Should the staff at Mykolaiv City Council be reduced? The mayor and councillors respond

What are the main issues facing Mykolaiv today? What issues do voters most frequently raise with councillors, and are these issues being resolved? Are they willing to discuss their participation in future elections, and what is their stance on reducing the size of the city council?

Journalists from NikVesti asked the mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, and Mykolaiv City Council councillors — Yurii Stepanets, Dmytro Falk, Artem Khachaturov and Hanna Remennikova — about this after the city council session held on 27 March.

• Question from a NikVesti journalist: Could you name the three to five most pressing problems facing our city?

«Everyone says our roads are bad, but you haven’t driven on the pavements yet. Of course, the key issue is water,» replied Yurii Stepanets.

«First and foremost is the budget issue; the city currently has a significant budget deficit. Business activity is at a fairly low level. The second problem, as you know, is water,» replied Dmytro Falko.

«The lack of drinking water is the most pressing problem. The second, of course, is the war,» replied Artem Khachaturov.

Yuriy Stepanets, member of the Mykolaiv City Council (Servant of the People faction), screenshot from the NikVesti YouTube channel

• Question from the NikVesti journalist: What issues do voters most often raise with you?

«The problems vary, starting with social issues. Of course, there are also questions regarding the condition of courtyards, playgrounds, pavements, roads, housing stock, roofs and so on,» replied Yurii Stepanets.

«Entrepreneurs come to us with various issues, as do residents and private individuals, so the range of enquiries is quite broad. As a rule, these are issues relating to public amenities, because the main thing is comfort,» replied Dmytro Falko.

«It’s drinking water, electricity, windows, roofs, everything that at this stage is linked to Russian aggression,» replied Artem Khachaturov.

Dmytro Falko, member of the Mykolaiv City Council (Propozytsia faction), screenshot from the YouTube channel NikVesti

• Question from the journalist: Is it possible to resolve these issues in any way?

«We are, of course, trying to use the tools available to councillors, in particular by writing councillors’ petitions. One way or another, this doesn’t always happen very quickly,» replied Yurii Stepanets.

«Yes. In most cases, these appeals do not require additional funding from the budget,» replied Dmytro Falko.

«We try to resolve these issues as far as possible,» replied Artem Khachaturov.

Artem Khachaturov, member of the Mykolaiv City Council, screenshot from the YouTube channel NikVesti

• Question from the NikVesti journalist: This term of office has already lasted over five years. If elections are held in the near future, do you plan to stand for re-election?

«I said at the start that this is a very good question. Let’s move on to the next one. I cannot answer this question,» replied Yurii Stepanets.

«I don’t think we should be talking about elections right now,» replied Dmytro Falko.

«I haven’t thought about it,» replied Artem Khachaturov.

Dmytro Falko, member of the Mykolaiv City Council (Propozytsia faction), screenshot from the YouTube channel NikVesti

• Question from the NikVesti journalist: How would you describe this term in one word?

«You see, I’m probably the only councillor who has described this term without words. In one word? You know, you’d even need to set a timer here. It’s difficult,» replied Yurii Stepanets.

«I don’t even know, there aren’t any polite words for it,» replied Dmytro Falko.

«It’s a nightmare,» replied Artem Khachaturov.

• Question from the journalist: Recently, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, Vitalii Kim, stated that the administration’s staff needs to be cut by 20%. Do you think the city council’s staff should be reduced, and if so, by what percentage?

«Provide me with the calculations showing what this reduction will achieve. If it will genuinely have a positive effect not only on the budget, then, okay,» replied Yurii Stepanets.

«Such a reorganisation is needed, and a reduction is needed,» replied Dmytro Falko.

«We need to make cuts, but we really need to review all this properly,» replied Hanna Remennikova.

«Why not cut the city council too?» replied Artem Khachaturov.

«At present, these cuts are happening naturally, because due to a lack of funds and reduced salaries compared to last year, people have already started resigning and moving on, in particular to the regional military administration,» replied Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych.

Mayor of Mykolaiv Oleksandr Sienkevych, screenshot from the NikVesti YouTube channel

• Question from a journalist: Today you will be considering the reallocation of 300 million hryvnias of the 2025 surplus. Have you had a chance to familiarise yourself with exactly where these funds will be directed?

«To be honest, I need to prepare myself in more detail,» replied Yurii Stepanets.

«They’re vague. They’ll be allocated to all sectors,» replied Dmytro Falko.

«Not in detail, no,» replied Hanna Remennikova.

«I haven’t had time to look into it, but we’ll have to rely on the mayor here,» replied Artem Khachaturov.

Anna Remennikova, leader of the ‘Propozytsia’ faction in the city council, screenshot from the YouTube channel NikVesti

The sorting station was rejected, but the allocation of ₴735 million from the budget was approved: how the last session of the Mykolaiv City Council went

The 52nd regular session of the Mykolaiv City Council took place. Councillors considered over 150 issues, most of which concerned land relations, approved the reallocation of the budget and rejected the vote on the tender to select a company to handle waste sorting.

At the start of the meeting, the mayor announced that 149 land-related issues had been tabled for the session, having been previously considered by committees and published on the city council’s website. In addition, a further 33 issues were added to the agenda on the spot.

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Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych explained this by the fact that some of the committee meetings had taken place after the agenda had been sent to councillors.

At the same time, it was decided not to include the draft resolution on the approval of the Mykolaiv City Council’s integrity plan for 2026–2028 on the agenda, as the document had not been agreed upon and had not been considered by the committee on legality.

One of the first items considered was the draft resolution on amendments to the programme for the reform and development of Mykolaiv’s housing and utilities sector for 2025–2029.

Oleksandr Sienkevych reminded the meeting that this issue had previously not been supported, but the document had once again passed through the relevant committee.

Ihor Nabatov, First Deputy Director of the Housing and Utilities Department, explained that the problem lies in the fact that household waste in and around the container is collected by the municipal enterprises Mykolaivkomtrans and Obrii-DKP, and if a pile of waste is located more than 10 metres from the container site, it is considered an unauthorised dump, and district administrations are responsible for clearing it.

Next, the councillors supported amendments to the city’s civil protection programme. Ihor Nabatov explained that the document concerns municipal enterprises involved in security and defence measures.

During the discussion, Oleksandr Sienkevych emphasised that the city supports the military with funds and equipment, but some details cannot be disclosed publicly. The decision was supported by 33 councillors.

Amendments to the reform programme regarding the removal of green spaces sparked a separate debate. The draft provided for the possibility of involving district administrations in tree felling and pruning work to partially relieve the burden on the ‘Mykolaiv Parks’ municipal enterprise.

Councillor Andrii Yantar drew attention to the figures in the annex to the document: according to him, the draft mentioned expenditure of over 10 billion hryvnias for 2026, whilst the city’s total budget stands at around 6 billion.

The councillors then moved on to consider amendments to the Mykolaiv community budget for 2026. According to the Director of the Finance Department, Vira Sviatelyk, it was proposed to set budget revenue at 6 billion 649 million hryvnias and expenditure at 6 billion 835 million hryvnias.

According to the city council, expenditure was increased by 735.6 million hryvnias through subsidies and unspent funds from 2025 (317 million hryvnias), as well as public investment (300 million hryvnias).

The main sources of revenue include state subsidies, in particular:

• 3 million 711 thousand hryvnias to support people with special educational needs;

• 125 million 289 thousand hryvnias for additional payments to teaching staff;

• 139 million 659 thousand hryvnias for the implementation of the project ‘Housing Renovation to Restore People’s Rights and Opportunities’;

• 4 million 804 thousand hryvnias to improve the quality of school meals and fund meals for primary school pupils;

• 4 million hryvnias for the implementation of projects under the Reconstruction of Ukraine 3 programme;

• 1 million hryvnias for the implementation of transferred expenditure in the field of education using funds from the education subvention.

During the budget debate, councillor Andrii Yantar reported on the situation at the regional forensic medical examination bureau. According to him, there are 33 bodies of deceased residents of Mykolaiv there, which have not been collected by relatives or who have no relatives.

During the discussion of the budget amendments, councillor Iryna Boichenko took the floor. She stated that the situation in the field of culture and arts education is approaching a critical point.

Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, joined the discussion. He stated that city councillors were focusing on domestic issues, whilst the city risked losing significantly more funds.

He cited the situation surrounding the company Nibulon as an example. According to him, due to the budget committee’s refusal to support land concessions, the city could lose around 100 million hryvnias in tax revenue per year.

To speed up the process, the mayor proposed combining four draft resolutions into a single package:

• on determining the authorised body for establishing a fund for temporary accommodation;

• on the reorganisation of staffing tables for pre-school education institutions;

• on an appeal by councillors to the Cabinet of Ministers and Members of Parliament regarding the full funding of teachers’ and social workers’ salaries from the state budget;

• on granting permission to the education department to enter into a legal transaction.

The councillors agreed to the creation of the package and supported it by a vote.