A Heemraad, or Hoogheemraad is a local official of a Dutch

Politics of the Netherlands

The politics of the Netherlands take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, a constitutional monarchy and a decentralised unitary state. The Netherlands is described as a consociational state...

 water board

Water board (The Netherlands)

Dutch water boards are regional government bodies charged with managing the water barriers, the waterways, the water levels, water quality and sewage treatment in their respective regions...

. 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

College van Burgemeester en Wethouders

The college van burgemeester en wethouders is the executive board of a municipality in the Netherlands. This local government body plays a central role in municipal politics in the Netherlands. It consists of the mayor and the members of the municipal executive...

meet at the city hall. A Heemraad is the equivalent of a wethouder or alderman

Alderman

An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...

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".