The continuation of the Odessa City Council session has been postponed

Ihor Koval, Acting Mayor of Odesa, rescheduled the continuation of the Odesa City Council meeting and convened the council members for July 10.

This was reported by the city council’s press office. 

Prior to this, Vitaliy Barvinenko, the former head of the Odesa District Council, posted a letter signed by Ihor Koval on social media, in which Koval justified shortening the recess in the session by stating the city council had received a letter from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development expressing concern over the delay in approving agreements to prepare for a loan to modernize the city’s heating systems. The amount in question is 35 million euros for “Odessa City Heating.”

The session was originally scheduled for July 8, but because the council members were unable to maintain a quorum, the meeting had to be adjourned. It was expected to resume on Tuesday, July 14.

The fact is that during registration at the entrance to the meeting hall, 34 council members were counted, and after determining that a quorum was present, the session began; however, they were only able to conduct the part of the session that did not directly involve voting—in other words, the ceremonial part. They also inducted a new council member—Maria Popravka, who represents the “Trust the Deeds” party. However, when electronic registration was conducted to begin the session and elect its working bodies, it turned out that there were only 32 council members present in the chamber. This is fewer than the number required to establish a quorum.

The preliminary agenda for thissessionconsists of over 180 items, most of which concern finances and land. Land issues make up the largest block—120 of them—and concern: granting citizens permission to develop land-management projects for the allocation of land plots for lease, the renewal or termination of land lease agreements, and amendments to lease agreements, revising rent payments, granting permits to business entities to develop technical land management documentation regarding the inventory of municipally owned land, technical land management documentation regarding the establishment (restoring) land parcel boundaries on-site (in the field), technical land management documentation regarding the division and consolidation of land parcels, etc. The city council will submit all these matters to the Odesa City Military Administration for consideration.

Кирило Бойко