Councillors approved changes to the structure of Mykolaiv City Council on their forth attempt

The Mykolaiv City Council has approved changes to its structure at the fourth attempt. Photo: NikVesti

The Mykolaiv City Council voted to approve changes to the structure of the executive bodies on its fourth attempt. Previously, councillors had rejected the decision three times.

The councillors adopted the decision at a meeting today, 30 April, according to NikVesti.

Andrii Volkov, the executive committee’s chief of staff, noted that the decision had already been presented in the chamber and was being reconsidered. The changes concern the approval of the staffing levels of the city council’s executive bodies, as well as the establishment of a separate body for the protection of cultural heritage.

The councillors had no questions, so the mayor put the draft resolution to a vote. Initially, 30 councillors voted.

«Two decisions have been adopted; we need to adopt the final one, which is necessary because we have made changes to the previous decisions and accommodated all councillors who proposed changes to the structure,» said Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych.

The matter was put to the vote again, as the voting system had not worked for everyone.

The head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration and Mykolaiv City Council deputy Vitalii Kim appealed to the deputies to vote.

«I too ask you to vote, because as I understand it, a number of councillors — and there aren’t many of us left anyway — do not wish to vote publicly; there are those who are sabotaging the process, but I understand that this is a technical matter to unblock the work of the city council. I ask you to set aside your personal political desires; let the city council get on with its work,» said Vitalii Kim.

The mayor replied that changes to the structure of the executive bodies could still be made.

Councillor Oleksandr Bereza also asked for support for the decision.

«Failure to adopt the decision simply puts things on hold; indeed, speaking of the staff in the administrations, psychologically, people have stalled halfway through the transition to other structural units. That is why it is important to complete the transformation process that has already been launched; all that remains is to complete a procedural formality,» said Oleksandr Bereza.

The vote was restarted for the third time: 30 out of 33 councillors took part. Therefore, the mayor put the matter to a vote for the fourth time, as not all councillors had been able to vote.

In the end, 32 councillors took part in the vote. 28 voted ‘for’, 0 ‘against’, and 4 abstained.

As a reminder, in February, deputies of the Mykolaiv City Council were again unable to pass a resolution approving the new structure of the executive bodies. The draft provided for the introduction of a separate body responsible for the protection of cultural heritage.

In March, lawyers at the city hall warned of the threat of a collapse in the structure of Mykolaiv City Council due to a number of unadopted decisions necessary for the final restructuring.

What Sienkevych proposes in the new structure of the Mykolaiv City Council

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych presented a draft of the new structure of the executive bodies back in April, which was developed in accordance with the recommendations of an Ernst & Young audit. The new structure provides for a reduction in the number of chief administrators, as well as the liquidation and consolidation of departments. However, the city council is currently unable to say by how much the staffing levels of executive bodies and the costs of maintaining them will be reduced.

Draft of the new structure of Mykolaiv’s executive bodies, presented in April 2025, screenshot from the mayor’s presentation

Meanwhile, the draft of the new structure for the executive bodies of the Mykolaiv City Council provides for an increase in the number of deputy mayors to seven. There are plans to create the post of deputy mayor for digitalisation.

The draft of the new structure of the executive bodies of the Mykolaiv City Council provides for a curtailment of the powers of district administrations, which will cease to be the main administrators of funds. This was publicly criticised by the heads of two districts, who are also councillors: Oleksandr Bereza and Hanna Remennikova.

At the same time, it was reported that Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych believes that councillors should not combine representative and executive functions, and therefore should not hold positions in the city council’s executive bodies.