Summer Theater and Polyclinics Merger to be Discussed at Odesa City Council Session

The Odesa City Council has updated the preliminary agenda for the next session to be held on April 29, which will be the 51st meeting of this term.

In particular, the updated agenda, which is likely to be supplemented, still offers deputies to consider more than 200 issues, most of which relate to land, but now it has removed the issue of approving jury lists.

As usual, Intent will broadcast the meetings of the regular session online.

The fact is that the Odesa Regional Council will now deal with jury issues. They are looking for 13 jurors for Kyiv District Court, 11 for Prymorskyi District Court, six for Peresypskyi District Court, and nine for Khadzhybeyskyi District Court. The issue of recruiting judges for the city's district courts became the responsibility of the regional council after the Odesa City Council failed to do so. Thus, at the extraordinary session of the city council held on April 10, during the consideration of this issue, the deputies debated among themselves, because they were not supported at the extraordinary session. This caused indignation among the deputy Olga Kvasnitskaya, because the absence of jurors may make it impossible to consider some cases and these cases will be transferred to the courts of other settlements. The term of office of the current jurors expires in early May this year.

Instead, deputy Olha Kvasnytska said that the agenda included amendments to the City Target Program for Environmental Protection and Improvement for 2022-2028. The amendments provide for funding for the development of scientific and project documentation to increase the boundaries of the City Garden Park by including the Summer Theater. The production of the documentation will cost 200 thousand hryvnias, and it is for the allocation of these funds that the deputies are asked to vote. She claims that this issue is under item 4.11, but there is no such item on the preliminary agenda. However, the agenda published on the website usually differs from the one received by the deputies - the deputy agenda is more extensive.

The issue of the Summer Theater may cause discussions among the deputies, as some of them fear that this territory will be taken out of the City Garden and built up.

Another controversial issue may be the merger of a number of medical institutions in the city as part of the medical reform. Olena Kolodenko, Director of the Health Department of the Odesa City Council, said that there are currently 32 medical institutions in the city, but there are disproportionate costs for management and ancillary services. The merger is planned as a way to save money. However, deputy Volodymyr Kornienko actively protested against the merger of some institutions located in Khadzhybey district in his constituency. In particular, we are talking about children's polyclinic No. 5 (60 Yevhen Tantsiura St.) and children's polyclinic No. 7 (46 Staroportofrankivska St.), which are planned to be merged with the adult primary health care center No. 16 (1 Ivan and Yuriy Lyp St.). At the meetings of the standing committees, the deputy insisted that the prospects for savings were illusory.

"The draft law was introduced with a voice vote in violation of the rules of procedure. The document is crude and not finalized. The staffs of medical institutions learned about the merger directly at the meeting of the commission, where the decision was already made.
What risks does it bring?

• loss of funding;
• outflow of qualified specialists;
• loss of declarations with patients;
• deterioration in the quality of medical services for children.

I tried to convey this to the common sense of my colleagues, but, unfortunately, I was not heard," the MP said. He also declared a petition to prevent this association, and it gained more than 1,000 signatures, which automatically obliges the city council to consider the appeal.

The biggest issue is the land issue, which currently contains more than 120 items and may be supplemented. However, this does not mean that the deputies will consider and vote on each issue separately. Usually, blocks with similar issues are combined under one vote.

Кирило Бойко