Kiseliova on the structure of the Mykolaiv City Council: deputies need to be shown why, despite the optimisation of departments, the entire staff remains in place

Mykolaiv City Council Deputy Olena Kiseliova, archive photo NikVesti

Mykolaiv City Council member and chair of the European Solidarity faction Olena Kiselova believes that councilors should be provided with information on why the new structure of executive bodies retains the same number of staff despite the optimisation of departments.

The deputy said this on the Mart TV channel.

Olena Kiseliova recalled that work on the new structure of the city council's executive bodies began at the start of the eighth convocation of deputies, but after the full-scale invasion, work on it continued with the support of international partners.

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«The structure is a vote by the council members. There is some unrest among the deputies. Therefore, this decision does not find support in the chamber. Why is that? There are objective reasons and there are contrived ones.

The objective reason is that this deputy corps began working on the structure at the beginning of the convocation. There was a working group, there were developments, there was some movement. Then a full-scale effort began, and other entities that provided assistance to the local government took control of the issue. They did a titanic job, which showed that the structure of the executive authorities is not effective today,» said Olena Kiseliova.

According to Olena Kiseliova, the proposed changes do not actually involve staff reductions, but only a redistribution of functions and titles.

«After that, a very simple thing begins. Everyone has acquaintances, and no one can be touched: they are all super nice people who have done a lot for the city. And it turns out that we were offered a structure with the same number of staff. It turns out that we are changing titles and subordination, but the number of people remains the same,» says Olena Kiseliova.

The councillor believes that in the new structure of the city council, the workload of the departments and departments of the city council needs to be reviewed in order to ensure a fair distribution of the workload.

«What would be a normal and rational work process? We really need to identify the executive authorities that have a heavy workload. I have repeatedly mentioned the child welfare service. There are problems in families that need to be solved not only by the child welfare service and the police — they need support. This support is needed almost daily. Today, part of this problem is being solved by public organisations. We do not yet see the key moment, the crisis. That is, it already exists, but it is not customary to talk about it. These women, whom we call officials, have to perform various tasks 24/7, and there are very few of them on staff. Their staffing levels have not changed, even compared to 10 years ago,» said Olena Kiseliova.

She also drew attention to the role of district administrations in Mykolaiv and questioned the appropriateness of their current format.

«When we talk about district administrations. For 10 years, people have been saying that district administrations are archaic. This is a real archaism. Because district administrations have remained since the time when we had district councils. They were left as a status title so that a certain official would have status. Today, they have other powers, including those granted to them by the legislature. Because today there will be an increase in mobilisation work, they will continue to be involved in elections as they have been. That is, we need to see a redistribution of the powers of these bodies and the services they are to provide to every ordinary citizen. Based on this concept, perhaps the staffing levels will be justified,» she added.

At the same time, the councillor stressed that some departments of the city council actually perform functions that are not provided for by law and need to be reorganised.

«But we need to eliminate those bodies that the experts have already written about. For example, the anti-corruption policy department has powers that it is not authorised to exercise. Experts have already written about this. In other words, these powers must be taken away from it, the people must be removed, it must be renamed — the public amenities inspectorate — and it must operate differently,» added Olena Kiseliova.

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

Back in April, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych presented a draft of the new structure of the executive bodies, which was developed in accordance with the recommendations of the Ernst & Young audit. The new structure provides for a reduction in the number of chief administrators, the liquidation and consolidation of departments. At the same time, the city council cannot yet say how much the number of executive body officials 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

At the same time, the draft of the new structure of the executive bodies of the Mykolaiv City Council provides for an increase in the number of deputy mayors to seven. It is planned to create the position of vice mayor for digitalisation.

The draft of the new structure of the executive bodies of the Mykolaiv City Council provides for a reduction in the powers of district administrations, which will cease to be the main administrators of funds. The heads of two districts, who are also deputies, Alexander Bereza and Anna Remennikova, publicly reacted to this.

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