By Oleksandr Vrublevskyi, expert consultant of the DESPRO project on starostas’ activity and cooperation of hromadas

With the appearance of starostas in the local self-government, they became one of the key figures in amalgamated hromadas and received a powerful mandate to represent the interests of residents of starosta districts in the executive committee of the hromada council. With this aim, the legislator fixed a provision, which made starostas the members of the hromada executive committee by their positions (Part 5 of Articles 14-1 and Part 4, Article 51 of the Law of Ukraine “On Local Self-Government in Ukraine”). In the AHs that include over twelve village/settlement councils, on the basis of which the corresponding starosta districts were formed, the starostas’ majority could have been formed in the AH executive committee, if it was not for one “but”.

Starostas’ majority in the AH executive committee occurs when the number of starostas in the executive committee exceeds its other members. Such a majority can be functionally stable in the process of executive committee’s decision-making.

The formation of starostas’ majority in some AHs, in my opinion, is hampered by at least three circumstances:

• imperfection of the legal regulation regarding the determination of the number of members of the executive committee;
• indulgence or negligence of AH council deputies when approving the number and composition of the executive committee;
• feudal lord syndrom of some heads of AHs.

P.S. Additional questions to the author of the publication can be put in the Forum of Starostas http://forum.decentralization.ua

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