Community Leader: How Is He Elected, What Are His Powers, and Under What Circumstances Does He Lose His Position?

With this article, Intent continues its series of publications dedicated to the work of local self-government. Today, we’ll focus on the position of community head.

Currently, the position of “village, town, or city head” (or community head) is the top official in the respective territorial community. Intent looked into who can hold this position and what powers the official receives upon election.

Who Can Become a Community Head and When They Lose Their Position

Any Ukrainian citizen who is at least 18 years old and has the right to vote may run for the position of community head. Elections for this position are held under a majority system. If the number of voters is up to 75,000, a relative majority system is used. If the number of voters is 75,000 or more, an absolute majority system is used.

Under the relative majority system, the candidate who receives more votes than any of the other candidates wins, even if that is less than half of all votes cast. Under the absolute majority system, a candidate must receive more than 50% of the votes cast by voters who participated in the election. If this does not occur, a runoff election is held between the two candidates who received the most votes.

The term of office for a community head elected in a regular election is five years. The term of the newly elected community head begins when he or she takes the oath of office at a plenary session of the council, during which the territorial election commission announces the decision on his or her election and registration.

The term of office of the community head may be terminated early for several reasons.

Without a separate political decision by the council, this occurs, in particular, in the following cases:

• the head submits a personal statement of resignation;
• termination of citizenship;
• a criminal conviction becoming final;
• a court decision regarding a corruption-related offense becomes final, if the head has been barred from holding relevant positions;
• a court’s determination that assets are unjustified and their forfeiture to the state;
• a determination that the head is legally incapacitated or missing, a declaration that the head is deceased, or the head’s death.

Separately, the council or a local referendum may terminate the head’s powers if the head violates the Constitution or laws of Ukraine, the rights and freedoms of citizens, or fails to exercise his or her powers. A council decision requires at least two-thirds of the votes of the council members out of its total membership.

At the same time, the local referendum mechanism is currently not functioning in practice: the procedure for holding such a referendum must be established by a separate law, and no such law is currently in effect in Ukraine.

Another mechanism is recall by popular initiative. To initiate the procedure, more voter signatures must be collected than the number of votes cast for that mayor in the election. After the signatures are verified by the territorial election commission, the final decision depends on how the mayor was nominated in the election. If he was nominated by a party, the decision on recall is made by that party’s highest governing body. If the mayor was an independent candidate, the decision is made by the city council by a majority vote of its members. In other words, simply collecting the required number of signatures does not automatically result in the termination of the mayor’s powers.

Powers of the Community Head

The community head has a special status, as he or she simultaneously organizes the council’s work and heads its executive committee, but does not replace the council and cannot exercise all local self-government powers unilaterally.

The community head’s main powers can be divided into several broad categories.

Regarding the council’s work:

• convenes council sessions, sets the agenda, and organizes the council’s work; presides over council meetings;
• signs council decisions; if he or she disagrees with a decision, he or she may suspend it within five days and submit it for reconsideration by the council along with his or her comments. The council may override the objection with a two-thirds majority of its total membership;
• manages the work of the council’s administrative staff and its executive committee.

Regarding the work of the executive committee:

• organizes the work of the executive committee;
• convenes meetings of the executive committee and presides over its meetings;
• signs the decisions of the executive committee.

Personnel authority is divided into two areas

Matters that the community head submits as proposals for the council’s consideration. These include:

• the nomination of the council secretary;
• the numerical and personnel composition of the executive committee (including deputy chairs who are ex officio members of the executive committee);
• matters concerning the structure of the council’s executive bodies, the council’s administrative staff, and its executive committee, as well as their staffing levels;
• proposals to establish a specialized institution to provide free primary legal aid and regarding the nomination of its director.

Matters that the head of the community decides independently:

• appoints and dismisses the heads of departments, offices, divisions, and other executive bodies of the council, as well as the heads of legal entities owned by the municipality, in the cases and according to the procedures established by law;
• appoints and dismisses his or her advisors.

Representative functions of the community head:

• represents the territorial community, the council, and its executive committee in relations both within the country and abroad;
• files lawsuits to have acts of other bodies that restrict the rights and interests of the territorial community, as well as the powers of the council and its bodies, declared unlawful;
• enters into agreements on behalf of the territorial community, the council, and its executive committee in accordance with the law; and, regarding matters falling within the exclusive jurisdiction of the council, submits such agreements to the relevant council for approval.

Conclusion

The head of the community is the chief official of local self-government, but his powers are not unlimited. He organizes the council’s work, heads the executive committee, and has his own personnel and representative powers; however, a significant portion of decision-making remains with the council and its executive bodies.

At the same time, the community head’s mandate is not unconditional: the law provides for a number of grounds and procedures for the early termination of his powers—ranging from a personal resignation or a court ruling to a council vote and recall by popular initiative.

Сергій Бондаренко