College cabinets: from zero to twenty-three posts depending on the commune

Context

Article 21bis of the New Municipal Act leaves each municipal council free to decide whether the members of its college have a cabinet, and to set its composition. That freedom produces nineteen different answers across a territory of 162 square kilometres. Brussels Local Authorities gathered those decisions into a single survey, as at 25 September 2025, which makes comparison possible for the first time.

The data compared

The range runs from zero to twenty-three. Auderghem is the only commune to grant no cabinet to anyone. At the other end, Ixelles authorises twenty-three posts and Schaerbeek 19.5, allocated by political group.

Set against population, the picture shifts. Saint-Josse-ten-Noode authorises one post per roughly 2,100 inhabitants, Ixelles one per 3,900. Conversely, Evere and Uccle sit above 21,000 inhabitants per post, ten times fewer resources relative to population. The two did not make the same choice, however: Uccle reserves its four posts for the mayor alone, Evere places two staff at the disposal of the whole college.

Three models, not nineteen

Behind the spread of figures, the survey reveals three ways of doing things.

No cabinet. Auderghem, alone.

The mayor only. Uccle and Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, and but for one alderwoman Ganshoren. Between two and four people, with aldermen having no staff of their own.

A distributed establishment. The rest, with two rationalising mechanisms visible in the detail. Pooling between aldermen of the same group, in Jette and Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, where staff are allocated per group of three or four aldermen rather than individually. And allocation by electoral list rather than by person, in Anderlecht, Saint-Gilles, Schaerbeek and Watermael-Boitsfort, which moves the arbitration from the college to the parties.

The City of Brussels is the only case of a points system: each grade consumes a number of points, and the cap applies to the weighted total rather than to a headcount. A cabinet can therefore employ more staff by recruiting at a lower level. That mechanism, adopted in early 2025, explains the growth in headcount observed there in August 2026.

One trajectory, only one

Schaerbeek is the only commune in the survey to write an evolution over time into its decision: its establishment goes from 19.5 posts for 2025-2028 to 18.5 for 2028-2030. Everywhere else the establishment is fixed for the term.

What the source does not say

The survey gives a ceiling, not a reality. It says neither how many posts are actually filled nor what they cost. It contains no budget data, global or per commune. That is the main limit of this comparison: it measures what the communes allowed themselves, not what they do.