Let me present the medal and elect a mayor

The Pskov City Duma dreams of more. Dreaming is not bad

Already the first item on the agenda of the city deputies, who gathered on the last autumn Friday, November 28, showed their fighting spirit.

The Pskov administration proposed to increase the 2003 budget expenditures by 25 million rubles. They were supposed to be used to repay a loan from the European Bank, which made it possible in 1996 to purchase 80 Mercedes buses for the Pskov Bus Park Federal State Unitary Enterprise.

The fact is that under an agreement with the Ministry of Finance, the city is the payer, but under an additional agreement between ex-mayor Alexander Prokofiev and ex-governor Vladislav Tumanov, the regional budget voluntarily took care of repaying the loan. Now the governor of the Pskov region, Yevgeny Mikhailov, from time to time talks about the burden of paying money for Mercedes buses, either taking this responsibility to his credit, or making it the culprit of many troubles. Some time ago, the regional administration offered the Pskov municipality to take over the payment of the borrowed money. Since then, the mayor's office has been addressing the relevant proposal to the City Duma. True, without much enthusiasm.

The deputies did not accept the arguments of the head of the financial department of Pskov, Louise Bereznyak, and rejected the amendment. Ivan Tsetsersky said that in no case should such a load be transferred to the “very cut city budget”.

Further, more, the deputies refused to approve the new law "On the rent for land in the city of Pskov for 2004", considering that it was unfinished and many details were not clearly spelled out in it, for example, increasing and decreasing coefficients. But, given the importance of replenishing the revenue part of the city budget, the bill was adopted in the first reading without specifying a date for the next consideration, so that all interested parties could make their proposals.

The medal "For Merit to Pskov" has so far remained only in the draft, having been adopted by the Duma in the first reading. The mayor's office did not like the parliamentary amendment, according to which the awarding of the medal should be approved by the representative government of Pskov. Vladimir Strizhov, manager of the city administration, came to the discussion of the issue with a ready statement about the withdrawal of the proposal. The paper was signed by Vice Mayor Ivan Kalinin. According to deputy Tsetsersky, "this step of the representative of the mayor's office can even be called dishonorable."

Earlier it was suggested that both the mayor's office and the city Duma would be able to present the insignia for the sake of efficiency. According to the deputies, it is impossible to distribute such a medal right and left, and therefore both branches of municipal government should participate in the approval of candidates for the award. By the way, the new award, if it is still accepted, does not provide for any benefits other than a lump sum.

Of the issues adopted, it should be noted the approval of the Regulations “On the procedure for developing a strategic plan for the sustainable development of the city of Pskov for the period up to 2015”. Now there is a possibility that life in Pskov will cease to be disordered and it will finally become clear what the city needs to develop in the first place, what - in the second, and what is inexpedient to develop. It will be very good if there is still a clear idea of ​​how this or that industry is going to be developed.

Perhaps the most interesting issue was the creation of a working group to bring the Charter of the city of Pskov in line with Russian legislation. The deputies created the group, and such a need arose in connection with the new law "On the general principles of organizing local self-government in the Russian Federation." The fact is that the Duma must appoint the election of the mayor of the city before January 3, 2004, but the new law, in addition to direct elections of the head of the municipality, also provides for the possibility of electing him from among the deputies.

Despite the possibility of choosing a mayor from among the people's deputies, prescribed in the law, the likelihood that this will pass is quite small. Firstly, in the Pskov Duma of the current convocation there are only 12 deputies instead of 17, and secondly, in order to adopt a new method of electing the head of the city administration, it is necessary that all 12 deputies vote “FOR”, which is incredible. Nevertheless, the created group intends to consult on this issue with representatives of the prosecutor's office, political parties, public organizations and even the population.

There are suggestions that the city administration abandoned the idea of ​​​​scheduling the election of “vacant” deputies of the Pskov City Duma for December 7, when the highest voter turnout would have been ensured, fearing that people who were determined to change the order of mayoral elections could enter the Duma.

The results of voting in the Duma on the issue of amending the City Charter will be known on December 26.

Konstantin SHMORAGA.