The newly elected municipal council and mayor of Jonava district were sworn in

The first meeting of the newly elected district council took place in Jonava district municipality on Monday. During it, 2023-2027 was solemnly sworn in. municipal council and mayor of Jonava district – social democrat Mindaugas Sinkevičius was elected for another term in direct elections.

A total of 25 council members will work in the Jonava district municipal council. The Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP) will have 17 seats in the council, the Lithuanian Peasants and Greens Union, the Liberal Sajūdis, the Fatherland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats and the political committee “Mūsų Jonava” – two members each in the council.

The ruling coalition in the district council will not be formed. According to the mayor of the district, representatives of other parties were invited to join the majority, but they did not accept the invitation.

“By the will of the voters, the Social Democrats have a majority in the council, but we invited representatives of liberals and peasants to join. They did not accept the invitation, so the coalition will not be formed,” said M. Sinkevičius.

At the meeting, the council members voted on the new regulation of the Jonava district municipal council, the composition of the council committees, and appointed a council member who will replace the mayor if he is unable to perform his duties.

Birutė Gailienė has been appointed as the deputy mayor of the council.

Five council committees have been formed. Council members Birutė Daškevičienė appointed as members of the education, culture, sports and youth affairs committee; Elegy Laimikis; Arūnas Rimkus; Vijolė Šadauskienė; Eisvins Utyra. The Committee for Rural Affairs will consist of Žilvinas Galimovas; Renata Mikalauskiene; Arthur Neimontas; Remigius Osauskas; Karolina Petrenčiuk-Naujokienė.

Erland Andrejevs will work in the city and infrastructure development committee; Povilas Beišys; Kęstutis Macionis; Valdas Majauskas; Dovilė Survilaitė. In the Health, Ecology and Social Security Committee – Aldona Balutienė; Birutė Gailienė; Birutė Platkauskienė; Nerijus Šulaga; Darius Ulkštinas. The Economy and Innovation Committee also consists of five members: Arvydas Gasys; Ludus Mediekša; Alfons Meškauskas; Rimantas Sinkevičius; Marijona Širvelienė.

The council will work according to the new model

Jonava district municipal council will work according to the new wording of the Law on Local Self-Government, which establishes a new model of local self-government.

According to this model, the mayor will no longer be a member of the municipal council, he will become the executive body of the municipality. The mayor will have the powers of municipal government and public administration, and will be responsible for the direct implementation of laws, Government resolutions and decisions of the municipal council.

The law stipulates that the mayor will draw up and submit the municipal budget project to the council, implement it, and administer the municipality’s property and monetary resources. The mayor will organize the strategic planning process of the municipality, submit to the council for approval the general plan of the municipality or the general plans of parts of the municipality, approve detailed plans and local level special territorial planning documents.

The mayor will individually appoint the director of the municipal administration. The director of administration will be the head of the municipal administration appointed on the basis of political (personal) trust of the mayor, but will not be an executive institution.

The mayor will appoint the vice-mayors himself, but before appointing, he must submit their candidacies to the council for approval. Vice-mayors will not be appointed from the members of the council, Jonava district municipality can have two vice-mayors.

From 2023 municipal councils and mayoral elections limit the number of mayoral terms – a person who has served as mayor for three terms in a row will no longer be able to be elected as mayor for a fourth term in a row.

Another innovation is that the opposition of the municipal council will be able to choose its own leader. He will have the right of priority to ask questions at the council meeting, he will be a member of the college.

The law obliges to establish colleges in the municipalities of the new term. They will include the mayor, vice-mayors, director of administration, chairmen of council committees, chairmen of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commissions, and the leader of the opposition.

The payment procedure for members of municipal councils is more clearly established – they will continue to be paid for the time they actually worked, but it is specified that it consists of work during meetings of the municipal council, committees, commissions, fractions, groups, and reception of residents.

E. Sabutis: “The mayor will become a stronger political figure”

According to Eugenijus Sabutis, a member of the working group that prepared the new model, a member of the State Management and Municipalities Committee, although neither the old nor the new model is perfect, the role of the mayor is better refined in the updated law, and the expectations of local residents are met.

“In small municipalities, people first see the mayor – the person who decides: they address the mayor directly, write him letters or even messages on social networks. And practically, residents never write to the council, its faction or members of factions. However, in the previously valid law, the mayor was not formally the one who would decide everything, except for those who assumed such a role”, – noted E. Sabutis.

According to the politician, according to the new model, the mayor will definitely be the person who decides. “From a legal point of view, it’s a very clear separation for all of us, both mayors and councils – it becomes clear who is who. The council is representative and the mayor is executive. The mayor turns into a prime minister,” observed E. Sabutis.

The member of the Seimas emphasized that this law provides all the opportunities for an active, energetic mayor with many ideas to finally implement them. According to his belief, the mayor will become a stronger political figure, maybe even the strongest political figure in the municipality, due to the current and newly granted functions.

According to E. Sabutis, there were many discussions about what the role of the council will be and what functions remain for it. “There is a lot left for the Council, and first of all – representation. We agreed that everyone should be equal in the council, therefore there should not be a chairman or his deputy,” said the member of the Seimas.

In addition, according to him, the council has been given a lot of powers to make decisions on its own, for example, the council will have more freedom in preparing its operating regulations. The parliamentarian emphasized that the powers of the opposition have also been expanded in the council, the leader of the opposition and his role have been officially legalized, the opposition will have the opportunity to formulate its agenda twice a year, and receive answers to its concerns from the mayor, vice mayors, director, and municipal officials during the meetings.

The politician said that he is absolutely convinced that after the new model is applied in practice, he will have to return to the improvement of this law.

Jonava district municipalities, Ministry of Interior, LRS info.