Deputies of Mykolaiv City Council failed to finish the session again

Mykolaiv City Council has once again postponed the continuation of its 47th session. Despite having already considered budgetary issues, they decided to make decisions on land issues next time.

The decision was made at a session of the Mykolaiv City Council.

The city council session in Mykolaiv was disrupted again. Also, the continuation of the 47th session of the VIII convocation, which was supposed to take place on September 3, failed due to the lack of a quorum: only 26 of the 31 deputies registered at the beginning of the meeting remained an hour later. Despite re-registration and appeals from Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych, the number of votes to make decisions was not enough, and the mayor announced a break.

The situation escalated due to disputes over the remote format of the sessions. For more than an hour, the deputies discussed whether it was possible to fake votes during online meetings in Zoom. In several months, this was the first time that all MPs turned on their cameras at Senkevych's request, so the viewers of the broadcast could see the registered MPs. This was the first time in the last few months that the MPs present at the session were visible on the screen.

Also, during the meeting on August 3, MP Tetiana Dombrovska claimed that the results of her vote at the previous session had been falsified. According to the deputy, her "abstention" vote was reflected in the minutes as "in favor," which, in her opinion, distorted the results. The position was supported by Vitalii Kim, the head of Mykolaiv's DEC, who called on the city council to show not only the voting results, but also the full list of names.

Despite the difficulties, this time, on August 4, 33 deputies were registered. There were 57 land and two budget issues on the agenda. A proposal to allocate UAH 10 million to the Municipal Guard caused controversy; no decision was made. At the same time, the deputies supported the budget as a whole and the updated program for the development of housing and communal services, which provides more than UAH 66 billion for infrastructure modernization. In particular, Mykolaivoblteploenergo is to receive 15 cogeneration units from the World Bank.

However, land issues have been postponed again. Senkevych said they would return to them at the next meeting. This is the fourth attempt by the city council to consider these projects.

One of the controversial issues was the allocation of UAH 10 million to the Municipal Guard, which was not decided upon. Mayor Senkevych said that he would put the budget as a whole to a vote and order an audit of the organization's activities in recent years. The decision on the budget was adopted.

The deputies also approved an updated program for the development of housing and communal services with the allocation of more than 66 billion hryvnias for infrastructure modernization. As part of the program, Mykolaivoblteploenergo can receive 15 cogeneration units at the expense of the World Bank, and the city must ensure their installation.

After the vote, Senkevych asked whether the deputies wanted to continue the meeting. He suggested another 20-30 minutes to consider land issues, but three deputies abstained, and the mayor adjourned.

Despite positive assessments of Mykolaiv' s transparency (in May, the city was ranked 7th among frontline cities), the city council's remote work has significant drawbacks. Some deputies turn off their cameras during online meetings, voting is done through forms like Google Forms without a counting commission, and many participants' faces are often missing from the screen. According to experts from the Odesa regional organization of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, after analyzing the activities of the Mykolaiv City Council, this calls into question the legitimacy of the voting.

Sessions are held via Zoom (Workplace Pro version), but the lack of authorization through Diia or banking services makes it difficult to confirm the personal participation of a deputy. Earlier, programmer Ihor Fomenko confirmed to Intent thatthe Zoom system itself does not ensure transparency of voting: anyone can log in by invitation via e-mail, which makes fraud possible.

Despite numerous comments and criticisms from journalists about the organization of remote meetings, MPs continue to postpone sessions. This time it is the fourth time that the consideration of land issues has been postponed. We can say that this time the MPs have broken their own record.

Анна Бальчінос