A Heemraad, or Hoogheemraad is a local official of a Dutch water board. The term can be pluralized to heemraden, but sometimes the word heemraad also means more than one man in the sense of a meeting of heemraden, such as decisions made by the heemraad. In this sense, the college of heemraden met and acted as one body in the same way that the college van burgemeester en wethouders meet at the city hall. A Heemraad is the equivalent of a wethouder or alderman 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.
Literally the term means "home-advisor".
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