The information about the truant deputies and the voting results should be available for voters

He noticed that during the beginning of cadence the city council and the city mayor that belonged to opposing political sides were in conflict with each other. But after six months of work the majority of the deputies supporting the social and economic initiatives of the city mayor was formed in the city council. But this situation also can change; hence the parliamentary elections will force the opposition tendencies in most of the council fractions.

In addition to this, Mykhaylo Shelep spoke about the partnership of the civil organizations and media. Straight after the elections they began the monitoring of deputies’ and civil servants’ work, and it lead to the positive results.

The public observer is not satisfied with the attitude of deputies and civil servants to the proposals of the public monitoring campaign – answers of the city servants resemble just runarounds. So, the work of lobbying the propositions will be continued. It is particularly connected with the initiatives of placing of all the information about the voting of every deputy on every question during the session and all the projects of council decisions – not only the regulatory acts – on the website for public. Besides, the website should contain the texts of deputies’ requests and addresses. These innovations will make the work of the council transparent, and the electors will be able to monitor the activeness of their deputies.

Commenting the information on the attendance rating of the deputies on each session, Mykhaylo Shelep told that the truancy of the deputies on the third part of the plenum meetings is the extremely negative factor. It’s particularly curious that such rating has the fraction leaders on the first places. But this information is also not full-scale, because there was a part of deputies that went out in the middle of the session after registering.

The frequent “truancy” of the sessions and “piano play” (voting for others) and the mutual infightings resemble the work of Verkhovna Rada. It’s just worth adding the fights, tribune blockings and crashing the furniture and machinery.

Concluding the report, Mykhaylo Shelep offered public experts and journalists to develop certain evaluation criteria for the deputies’ work. It will help the electorate to evaluate the work of their deputies more efficiently and in the objective manner.

In the attached materials you can find:

- The rating the  attendance of the city council sessions by the deputies;

- The analysis of considering of the propositions and recommendations by the self-government bodies of Luts’k.

RATING OF THE ATTENDANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL SESSIONS BY THE DEPUTIES

(for 31.05.2011)

Basing on the information about the deputies’ registration on the plenum sessions of the city council, collected from the Secretary department of the city council as a response to official requests, the civil network “OPORA” composed a rating of the attendance of the sessions by the deputies.

There were 20 plenum sessions of the 10 sessions of Luts’k city council from November 2010 to May 2011.

The major truants of the sessions were the newly-chosen deputies Olena Holyeva (European Party of Ukraine) – 12 missed plenum meetings, and Vitaliy Kvartsianyy (“Front Zmin” , now – extra fractional ) – 11 missed meetings. Mrs Holyeva can explain her non-attendance by the maternity leave. The second deputy, perhaps, was preparing the football-players; hence he is working as a senior couch of the “Volyn” football club. The last deputy in the triad is the experienced leader of the fraction of All-Ukrainian Unity “Bat’kivschyna” Yuriy Korolchuk – he missed 9 meetings.

Chart №1. The deputies of Luts’k city council who missed the biggest number of the plenum meetings

But, among 50 deputies there are 14 members who didn’t miss a single meeting. They are the council secretary Pustovit H.O., 6 members of the fraction of AU «Bat’kivschyna», 3 members of fraction of AU “Svoboda” and one deputy from European party of Ukraine, “Za Ukrayinu!” and “Front Zmin”.

Chart №2. The deputies of Luts’k city council who didn’t miss a single plenum meeting during 10 sessions.

The most decent fraction is the fraction of the All-Ukrainian Unity “Svoboda”, whose deputies attended 94% of the plenum meetings. As active are the deputies of “Za Ukrayinu!” and “Sylna Ukrayina” – 93%. The rating of “Front Zmin” became much better after withdrawal of the deputy V. Kvartsyanyy.

Chart №3. Level of session attendance by the delegates of fractions

It is worth mentioning that the registry data doesn’t fully reproduce the attendance of the sessions because there was a part of deputies that went out in the middle of the session after registering. Such truants are hard to notice.

NEW RATING OF ATTENDANCE OF CITY COUNCIL SESSIONS BY THE DEPUTIES

(for 22.07.2011)

From November 2010 to July 2011 there were 23 plenum meetings and 12 sessions of Lutsk city council.

The most active session truants:

The most decent deputies that attended all the sessions:

THE PROPOSITIONS OF THE PUBLIC OBSERVERS ABOUT BETTER PUBLICITY LEVEL AND OPENNESS OF LUTS’K CITY COUNCIL AND ITS EXECUTIVE BODIES

During the public monitoring campaign the delegates of CN “OPORA” analyzed the agendas of the local self-government bodies. The developed recommendations and propositions are handed to the city council. But the civil servants don’t hurry to listen to the advice of public observers.

The observers analyzed the agenda of Lutsk city council and the agenda of the executive committee and the executive bodies of Lutsk city council. The propositions of certain journalists were also considered. In conclusion, there were some recommendations and propositions to improve the publicity of Lutsk city council. 16/05.11 and 6/06.11 the written propositions were sent to the Lutsk city mayor M. Romanyuk and the secretary of Lutsk city council H. Pustovit.

To Lutsk city council:

• To implement changes to the article 24 of the Agenda of Lutsk city council (session work), i.e. to write there: “The results of open voting of deputies about all the agenda issues are published on the official website of the council as the attachment to the official provision. In addition to this, the results of voting are printed and supplied to the heads of deputy groups and fractions, heads of the constant deputy committees, to the head of the meeting, to the Council Secretary and, after the session ends, - to the accreditated media representatives”.
• To implement changes to the article 29 of the Agenda of Lutsk city council (The preparation of the issues for the agenda of the Council): «Not later than 4 days before the plenum meeting (in exceptional cases and in cases presupposed by the agenda – not later than 1 day before the plenum meeting – the secretary department of the city council provides the projects of the decisions and grounding materials by publication on the official website of the Council”.
• To implement changes to the article 44 of the Agenda of Lutsk city council (The enacting of the decisions of the Council): «All the Council decisions having the operative and legal character are published on the official website of the Council and in other determined ways  not later than in 5 days after the adoption”.

To implement changes to the Agenda of Lutsk city council:

• Publish on the official website of the city council the deputies’ requests supported by the council , and texts of deputies’ requests sent between sessions;
• Publish on the official website of the city council the text of the protocol of meetings;
• Publish on the official website of the city council the information about time and place of the meetings of standing deputy committees.

1. The secretary department of the city council every month should publish on the official website of the Council the statistical data about the work of deputies, about the non-appearance of the deputies on the sessions, about quantity of the deputy requests and questions by each deputy, about the quantity of questions on the meetings of standing committees and plenum meetings of Lutsk city council.
2. The responsible for technical supply of the session hall should supply the places of journalists with extra sockets and tables, in the corridor near the session hall they should install the TV for translation of the session.

For the executive committee of Lutsk city council:

1. To implement changes to the article 5.25 of the Agenda of the executive committee and executive bodies of Lutsk city council: “All the decisions of the Executive committee should be approved by voting by raising hands.
2. To implement changes to the article 5.31 of the Agenda of the executive committee and executive bodies of Lutsk city council: “All the decisions of the Executive committee should be published on the official website of the Council in 5 days after the approving”.
3. To implement changes to the article 5.33 of the Agenda of the executive committee and executive bodies of Lutsk city council: “The results of voting with noting all the deputies who voted for, against and abstained should be reflected in the protocol”.

Unfortunately, most of the offers was not implemented by the deputies and civil servants, and the replies of the city servants resemble runarounds. So, as an answer to the first letter from 16.05.11 the council secretary  H. Pustovit sent an exemption from the agenda of the meeting of the “regulation committee”. The first deputy of the city mayor S. Kravchuk in the answer to the second letter announced that all the initiated issues have already been solved with the help of the new council website, all the technical improvements are possible only in the coming year.

So, there were no changes to the agendas of the Lutsk self-government bodies. The technical propositions were considered only partly. The website still doesn’t provide the answers to all the initiated questions.

So, the community has no access to the information about the voting results for every deputy on each question of the session and it is not easy to watch out the fulfilling of promises and keeping to the party position by the certain deputy.

Not all the projects are on the website, and the dwellers of Lutsk can’t provide thief offers to the issues highlighted by the Council, particularly the issues that are put into consideration besides previously approved list.

There is no possibility to learn the texts of the deputies’ requests and watch the extra-session work of the deputy.

There is no information about the attendance of the deputies on the sessions of the city council.

The executive committee of the council approves the decisions not through voting but through agreement.

Even after the end of the campaign the public observers will insist on the considering of these and other propositions, hence they will help to make the work of the council transparent and open.