Absences, poor communication and formal reports: how Mykolaiv deputies worked in 2025

The fifth year of the Mykolaiv City Council's term has shown that formal openness does not always mean real communication with the community. Despite a partial return to face-to-face sessions and an increase in the number of reports, the average score of the deputy corps remained at 2.9 points out of 5.

This is evidenced by the monitoring of the certification of local council deputies.

The five-year term of the Mykolaiv City Council is coming to an end amid criticism about the level of openness and efficiency of the deputies. According to a study conducted as part of the "Certification of Local Council Deputies" campaign, the average performance of the deputy corps was only 2.9 points out of 5 possible. This indicates that much of the work of deputies remains formal, without proper interaction with the community.

One of the main changes in 2025 was the partial return to in-person meetings after a long period of remote work due to the war. Currently, the city council works in a mixed format: some deputies are present in the session hall, while others join online. The mayor's office explains this by the desire to gradually resume the full-fledged work of the self-government body and make decision-making more open to the public and journalists.

Despite the availability of official profiles of all deputies on the city council website, most of them contain only minimal information. There is often no information about the deputies' education, professional experience or place of work, which makes it difficult for voters to understand the competence of their representatives. Experts emphasize that the formal availability of biographies does not mean real transparency.

The monitoring paid special attention to the issue of reporting to the community. In 2025, only 54% of MPs published their reports. At the same time, only a few of them held meetings with residents and publicly discussed the results of their work. The rest either limited themselves to formal reports or did not report to voters at all.

At the same time, attendance at the sessions remained generally quite high: more than two dozen MPs attended more than 90% of the plenary sessions. However, some deputies did not actually participate in the work of the council - the lowest rates were recorded for several elected officials who almost never attended either sessions or meetings of specialized commissions.

Communication among the deputies on social media was equally problematic. Only one fifth of the elected representatives actively interact with residents through digital platforms, while the majority use social media solely as a platform for publishing news without feedback. Almost a quarter of the deputies do not communicate online at all.

According to the results of the assessment, the group of leaders was formed by 15 MPs who received 4 points each. Another 12 deputies showed an average result. The largest number of deputies in the city council are those with a low level of accountability - 20 of them. The worst result - only 1 point - was received by deputy Oleksandr Kovtun.

The scandal surrounding online voting in Mykolaiv City Council has also raised doubts about the integrity of the decisions made. Deputies work remotely, and it is almost impossible to check their presence during sessions.

Анна Бальчінос