Translated material
Figaro is there
According to Russian laws, you can head two municipalities at the same time
The Law on General Principles of Organization of Local Self-Government officially came into force on January 1, 2006. Since the regions now largely determine the procedure for implementing the law on their territory, some began to prepare for a new “scourge” in advance. For example, in the Moscow region, the regional authorities decided not to rush into creating a new, non-state level of government. And for the time being, replace it with yourself.Throughout 2005, the regions panicked that they would not have time to distribute finances and powers between the new levels of government, and the center feared that the reaction to the innovation would be similar to the reaction to the monetization of benefits. Ultimately, it was decided to “enter the law” gradually, until 2009. The regions were able to decide for themselves how they would organize local self-government over the next three years.
During the discussion of the law, the Moscow region spoke out against the rapid introduction of local self-government. And having agreed, she found a wonderful loophole in the law that allows us not to change the balance of political forces in the region. Now the law determines that if a citizen was elected before February 1, 2006, for example, in two municipalities, then he can remain the head of each of these municipalities. The law also prohibits a more or less civilized “divorce”, when the head of two municipalities, without holding repeat elections, chooses one entity for himself, and in the second the head of the municipality is elected, for example, from the deputy corps (such a system may be specified in the charter municipality).
In the Moscow region, on September 4, 2005, elections were held for heads of municipalities. Before this, the region divided municipalities, separating, as a rule, large regional centers from rural areas. In September, the majority of heads of municipalities in rural areas were elected. And literally a month later, the same people successfully participated in the elections of heads of administrations of regional centers. As a result, it turned out that they combined not only two positions, but also two levels of power in general - municipal and state. This happened, for example, in Klin near Moscow, where the head of the district, Alexander Postrigan, simultaneously heads the city, and the mayor of Solnechnogorsk, Vladimir Nesterov, was elected shortly before and remained in the position of head of the Solnechnogorsk district.
A previous similar conflict was resolved through the courts. The prosecutor's office of the Kamchatka region allowed the head of the Elizovsky district municipality, Nikolai Piskun, who was elected mayor of the city of Yelizovo in July 2004, to combine both positions until the December elections of the head of the district administration. Nikolai Piskun was elected head of the district, and later elected head of the settlement. At the same time, repeat elections of district heads did not take place, and Mr. Piskun simply had no one to delegate his powers to. And temporarily, until the next repeat elections were to take place, by decision of the prosecutor’s office, he combines two positions. At the same time, the prosecutor’s office, citing local legislation, prohibited the elected mayor from receiving the mayor’s salary: “The head of the Elizovsky district municipality Piskun N.M. has the right to simultaneously hold the position of head of the territorial administration in the event of a written refusal to receive remuneration for the mentioned position.”
In the Moscow region, the combination of positions occurs according to a different principle and for other purposes. As the staff of the Federation Council Committee on Local Self-Government explained to Vremya Novostey, the same person purposefully carries out election actions several times. First, he is purposefully elected, for example, as the head of the Solnechnogorsk district, then the same person is also purposefully elected as the head of the urban settlement of the administrative center of this region, and somewhere there is a combination of deputy powers. “From the point of view of current legislation, there is no ban,” the committee complains. “From the point of view of common sense, this is complete insanity.”
Legislators in the Moscow region tried to legitimize this situation. Article 40 of the law on local self-government was first amended to prohibit such a distribution of positions (they came into force in January 2006), and in early February 2006 the government of the Moscow region lobbied for new amendments that actually allowed it. Officially, this situation will continue only until the next elections - legislators agreed “not to allow it in the future.” Nevertheless, in the coming years, local self-government in some areas of the region will be very conditional.
The Ministry of Territorial Affairs of the Moscow Region refused to comment on the situation to Vremya Novostei, citing the “federal aspect of the conflict,” as well as the presence of an unfinished trial in the city of Shchelkovo. It is curious that in Shchelkovo the “double headship” of the head of the urban settlement of Shchelkovo and one of the rural settlements, Nikolai Ozerov, caused an unexpected reaction from the local authorities. Even taking into account that in other areas such a combination is now possible, Nikolai Ozerov agreed to resign as head of the rural settlement. But this did not suit the regional authorities, and the local election commission deprived him of his remaining powers - the head of the urban settlement of Shchelkovo. Now the court has taken up the resolution of this conflict.