At the request of municipalities, the team of U-LEAD experts held an info session “Ensuring the Provision of Municipal Services by Starostas”. At the event, Olena Tertyshna, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and her colleague Viktoriia Trotsenko, Head of the Regional Office in the Donetsk Oblast, spoke about the role of starostas, their powers in ensuring the livelihood of the starosta district and providing services in wartime and post-war period.
“Before the full-scale war, many experts believed that the institution of starostas was needed only at the stage of creating municipalities and that it would cease to exist in the future. The war and the contribution of starostas to the sustainability of municipalities have proven the opposite — their people, and therefore the country, need them. They unite and strengthen municipalities,” said Olena Tertyshna.
Anatolii Zaitsev, head of the village of Malomykhailivka, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, described the position as follows:
“A starosta is a person on the head’s team.”
He added that this person should not only be aware of the problems of their district, but also offer solutions for them.
The speakers at the info session stressed the flexible nature of the role of the starosta, combining managing leadership, administration, communication and other functions. Its main objectives include representation of the district’s interests, engaging the public in the life of the municipality, public outreach and interacting with the council, deputies and other stakeholders. At the same time, the starosta provides a wide range of services and can join monitoring groups, but does not have control powers.
Participation in ensuring security and martial law measures are new services that the starostas now provide. Upon approval of the authorised body, they can join commissions inspecting buildings damaged due to Russia’s armed aggression. They also inform about damage in their districts and participate in the inspection of damaged facilities; participate in the determination of potentially hazardous areas, places for waste storage and destruction of explosive ordnances; facilitate the notification of business entities and the population of the starosta district about risks.
Olena Tertyshna explained that the starosta provides services to the public as part of their powers. For example, “facilitating the implementation of the decisions of the local council, its executive committee, orders of the head” means that the starosta should inform the public about a decision or an order, develop an action plan for its implementation, organise the process and then report back.
“It should be understood that this authority does not endow the starosta with organisational or controlling functions. The starosta only participates in the execution of orders or the performance of functions of other officials. The legislator does not specify exactly how the starosta should exercise these powers. This should be regulated at least in the Regulations on the Starosta Position or in other local regulations. The risk of “participation” can be replaced by directly entrusting the starosta with comprehensive duties to organise the implementation of decisions, orders, etc. The starosta’s authority requires certain organisational actions and the development of a local mechanism for their implementation,” the expert said.
As a representative of their starosta district, the starosta is interested in attracting funds for its development. They form and submit proposals to the executive committee during the development of the draft local budget based on the understanding of the needs and initiatives of the residents of the starosta district. In this way, the starosta provides residents with a service that is “encoded” into the authority to “participate in the development of proposals to the draft local budget.”
“In order to act on this authority, starostas need to understand the process of submitting proposals to programmes as well as the formation of the local budget and the procedure for participation in these mechanisms for the starosta themselves. This authority can take up a significant part of their working hours, as it requires analysis, knowledge of legislation, stakeholders and parties, etc.,” said the expert.
The provision of services under the authority to “act in the interests of the residents of the district” requires no additional regulations, as the starosta is authorised to do so by the relevant council that approved it. The starosta also assists the population in preparing documents and provides administrative services.
At the info session, the participants also learned about the experience of Anna Kabanova, starosta in the Troitske municipality, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and Vira Andreikiv, starosta in the Skole municipality, Lviv Oblast.