The effectiveness of the work of local councils in Chernihiv: the main thing is not the system, but a person!
At the beginning of the round table, the expert of the Center for Political Analysis and Electoral Consulting Michael Shelep He briefly acquainted the audience with the idea of the project and the results that are planned to be achieved. The purpose that experts set is quite ambitious – to investigate the effectiveness of local councils after 2010 in 5 regions of Ukraine.
Further President of the Polissya Fund Gennady Maxak presented the results of monitoring the work of local councils in Chernihiv from the moment of their election. The study according to the sample was subject to the activity of 18 people’s deputies: 6 from the Chernihiv Regional Council, the city councils of Chernihiv and Nizhyn. The efficiency of the work of each of the deputies was checked by different sources: the content analysis of the media, the analysis of transcripts of session meetings of councils and a personal survey of these members of the deputy corps. Despite the difficulties in communication with deputies and individual councils, the preliminary report on the monitoring results showed a clear picture of the work of each of them, and in general also gave a picture of the activities of the respective councils. Each deputy was characterized by individual tools in working with the community, at the same time, there are many more opportunities to improve and replenish tools. The general conclusion was logical: the deputy works not depending on how he was elected (in a single -member or multi -member constituency), but depending on his personal qualities and the desire to work with citizens, to defend their interests.
The neoptimistic picture was described by the Polissya Fund expert Maxim Koryavets, who published the results of a survey of residents of cities of Chernihiv and Nizhyn, which was conducted to determine the level of voter awareness of the activities of local councils. In general, both residents of the regional center and residents of Nizhyn have demonstrated very low awareness of the work of deputies of city councils. The leadership was not the deputies, but the mayors – 15.0% of Nizhyn and 6.5% of Chernihiv respondents mentioned them. There are many cases when the respondents called the names of the People’s Deputies and the deputies of the regional council. In total, only 21.3%of those surveyed were able to properly name their deputies in the city councils (in Chernihiv – 14.5%; Nizhyn – 35.0%).
During the discussion of the results of the research of the Polissya fund, the participants of the round table stopped on various aspects of the work of the Soviets and the deputies themselves. Deputies of Chernihiv City Council Yuri Tarasovets and Alexander Miller They spoke about their own experience in organizing reporting and working with citizens. Ruslan Voloshchuk, the deputy of the district council in Chernihiv, spoke about the experience of the city council of the first three convocations, comparing it with the work of the City Council of the current convocation.
Head of Public Relations with Chernihiv City Council Irina Solomakh She noted the improvement of the media on the coverage of the deputy corps, as well as testified to assistance to deputies or political parties in communication with residents of the city.
Expert Yuri Paper He focused on the peculiarities of the work of certain factions of the Chernihiv Regional Council and the methods of their activation. ExpertSergey Solomakha, in turn, he proposed to shorten the life of deputies of the city gift to 2-3 years in order to intensify their activities and improve the efficiency of work with citizens.
According to the results of the discussion, some adjustments will be made to the report, namely the study will be the basis for developing recommendations for improving the activities of local deputies in terms of organizing their work with voters.
Contact person on the project in Chernihiv: Yevgeny Romanenko, Polissya Fund of International and Regional Research.