Status and powers of village, settlement, city mayors in the system of local self-government of Ukraine

Abstract

Since the establishment of the institution of village, settlement and city mayors in the system of local self-government of Ukraine,the legal status of these persons has not changed significantly. This indicates that the constitutional model of local self-government,headed by a village, town, city mayor, mainly satisfied society’s demand for stable local self-government. Today, when gradually as aresult of the reform of decentralization and administrative-territorial organization Ukraine has become a country of united territorialcommunities with significant powers locally, the issue of improving local self-government, finding its optimal model and the balanceof powers between key components of its system is gaining momentum relevance.Since the adoption of the Constitution, the system of local self-government of Ukraine has included territorial communities,which carry out local self-government in the manner prescribed by law, both directly and through local governments: village, town, citycouncils and their executive bodies. In the Law of Ukraine “On Local Self-Government in Ukraine” this list was supplemented by themain official of the territorial community – village, settlement, city mayor, who in the system of local self-government was given a“third” place between village, settlement, city council and executive bodies of village, settlement, city council. However, whether suchan intermediate position is occupied by the village, settlement, city mayor in the system of local self-government of Ukraine? After all,village, settlement, and city councils, which include deputies of local councils, as representative bodies of local self-government, areendowed by law with significant exclusive powers. Also, the executive bodies of local self-government are endowed by law with theirown (self-governing) powers and the powers delegated by the state to the bodies of executive power. The village, settlement, city mayordoes not have all these powers. To find an answer to this question by studying the status and powers of the chief official of the territorialcommunity used a system of checks and balances, which is embodied in local government of Ukraine in the principle of distribution ofpowers between representative local governments (councils), village, town, city and executive bodies of local self-government (exe -cutive committees, departments, administrations and other executive bodies created by councils).