A ''heemraad'' (; ), or ''hoogheemraad'' (; ) is a local official of a Dutch

water board A water board is a regional or national organisation that has very different functions from one country to another. The functions range from flood control and water resources management at the regional or local level (the Netherlands, Germany), ...

. The term can be pluralized to ''(hoog)heemraden'', but sometimes the word ''heemraad'' also means more than one man in the sense of a meeting of (hoog)heemraden, such as ''decisions made by the heemraad''. In this sense, the college of heemraden ('' college van dijkgraaf en heemraden'', consisting of the dike-reeve ('' dijkgraaf'') and the (hoog)heemraden) met and acted as one body in the same way that the executive board meet at the city hall (''

college van burgemeester en wethouders In the Netherlands, the municipal executive (, oftentimes abbreviated to ; ) is the executive board of a municipality. It plays a central role in municipal politics in the Netherlands, similar to the communal college in Belgium. It consists of ...

''). A heemraad is the equivalent of an

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

(''

wethouder In the Netherlands, the municipal executive (, oftentimes abbreviated to ; ) is the executive board of a municipality. It plays a central role in municipal politics in the Netherlands, similar to the communal college in Belgium. It consists of ...

'') in local government, being a member of both the local legislative council, while having representational roles for his own area. The term goes back to pre-medieval days.

References

Heemraad
definition (Dutch) Dutch words and phrases Government of the Netherlands Water boards (Netherlands) {{Netherlands-gov-stub