordinance—which includes the reduction of the discount as stated in Section C of the resolution—has already been published and cannot be changed. However, a plenary session will soon be held to discuss the 2027 tax ordinance, during which the issue of discounts will be revisited. I hope that ahead of this session, we will receive full information regarding the extent of the change resulting from the reduction in the discount.

I was asked to bring to this meeting examples of property tax bills that have risen dramatically for everyone affected by the reduction in the discount. Therefore, I ask you to send me your case, including documentation of how much property tax you paid in 2025 and how much in 2026.

The Council Chair announced that he has established a committee comprising the Legal Advisor and the Treasurer to discuss the dozens of families who experienced a dramatic increase in their property tax bills. I believe this constitutes improper administration that opens the door to selective distribution of benefits through this committee. A committee whose operating procedures are unclear—what criteria will be applied, whether there will be transparency, and more. I am certainly concerned about a situation where those who are close to the mayor, or who do not publicly criticize it, will receive a discount while others do not. This is an unacceptable situation, and I call on those involved in this matter to act strictly in accordance with the law!!

Third issue: Increasing hourly parking rates in blue-and-white zones throughout the town

We were asked to approve an amendment to the Zichron Yaakov Bylaw (Parking and Stopping of Vehicles) so that the hourly parking rate in blue-and-white zones throughout the town will rise to 6 NIS, and in the Moshava Park area—to 9 NIS. The amendment has not yet gone into effect because it must be approved by the Ministry of the Interior, which will certainly happen.

For those who have obtained a resident permit, there is no change to the discounts: the first hour is free in blue-and-white zones, and in the Moshava Park area, parking is free with no time limit.

We were told that the rates, which haven’t been updated in years, need to be adjusted. This will bring money into the council’s coffers and help free up parking spaces for tourists. The reasoning is that if the rate is 6 NIS, employees in the Moshava Center won’t park their cars there all day. To the best of my knowledge and based on my own research, it appears that employees of the local authority and businesses in the Moshava Center do not park in these Blue and White lots but rather in more distant locations, so it is unclear to me on what basis this assumption is made.

In preparation for the meeting, I conducted a comprehensive survey of the communities in our region—what the cost is and what discounts are offered to residents. Here is the table I prepared:

Accordingly, I requested at the meeting that if the rate is raised, the number of free hours provided to residents should be increased to two. This would ease the impact of the hourly rate increase and, more importantly, bring us in line with neighboring communities. If residents of Pardes Hanna get two free hours, why shouldn’t we?

The answer I was given is that Pardes Hanna is not a tourist town; there are no hotels there, etc. And here we have lots of tourists, and we need to make parking available for them. It’s quite absurd to say there’s no tourism in Pardes Hanna—I suggest that whoever said that take a tour of the neighboring town that looks out for its residents’ money.

The answer didn’t convince me, both because of my familiarity with what’s happening in Pardes Hanna and because of my approach that I’ll always look for ways to make things easier for residents.

And so I voted against it. I was the only one who voted against it.

Fourth issue: Continued construction at the HaHita School

Regarding the HaHita School, there are two separate budgets. For both, we were asked to approve an increase. The first is for the school’s exterior design at a cost of 750,000 NIS, to which we added 200,000 NIS during the meeting. The second is the construction of the new wing at a cost of 13 million NIS (part of which comes from the Ministry of Education budget, which is unwilling to increase it, and part from a development loan and the authority’s own funds). We added another 405,000 NIS to this portion.

Construction is currently underway. In response to my question regarding the completion date, the council head stated that construction will be finished by September 1, when the school year begins.

My second question concerned the front courtyard and the inquiries I received from school parents regarding its development and landscaping plans. The council engineer explained that the landscaping phase will follow and that the courtyard is intended to be green, as shown in the plan. I thank the attentive parents who are following and updating us on developments.

Fifth Topic: Drainage Issues

Those who follow the weekly updates have surely noticed that over the past two years, we have approved quite a few budgets to address the severe drainage problems in the community. This is especially true during heavy rainfall events—events that are expected to become more frequent as Israel and the world undergo climate change. So here is a summary of what was addressed this year, plus a fourth area that has not yet been addressed.

1. The Ma’ayan neighborhood—Sh/343—is located along Ma’aleh Finels Street. This is a neighborhood where private homes are still under construction, and development has been only partial to date. 1.4 million NIS has been invested in drainage. We were told there is a solution to some of the neighborhood’s drainage problems—a pipe that will run through a private yard with the owner’s consent. In exchange, the owner will receive an exemption from paying fees totaling approximately 70,000 NIS.
2. Addressing Azrieli Street: This street may be less familiar to most of us because at the street’s entrance (on the opposite side of the entrance to the HaHita School, the Country Club, and others) are educational institutions of the ultra-Orthodox community, and further down the street are two residential buildings. However, the street and the adjacent public open space are used by many pedestrians seeking a shortcut to reach the Moshava High School and the Halomot neighborhood from the western side of the town via the new square. The street, which has suffered from drainage issues that have caused flooding in lower-floor apartments in recent years, has been addressed, but further work is required. 4.2 million NIS was invested in laying a drainage line along the street, geometrically altering the existing road to divert water away from the residential buildings, and creating an open public space that will include walls and a ramp for accessible passage; I am not aware if everything has been completed.
3. Work on Tirosh Street leading to the Wine Park neighborhood has been budgeted and carried out.
4. The remaining area under dispute regarding who will bear the costs of the repairs is the agricultural land in the valley below Park HaYayin. It turns out that due to construction in Park HaYayin, severe flooding has occurred in the agricultural areas belonging to Zichron Yaakov as well as those belonging to Binyamina. Hence the dispute—whether the Israel Land Authority, which owns the land in the Park HaYayin, should apparently share the cost of the repairs, or the National Drainage Authority, since this is an area bordering between communities.