October 9, 2021 - The Zagreb cat shelter project is among the necessary strategic documents of the City and is included in the list of initial projects from 2021 - 2027.

The Mayor of Zagreb, Tomislav Tomašević, announced the construction of a shelter for cats during a tour of the Zagreb Shelter for neglected animals. There, the City of Zagreb, in cooperation with the Zagreb Zoo and the Animal Friends Association, organized the 19th International Animal Protection Day celebration,  reports Jutarnji List.

"We plan to increase the capacity for accommodating cats in Dumovec. In order to prevent dogs from leaving, we continue to control microchipping, "said Tomasevic.

The cat shelter project is among the necessary strategic documents of the City of Zagreb and is included in the list of initial projects for the financial perspective from 2021 - 2027.

With this project, the City of Zagreb would get an appropriate shelter for the accommodation of injured and sick and other neglected cats.

"At the Zagreb Shelter for neglected animals, we currently have a hundred animals - 70 dogs and 30 cats. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, we have received a smaller number of dogs in the Shelter, but we still find abandoned pets on the streets of Zagreb. Most of them do not have a microchip," said Damir Skok, director of the Zagreb Zoo, which includes the Shelter in Dumovec.

The employees of the Shelter are happy that some participants left with a new pet during the International Animal Protection Day celebration. The mayor also invited the people of Zagreb to adopt dogs and cats.

"Buying dogs is not necessary. There are many dogs that need to be adopted. Trust me, every dog you adopt will be loyal to you for the rest of your life. That dog becomes a member of the family," said Tomasevic.

During the International Animal Protection Day celebration, citizens were able to visit the Shelter, see how work is done on the education and socialization of dogs, and meet associations that work with animal protection. An educational and entertaining program was also prepared for children. Animal Friends organized a Vega picnic. Citizens were also encouraged to adopt by dm, who gives a gift voucher worth 50 kuna to anyone who adopts a dog or cat by the end of the year to buy food and other products from the pet range.

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ZAGREB, 9 Oct, 2021 - The Bridge opposition party's MPs and Zagreb City Assembly deputies on Saturday voiced concern over the situation in the Zagreb Holding utility conglomerate, saying that instead of dealing with citizens' problems, the city administration was dealing with personnel.

Speaking at a press conference, MP Zvonimir Troskot said the management and supervisory boards in city companies "are changing faster than trams drive" and that the city administration should start dealing with road construction, public transport, and waste.

He said the ZET public transport company was HRK 500 million in debt.

MP Marija Selak Raspudić said Bridge could not see why everyone appointed to a key position in the city was leaving the mayor and that she expected answers.

She also wondered why everyone working for the city was not allowed to speak in public without the administration's consent.

The party's City Assembly deputy Trpimir Goluža said the situation at the Srebrnjak children's hospital was an example of non-transparent management and of complying with political decisions "made within the close circle around Mayor (Tomislav) Tomašević."

He said the work of the hospital's governing council was secret and that it made decisions under Tomašević's influence, not based on expertise.

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ZAGREB, 28 Sept, 2021 - The Croatian Chamber of Agriculture (HPK) on Tuesday requested a meeting with Mayor Tomislav Tomašević after the announcements that fairs and food festivals could be relocated from the centre of Zagreb caused concern among HPK members.

The HPK president Mladen Jakopović said in a press release that in recent years Zagreb residents have had an opportunity to buy home-made products and locally grown agricultural produce at various events organised in the main square Trg Bana Jelačića.

Lately, we have received information from the organisers of such events and from producers that the new city administration seems inclined to relocate those events to less attractive venues.

That's why the HPK would like to meet with Mayor Tomašević and his aides to discuss the matter and present their position on the short supply chains and the protection of domestic production, Jakopović said.

The HPK is willing to provide the City of Zagreb with all the necessary support to improve, in cooperation with farmers, the availability of locally grown agricultural products to all citizens of Zagreb, in compliance with the EU criteria and the criteria for the protection of urban space.

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ZAGREB, 21 Sept, 2021 - Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević said on Tuesday that instead of the planned procurement of 150 cars, the city administration would procure 50 vehicles for city services and half of these will run on hybrid or electric power.

"We cancelled the previous call for the rental of 150 vehicles which was valued at HRK 4.5 million a year and we will now launch the procedure for the procurement of 50 vehicles and the cost for that will be HRK 1.8 million a year," Tomašević told a regular press conference.

The novelty is that half of those vehicles will run on hybrid or electric power. "In that regard, our administration will promote green public procurement. We want to change the city's vehicle pool and there will be some savings in terms of power used by cars," he said.

Deputy Mayor Danijela Dolenec informed that a task force would be established for the city's finances. She will head that advisory task force that would be set up to help improve overall financial sustainability and plan the city's budget and of its companies.

The five-member task force includes two external members: parliamentarians, Damir Bakić of the We Can party and Boris Lalovac of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

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ZAGREB, 14 Sept, 2021 - Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević said on Tuesday that the city administration had appointed a new supervisory board of the city-owned ZET public transportation company, which will advertise vacancies for the new management in the coming days.

he new members of the ZET Supervisory Board are Marko Slavulj, Marko Borski and Sanja Stojić.

Tomašević said that ZET cost the city HRK 1.1 billion annually and that the city's contribution was HRK 790 million. He added that an additional HRK 80 million should be secured through a budget revision.

The number of passengers in public transport has been falling and the number of vehicles on roads has been growing. That is not a good trend and should be reversed and that is what we expect of the new ZET management, the mayor said.

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September the 6th, 2021 - Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic has been shaking things up in the post-Bandic Croatian capital following years of alleged mismanagement and scandals. As things alter and as the Zagreb cable car project continues to cause issues, Tomasevic has assured that ZET ticket prices are to remain the same - at least for now.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, on Sunday, the Mayor of Zagreb, Tomislav Tomasevic, said that for now, ZET ticket prices will remain unchanged and that they are doing everything they can to prevent any increase in the price of tickets for the use of the city's public transport system.

"For now, these ZET ticket prices will remain as they are. We're doing everything we can to prevent the increase in the price of public transport,'' Tomasevic told reporters at Ban Jelacic Square, where he participated in the action of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development called #ZaZeleniSvakiDan/ForGreenEveryDay''.

He confirmed that ZET definitely does have debts, because, as he explained, it took out a loan of half a billion kuna for the realisation of the deeply problematic Sljeme cable car, loan installments are already needing to be paid, and there is no income yet. "So the cable car is a big weight for ZET's business," Tomasevic warned.

He explained that ZET, which is marking its 130th anniversary, operates in such a way that the vast majority of costs are covered directly from the city budget through a subsidy paid out to the city company.

The mayor says that this year, in order to cover the loss that will occur, which ZET didn't plan for, he will have to provide a larger amount for the subsidy in the rebalance of the city budget than was planned this year.

He didn't want to say what the amount of the subsidy will be and whether there will be a shift in the way ZET does things, and he announced that he will talk more about it next week when he will present the supplementary budget of the City of Zagreb.

He also announced that he would do everything to improve public transport in Zagreb, and called on people to use that transport as much as possible and leave their cars at home whenever they can in order to help protect the environment.

He says that they have talked to some ministers about the Sljeme cable car, but they haven't yet had time to talk to some of the people they need to. He also noted that they have an administrative dispute on their hands over the use permit for the planned Sljeme cable car and that the dispute will go on in court for some time yet.

However, regardless of the dispute, he announced that works will be done that will reduce the noise of the Sljeme cable car, because, as he pointed out, the cost of these works is lower compared to the cost that arises every month because the cable car isn't in function.

"So, it will be another new cost, but again not so much in relation to this cost that occurs every month because the cable car isn't moving and has no income," concluded Tomasevic.

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ZAGREB, 31 Aug, 2021 - Commenting on the situation with post-earthquake reconstruction, Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević repeated on Tuesday that the current law on post-earthquake reconstruction was inadequate and he welcomed plans to amend it.

Tomašević said that it was up to the government to submit a new bill to the parliament and that his We Can! party would try to help shape it through its deputies in the national parliament.

The mayor warned that property-rights relations, properties that had not been legalised and discrepancies between data in land books and those in cadastral maps constituted a major problem.

He said that he would support proposals that the state fully finance the reconstruction process in order to help expedite procedures related to property-rights relations, noting that those relations would not be as important without the co-financing model, and one could embark on "block by block" reconstruction.

Tomašević said that a call for applications for the lease of city-owned flats to citizens whose properties were damaged in the March 2020 earthquake and who were accommodated in a hostel and in housing containers would be published very soon.

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August the 31st, 2021 - The new Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic and his city administration is seeking millions in damages from the late Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic's many alleged affairs and scandals.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Tomislav Tomasevic and his government are looking for the money extracted during the time of former mayor Milan Bandic in alleged scandals, most of which are well known to the public, reports Jutarnji list.

The closest associates of the late Mayor Milan Bandic in Zagreb's city administration, as well as the owners of companies that benefited from doing ''illegal business'' with the City of Zagreb are being watched very closely by the new Zagreb government led by Tomislav Tomasevic, who is asking for a return of a little more than 227 million kuna in what he claims is looted money.

The office of Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic confirmed to Jutarnji list that the new city administration, on behalf of the City of Zagreb, has submitted property claims in all proceedings in which, according to USKOK (Croatian State Prosecutor's Office for the Suppression of Organised Crime and Corruption) indictments, the capital city was financially damaged.

When submitting the request for the return of the money, Tomasevic's administration allegedly adhered to those USKOK indictments that the court has confirmed so far, this incluces the owners of companies that benefited from said illegal activities, as well as some court experts and lawyers who participated in the conclusion of those criminal cases.

"It's our responsibility to ask for the stolen city money to be given back to the city treasury because it's the money of our citizens,'' the Zagreb mayor's office confirmed.

Although all the indictments on which the current city government bases its property and legal claims were confirmed during Bandic's lifetime, the former city administration failed to submit any requests for the return of the apparently stolen money.

Namely, it was difficult and rather illogical to expect that Milan Bandic himself and his closest associates from Zagreb's city administration would file any demands for the return of the stolen money against themselves.

Many of these people are still employees of the city administration, although they are no longer in the positions they held back during the controversial Bandic's time.

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ZAGREB, 24 Aug, 2021 - Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević on Tuesday presented three new members of the Zagreb Holding multi-utility conglomerate's management board, saying they have ten years of experience in managing positions in Croatian and foreign companies and will take office in September.

"After receiving 73 applications, we shortlisted and interviewed 15 candidates. We chose those three and they will take office in September," Tomašević told the press.

The three new members are Ivan Novaković, Boris Sesar and Matija Subašić Maras.

In June, Nikola Vuković was appointed Zagreb Holding Management Board chair and Ante Samodol a member. The latest additions complete the appointment of the Zagreb Holding Management Board.

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ZAGREB, 17 Aug, 2021 - Mayor Tomislav Tomašević said on Tuesday the Zagreb Holding multi-utility conglomerate's Waste Management branch was removing bulky waste from city streets as of today and that Holding signed a contract for the temporary storage of that waste in the eastern suburb of Sesvetski Kraljevac.

Speaking at his weekly press conference, Tomašević said bulky waste would be stored there for the next 75 days which, he added, should be enough time to first lease and then buy a shredder and meet the other technical requirements so that in future Waste Management ("Čistoća" in Croatian) would recover bulky waste instead of private companies.

Asked if he could vouch that bulky waste removal would no longer be suspended, the mayor said he hoped this was the last time it happened.

Tomašević said a complaint was lodged yesterday against a new public procurement procedure for bio-waste disposal and that "it's definitely slowing down the process."

He said five offers had been made for the purchase of two shredders, while the procedure for leasing them, estimated at HRK 200,000, is still under way.

Tomašević declined to comment on an ironic statement issued last week by the private C.I.O.S. Group, specialised in waste management, after he announced the cancellation of a tender for the removal of bulky waste in Zagreb after two valid bids had been submitted, one by Reoma Group and the other by the Ce-Za-r company, a member from the C.I.O.S. group.

The mayor annulled the tender which had been advertised by the previous city administration.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

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