Odesa City Council Approves Major Decisions in April 2024 Meeting

The plenary meeting of the XXXIX session of the Odesa City Council of the VIII convocation on April 16 was held without major disputes and political demarches by factions or deputy groups. Most issues on the agenda were adopted without discussion, and Intent conducted an online broadcast of the event.

Before considering the agenda, the head of the Odesa City Territorial Election Commission, Yevhen Hryhoriev, read out a resolution on the registration of a deputy of the Odesa City Council from the Servant of the People political party, Serhiy Oryshych.

Roman Oryshych. Photo: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh

Two departments have been merged, but there are no fewer of them

In the first block of issues, the deputies focused on the draft decision "On Amendments to the Action Plan of the Odesa City Council for the Preparation of Draft Regulatory Acts for 2025, approved by the decision of the Odesa City Council of December 04, 2025, No. 2564-VIII," which provides that in 2025 the Rules for the Maintenance of Facades of Buildings and Structures in the Historic Development of the City of Odesa will be approved. During the discussion, Oleksandr Slavskyi informed that three more regulatory acts are planned to be adopted by the end of the year.

Oleksandr Slavskyi. Photo: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh

The deputies merged two departments into one. The Department of Land Resources and the Department of Architecture and Urban Development were merged into the Department of Architecture, Urban Development and Land Relations, and a new department was created for mobilization training, military registration and defense work.

On March 5, the acting director of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Marat Kasimov, was detained in Odesa while receiving a $10,000 bribe. On March 23, Nadiya Novikova, director of the Department of Land Resources, resigned and became the interim director of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning.

That is, the deputies merged two departments headed by the same person.

During the consideration of the draft decision "On Amendments to the Standing Commissions of the Odesa City Council, approved by the decision of the Odesa City Council of December 02, 2020, No. 4-VIII", which provides for the exclusion of Oleh Bryndak from the Standing Commission on Spatial Development, Land Management and Regulation of Land Relations and the inclusion of Tetiana Plaksii, Zhanna Mandrychenko said: "I never thought that such a moment would come, but I want to advocate for Mr. Bryndak."

Zhanna Mandrychenko. Screenshot of the screen

The MP went on to explain that when it comes to his resignation from the commission. In her opinion, according to the Law of Ukraine "On the Status of Local Council Deputies", exclusion from the commission should be carried out upon the deputy's will. Zhanna Mandrychenko said that there was no such expression of will at the time of the plenary session, so she believes that this is illegal.

Olha Kvasnytska: "What Mr. Bryndak created in his time is now happening to him. I think this is fair. But in order not to generate litigation, where we will spend money from the budget, it would be worthwhile to follow the procedures and understand that a statement from Mr. Bryndak is needed." The MP added further: "The Land Commission has enough deputies to make decisions, it gathers quorums." The deputy expressed the opinion that it would be important for the political party "Trust the Deeds" to recall such a deputy, given that he is not in the session hall, does not fulfill his duties in the work of the permanent commission.

Hennadiy Trukhanov did not comment on Olha Kvasnytska's statement, but put to the vote the amendment of Volodymyr Korniienko, who wanted to join the commission. He voted in favor by 6 votes. The amendment failed. The decision as a whole received 41 votes and was adopted.

20 million from the Odesa budget instead of the state

Before considering the draft decision "On Amendments to the Decision of the Odesa City Council of August 27, 2014 No. 5233-VI "On Establishing the Cost of Meals for Pupils and Students in Educational Institutions of Odesa", the mayor said that meals for primary school students are provided at the expense of the state subvention and the local budget in the ratio of 70% to 30%. According to Gennadiy Trukhanov, the subvention funds have been exhausted and no additional allocations are foreseen, so additional UAH 20 million is needed to continue the meals until the end of the school year. The decision was made almost unanimously.

4 million more for road safety and 60 heating workers

During the consideration of the draft decision "On Amendments to the City Target Program "Road Safety in Odesa" for 2020-2025, approved by the decision of the Odesa City Council of December 11, 2019, No. 5471-VII," Oleksiy Asaulenko asked whether there were drivers for the so-called humanitarian buses and asked not to forget about the Kyiv district while they were working.

Volodymyr Khytrenko, Director of the Department of Transport, Communications and Traffic Organization, said that there are currently only four drivers for this transport. Hennadiy Trukhanov added that people cannot be hired now because there is still no legislation that would allow these buses to go on the routes.

The draft decision envisages an increase in funding for the program by more than UAH 4 million, as it establishes a bonus for performing particularly important work for drivers who transport citizens called up for military service.

Those who followed the commission meetings were expecting a vote on the draft decision "On Amendments to the City Targeted Energy Efficiency Program in Odesa for 2022-2026, approved by the decision of the Odesa City Council of February 09, 2022, No. 866-VIIІ". This draft decision envisaged an increase in the program's funding by more than UAH 200 million for the installation of cogeneration units. This is due to the fact that the leadership of the Odesa City Council hoped to be included in the relevant state program, but this did not happen. The deputies agreed on this decision, and earlier at a meeting of the Standing Committee on Planning, Budget and Finance of the Odesa City Council, the deputies supported the allocation of the first UAH 60 million for theOdesa City Heat Supply Utility for these measures. The decision was adopted.

Draft decisions on municipal property objects

The deputies passed the block of draft decisions on municipal property very quickly. The issues were hardly discussed. When considering the draft decision "On Amendments to the Decision of the Odesa City Council of July 04, 2007 No. 1404-V "On the List of Communal Property Objects of the Territorial Community of Odesa Subject to Privatization and Alienation in 2007, and Amendments to the Decisions of the Odesa City Council", Olha Kvasnytska asked the deputies to withdraw this draft decision from the vote. The deputy said that the commercial organization involved in this draft decision is now defending its position in the courts, so it makes sense to return to this draft decision after the case is considered by the cassation instance. The mayor proposed to vote on this issue as a basis. The decision did not receive the required number of votes and was not adopted.

Iryna Kutsenko. Photo: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh

After considering the land issues and after considering the first item of the seventh block, Iryna Kutsenko proposed to return to the consideration of this issue because she did not have time to press something. Before Hennadii Trukhanov put to the vote to return to the draft decision, Olha Kvasnytska said that Ms. Kutsenko had voted and it was recorded. The mayor replied that he was obliged to put the proposal to a vote. The deputies first returned to the vote and then adopted the draft decision with 36 votes in favor.

Questions remain about land

When considering land issues, the Odesa City Council considers general agenda items in such a way that an average voter cannot understand the whole picture of what is happening. The mayor announces the general wording of draft decisions, but does not name all the addresses.

When considering draft decisions:

• "On granting permits to citizens to develop land management projects for land allocation," the deputies voted for 56 addresses.
• "On granting ownership (lease) of land plots to individuals" - for 68 addresses.
• "On granting permission to legal entities and individual entrepreneurs to develop land management projects for land allocation" - 18 addresses.
• "On leasing and permanent use of land plots to legal entities and individual entrepreneurs" - 28 addresses.
• "On renewal, termination of land lease agreements and amendments to lease agreements, revision of rent" - 14 people.

In other words, there were five votes at the session, and more than 170 decisions were actually adopted.

This approach to considering draft decisions of this block, given that the agenda of the Standing Committee on Spatial Development, Land Management and Regulation of Land Relations also does not have specific addresses, indicates a lack of transparency in the land policy of the Odesa City Council.

Ігор Льов