Skip to content
Carla Kabamba
← All categories

In council

Council committees

Committees are where the real work happens: councillors question the mayor, aldermen and members of the public on plans before the council decides.

158 · Page 1 of 32 · Watch the playlist on YouTube ↗

Council Committee on Finance, Arts and Diversity2:14 speaking time

Anti-Asian racism and sick leave in waste collection

On the high sick leave in the city’s waste and resources department (over 20 percent in collection), Carla asked how the city can act faster and offer more permanent contracts to the people doing this hard work. On tackling anti-Asian racism she thanked the speakers and the people who had emailed the council about it for years. She asked Alderman Meliani to secure the approach for a future executive. The alderman promised a handover document so that the new coalition can continue the approach; according to her, reports to the hotline rose from 29 to 317 in a year. When a colleague asked in which country things were better, she replied that the question is not where it is better, but how we get rid of racism. On moving the cruise terminal she asked for a study of the health of residents along the IJ and the North Sea Canal (in Dutch).

Watch the full meeting on Raadsinformatie ↗

Questions + answers · 2:24

0:00 / 2:24YouTube ↗

Chapters

Council Committee on General Affairs2:36 speaking time

Fat bike ban in busy areas

Carla was critical of the proposal to ban fat bikes from busy areas such as parks. She asked whether a ban on fat bikes alone is legally possible, since a fat bike is a bicycle, and argued for tackling all tuned-up e-bikes that go too fast: enforce speed and behaviour rather than a symbolic ban. She warned that banning one type of bike mainly affects certain groups of young people and can lead to ethnic profiling, and saw the nuisance as a social problem: talk to the neighbourhood, parents and schools. She also asked how the city will track a displacement effect to other areas; Alderman Van der Horst called it a good suggestion and promised to monitor it (in Dutch).

Watch the full meeting on Raadsinformatie ↗

Questions + answers · 11:14

0:00 / 11:14YouTube ↗

Chapters

Council Committee on Education, Care and Poverty2:47 speaking time

Children’s Ombudsman: “Treated differently, now what?”

In her last meeting of this committee Carla spoke on three topics. On the Children’s Ombudsman report on discrimination and racism against children, she debated a colleague who called such reports a waste of money: how can children and parents who experience racism be protected if there may be no research and their experiences are dismissed as opinions again? On citizenship education she asked to include the National Slavery Museum and the Suriname museum. And on the urgent letter about children out of school, she pointed out that autism is recognised later in girls and children of colour; parents now often get more from each other than from the system. She asked how teachers, special-needs coordinators and school leaders will be trained in neurodiversity as a matter of course, when parents will routinely be told about their rights and options, and how cooperation with parent cafés and community organisations will be made permanent rather than ad hoc (in Dutch).

Watch the full meeting on Raadsinformatie ↗

Questions + answers · 7:18

0:00 / 7:18YouTube ↗

Chapters

Council Committee on Social Affairs, Economy and Democratisation3:04 speaking time

Children’s Council: safe and fun outdoor play

The Children’s Council presented its advice on safe and fun outdoor play. Carla asked the children what the council can do for children without a playground nearby (their idea: a car-free route linking parks and playgrounds). She asked the alderman which recommendations will be carried out in 2026, with budget and planning, how play areas in vulnerable neighbourhoods will be protected, and how the children will hear what happened to their advice, for example through a campaign in 2027 showing what it achieved. She then spoke on the Resilient Democracy letter, which she had put on the agenda herself: the question is whether young people still feel their voice matters. She asked whether the extra 6 million euros for youth work also helps restore trust, on which policy files young people will actually help decide in 2026, which indicators the city will use to measure whether their trust in democracy grows, and how the approach will become a permanent part of city policy after 2028. She asked for a letter to the council on this (in Dutch).

Watch the full meeting on Raadsinformatie ↗

Questions + answers · 3:14

0:00 / 3:14YouTube ↗

Chapters

Council Committee on Mobility, Public Space and Water3:59 speaking time

New public transport card and farewell to the committee

In her last meeting of this committee Carla asked two questions at question time. The OV-chipkaart is being replaced and a new card costs 6 euros: for families with many cards this adds up quickly, and not everyone knows the cost is coming. She asked the alderman to work with the alderman for poverty so that people up to 150 percent of the social minimum get a new card for free, that children can get a free travel pass through GVB, and that there is an information campaign. The alderman promised to raise the concern with the alderman for poverty. She also asked whether low-income residents of the city centre could receive visitors at a discount; the alderman was not positive about that. On bus operator EBS’s parent company and the occupied Palestinian territories, she backed the call for action. She closed with words of thanks, looking back on the debate on closing the Weesperstraat and her work for free public transport for children (in Dutch).

Watch the full meeting on Raadsinformatie ↗

Questions + answers · 5:02

0:00 / 5:02YouTube ↗

Chapters