Mykolaiv City Council Fails to Support Land Decisions Amid Voting Disputes

Mykolaiv deputies did not support several land decisions that were combined into packages - some of them demanded more time to read the documents. Due to disputes and distrust of package voting, the decisions did not receive the required number of votes.

During the regular session of the Mykolaiv City Council, the deputies failed to support a number of land decisions that were submitted for consideration as part of large packages.

Deputy Olena Kiselyova urged her colleagues not to vote in favor of the project, emphasizing the lack of opportunity to familiarize themselves with each individual project in the package. She noted that she was not opposed to a particular decision, but only defended the right to study the documents in more depth.

In turn, Olena Nesterenko, the head of the land commission, assured that the commission had carefully studied these issues together with the city's chief architect and offered to support the package. However, only 19 deputies voted in favor of the package and the decision was not adopted.

After that, a representative of the technical service asked to display the voting results on the screen. The situation escalated when MP Artem Ilyuk proposed to stop the broadcast and discuss everything off camera, saying:"I'm going to leave now and that's the end of it."

Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych separately put to a vote two land projects that had not previously received a positive opinion from the relevant commission. The decision did not receive sufficient support.

At the meeting of the executive committee held the day before, amendments to the Program of Economic and Social Development of the city for 2024-2026 were approved. They discussed new infrastructure projects that could receive funding with the support of international partners, including the reconstruction of the main water supply system on Myru Avenue from Pivdenna Street to Pohranichna Street and the reconstruction of the boiler room at Mykolaiv Gymnasium #23 on Garzionna Street.

Mykolaiv city council has been holding sessions remotely for more than two years, but this format has been criticized due to the lack of transparency in voting and violations in the publication of materials. According to experts from the Committeeof Voters of Ukraine, the announcement of an online meeting should be published no later than one day before it starts, but often the agenda with draft decisions appears only the night before the session.

Анна Бальчінос