Residents are losing influence on the rulers. Now only power counts

• The introduction of direct elections for the head of a village, mayor, and city president took away councilors’ influence on what happens in their towns.
• There is a growing problem of the "authorities" usurping the powers of councils and deciding on matters of local communities without taking their opinion into account.
• At the level of municipalities, cities and counties, the Leninist concept of a political party is being implemented, which is based on appropriating everything it can.

The conference dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the establishment and functioning of local government in Poland, combined with the 67th Congress of Departments of Constitutional Law, which took place from 9 to 11 June at Lazarski University, ended with many conclusions and postulates. They were neither edifying nor optimistic.

Apart from the general praise for the development of self-government in Poland, the conclusions that emerged during the discussion were quite pessimistic in their tone. According to the conference participants, the crisis of the idea of ​​self-government, that is, the idea of ​​independent decision-making by residents of a given commune, city or district about what is important to them, through their representatives, i.e. councillors, deepens year by year.

There are no "bosses" in local government - there are residents. But the facts contradict this

The crisis of local government is already manifest at the conceptual level.

- For about 10 years, the term "włodarz" has been used in public discourse, which was not used at all in the past - we would say "wójt", "mayor", "president" or we would mention one of these people. And for 10 years, both journalists and local government officials themselves have started to refer to themselves as "włodarz". A "włodarz" is someone who is a one-person body and does not need any advisors, because he knows everything best. And who knows, maybe this change in language does not tell us something about the changes in local government - said Jerzy Stępień, one of the creators of local government in Poland, president of the Constitutional Tribunal (2006-2008), host of the Lazarski University conference devoted to the 35th anniversary of local government and moderator of the discussion (which, incidentally, was not attended by representatives of local government corporations).

Instead, representatives of the scientific community, actively involved in local government life, took part in the discussion. And they did not leave a dry thread on the "rulers".

- Whatever we say about public management, the limitations result from legislation. Both the good and the bad. By introducing direct elections of the mayor, commune head and city president in 2002, we actually transferred the allegory of the head to the level of local government. And the question is whether we were aware at the time of the positive and negative consequences - said Prof. Jacek Strojny, Deputy Chairman of the Rzeszów City Council.

These negative effects are currently manifested in the lack of the ability of the local community to exercise real control over the actions of the management bodies , the lack of mechanisms for defending against the effects of the decisions they make. And this applies to both councilors and the executive power.

In his opinion, it is obvious that the relationship between the executive body and the legislative body at the level of local government has been disturbed.

- We can find many examples of the fact that the municipal council, not only in the semantic sense, but in the real sense, is a kind of blurring of responsibility for the development of the city with a lack of real tools of influence - he said.

Moreover, currently there is no institution that would be the guardian of the rationality of local government actions, apart from the mayor himself. According to Professor Strojny, such conditions are not met by either the council, which has been systematically subordinated to the executive power since 2002, or institutions such as the Regional Chamber of Audit, which examines only financial documents, or the Supreme Audit Office, which examines local government units during comprehensive, problem-based or ad hoc audits.

So again, there is no organization, no institution that provides this second pair of eyes. Therefore, after these 35 years of local government functioning, there is a need for a serious discussion on the directions of changes in broadly understood legislation - both the public finance act and the systemic acts - in a direction that will ensure rational decision-making, ensure a balance between the threats that result from centralization, but also those threats that result from decentralization and leaving local governments or communities and local governments to themselves.

- he stated.

He also stressed that solutions should be sought that will combine the achievements of various scientific disciplines, including public management.

According to Dr. Cezary Trutkowski, president of the board of the Foundation for the Development of Local Democracy:

- Currently, when speaking about self-government in Poland, very few people refer to the local community. And we must remember that the European Charter of Territorial Self-Government clearly states that local self-government is the right and ability of local communities to decide within the limits defined by law, to manage and direct a fundamental part of public affairs on their own responsibility in the interests of their residents.

However, in his opinion, in Polish discussions about local government only one part of this definition is raised - the law.

- Professor Michał Kulesza once wrote about scholarly administrators who have appropriated the field of shaping local government. Meanwhile, very often we do not think at all about the ability of local communities to do this. It is as if we introduced local government as an institution in the early 1990s and forgot that the mere introduction of local government will not create democrats for us - he pointed out.

We created an institution that was initially a collegial institution, because the main decision-making area was with the councils. And over time, we changed the system of local government, introducing direct elections for the mayor, the president, i.e. giving the leader a very strong mandate. And now this mandate is a political mandate, and the person who holds this mandate is at the same time the head of the executive apparatus of the commune and has all the resources of this commune at his disposal, in principle exclusively.

- claims FRDL.

Why? Because councils in Poland, along with the strengthening of the model of direct election of the mayor, mayor, president and single-handedness in local government, have been significantly weakened. The structure of councilors has also changed. FRDL research shows that while in the 1990s many doctors, entrepreneurs, i.e. people who achieved some professional and life successes and wanted to fulfill themselves for the benefit of the local community, currently they are a minority, and 25 percent of council members are people with primary education.

FRDL research shows that the public sphere is being taken over by the leader's narrative:

We are dealing with a situation in which matters are not consulted. Consultations are only carried out when there is a statutory obligation. And if we look at the social side, we are dealing with a phenomenon that sociologists call privatized activism. That is, we become active when we have the right matter to deal with. Once this matter is dealt with, our activism evaporates.

This situation, combined with the decreasing interest in local affairs, manifested, for example, by the fact that half of the citizens do not participate in local government elections, makes it necessary to ask the question in which direction this local government is heading, because it is certainly not a committee model, which assumes that decisions are made by broader groups of residents, and not just the leader of the local government.

Meanwhile, in accordance with the European Charter of Local Self-Government, this right is implemented by councils or assemblies that have at their disposal an executive apparatus.

- If we look at how this system is constructed in Poland and how it could be constructed, we have a clear division here - said Trutkowski.

He also emphasized that there are many excellent local government leaders in Poland, and 70 percent of society expresses trust in local government. The problem, however, is that this trust is motivated by the success of local government modernization. The question is also how long this will last.

The discussion participants also raised the issue of the partisanization of councils and local government in general.

One of the conference participants drew attention to this aspect of local government life, saying: - If in the 1990s there were substantive discussions on the council forum, now there are no such discussions. Today, there are supporters of the president, mayor or mayor and their opponents. This division is particularly visible during elections. And while not so long ago it was possible to win a council mandate not necessarily from first place - it was enough to be a social leader - today only number one and two on the list are possible, and this regardless of the skills and knowledge of the candidate.

To illustrate how important this is, he gave the example of a candidate who ran in the last elections from the so-called local committee and obtained only 68 votes, whereas previously, when running from the party list, he obtained 3,500.

- These are the leaders. So my question is, in which direction is local government heading? Is it only and exclusively towards this party political discourse, transferred from the central level to the local government level, which we are observing today? - he concluded.

The answer he received was only partial, although it is hard to imagine how it could be otherwise.

- We will not escape from politics in local government. And I am convinced that the polarization that is in the country, that is maintained, also serves specific interests. In local government elections, as Prof. Adam Gendźwiłł wrote clearly, we are dealing with a situation in which this political identification gains significance along with the size of the local government unit and the distance from the resident - Cezary Trutkowski argued.

That is why - he stated - FRDL postulates to separate political power from executive power in local government.

We propose that the mayor, the mayor, the president be elected as the chairman of the council. In direct elections. Then he is the head of the council, decides on the directions of development, performs legislative and control functions, and so on. On the other hand, the head of the office is a professional official, a manager, who is selected in a competition, has appropriate security, and so on - proposes FRDL.

Prof. Jacek Strojny noted, in turn, that the basic threat that comes from the partisanization of local government is the intensive spread of political parties in local government by filling positions in municipal companies or in specific institutions with their members . And - as he emphasized - this is not only the domain of large cities, but also smaller towns.

Moreover, the pursuit of gaining and maintaining power is not only the domain of a political party, but often of those leaders who have been created by that party or community.

- There does not have to be a political party behind the leader, but he will strengthen his power in an appropriate way - said Strojny.

Also in the opinion of Prof. Aldona Frączkiewicz-Wronka, head of the Department of Public Management and Social Sciences of the European Union in Katowice, the year 2004 was a moment when "we stopped going to the community and started going towards the silo and searching for what we will achieve when we gain power".

In her opinion, the politicization of local governments results from two reasons - the first is the fact that Polish society still represents three separate ways of understanding democracy, which has its roots in the partitions. The second is "political entrepreneurship", which consists in the fact that each party acts within itself and for itself, i.e. I go to power in order to realize the goals that encouraged me to this party. One of these goals is to maximize one's own good, by maximizing the common good, the community understood as a party, and not as a local community.

She also stressed that if we do not move away from thinking in the category of "I have to obtain something in order to stay in power", we will not have the opportunity to stimulate community energy to act.

That is why the professionalization of the civil servant profession and the apolitical nature of civil servants are so important.

If the local government is to function normally, let us strive to ensure that this code of civil service is introduced as a norm, and not only the relatives and friends of the rabbit, as those who will carry out the most important decisions for the local community - she noted.