This week at the Lutsk City Council was rich in various events - a session, executive committee meetings, conferences. At times the question even arose - when do local officials still manage to perform their regular work? How the city council session ended and what issues the council's executive committee considered - in a journalistic report.

Dividing land is not developing development programs

In the previous report () OPORA reported that over two days of work of the 5th session of the city council, deputies were unable to consider all items on the agenda. Therefore, on Monday, January 31, deputies gathered for the third plenary meeting of the session. Only land issues were planned for consideration that day. And interestingly: more than 80 land issues were considered by city council deputies in less than four hours, whereas 70 other agenda items were considered by the city's elected representatives for two whole days. That day the deputies worked in a coordinated manner. Minor discussions arose only during consideration of the issue "On transferring land plots to the ownership of city residents for the construction and maintenance of a residential building, commercial buildings and structures, and granting them in lease." Otherwise, all other issues were supported by the deputies practically without discussion.

Now the city community should wait for the official publication of all decisions adopted by the city council session, which should take place through their posting within a twenty-day period on the city council's website -

It would be good, however, if the results of the deputies' roll-call voting were also added along with the text of the council's decisions. After all, in this way city residents will be able to check how their majority deputies and party representatives adhere to their pre-election promises and who votes how on contentious issues.

What does the city of Lutsk live by?

On Thursday, February 3, another meeting of the executive committee of the Lutsk City Council took place, with 37 items on its agenda. Several more items were added during the meeting itself.

Members of the executive committee studied in detail the issue "On the results of the work of the city's healthcare sector in 2010 and tasks for 2011," on which they heard presentations by the head of the relevant department and heads of Lutsk medical institutions. In the decision adopted following consideration of this issue, the executive committee recommended intensifying work on attracting working citizens as members of the public association "Let's Help Ourselves" and supported the idea of submitting to the session a draft decision that funds from the rental of premises of medical institutions should remain locally and be used by them to improve their material and technical base.

Also, members of the executive committee dwelt in more detail on the issue "On the registration of associations of co-owners of multi-apartment buildings." According to information from the deputy director of the Housing and Utilities Department of the Lutsk City Council, as of today there are 83 ACOMBs operating in the city, and if the state properly finances the relevant programs, about 50 more such associations could be created this year.

During consideration of the issue "On the operating regime of certain trade facilities, service sector facilities and restaurant establishments," members of the executive committee approved a list of 80 trade facilities that were permitted round-the-clock operation. However, at the same time, the executive committee adopted a decision prohibiting trade establishments with round-the-clock operating regimes from selling alcoholic and low-alcohol beverages from 11:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. starting March 1 of this year. In this way, members of the executive committee continued the previously launched campaign to promote a healthy lifestyle in society, as a decision had already been adopted prohibiting the sale of alcoholic and low-alcohol beverages and tobacco products in areas within a 100-meter radius of the boundary of a general education institution's territory.

Other agenda items were approved by members of the executive committee without discussion.

Hard work for executive committee members - voting without raising hands. But one can skip meetings ...

It should be noted that the position of executive committee members was very calm and unanimous on all issues, with a single exception. The city mayor and other members of the executive committee understand each other so well that they don't even hold votes! Decisions are adopted by consensus. Namely: the city mayor simply asks on each agenda item: "Are there any objections? No, so all are in favor."

Also, there was almost no briefing of responsible city council employees on each issue. And since the executive committee includes, besides the city mayor and his deputies, the head of Lutsk police officers and a number of entrepreneurs who do not possess sufficient information about the city's life, they essentially voted blindly for the decisions proposed to them. Such a quick procedure for considering issues allowed the work to be completed in 3 hours.

Another aspect of the executive committee's activity is the critical number of executive committee members who participated in its meeting. Thus, the executive committee's composition approved by the city council is 13 persons. But to this day, due to misunderstandings between the city mayor and deputies, two seats on the executive committee remain vacant. Meanwhile, among the other 11 members of the executive committee there are absentee members. For example, only seven persons participated in the executive committee meeting on February 3, which is the maximum permissible number. And as long as decisions were adopted unanimously, there were no problems. But when one of the executive committee members did not want to support a draft decision (on approving the operating regime of the "Cheri" night club until 04:00) - the executive committee, due to a lack of votes, was forced to postpone consideration of the issue to the next meeting. Thus, the absence of even one executive committee member, or the presence of a separate position, could disrupt the work of the executive committee. Therefore, the city mayor should urgently think about means of disciplining executive committee members, or establish communication with deputies and negotiate the introduction of two more persons to the executive committee.

Mykhailo Shelep,

regional representative of the OPORA Civic Movement in the Volyn region

mike.shelep@gmail.com, 067-4165086

For reference:

Monitoring of the work of the Lutsk City Council and the city mayor is carried out within the framework of the OPORA Civic Movement's project on public democratic monitoring of newly elected local self-government bodies in 15 communities of the country.