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The position of third deputy mayor in Kaunas is abolished. According to the city government, this will save money, but political scientists do not see significant financial benefits.
There will be no deputy
A proposal to abolish the office of a deputy mayor will be presented at the Kaunas City Council meeting that will take place this week. If a decision is made on Tuesday, the Kaunas mayor’s team will consist of not two, but only two vice-mayors.
A few weeks ago, the mayor of Kaunas, Andrius Palionis, stated that no other person has been sought for the post of deputy mayor that was vacated last December. He said this would save the townspeople money. Plus, there are now bigger issues related to the pandemic, so there’s no need to rush. However, it appears that there will be no third deputy mayor. V. Matijošaitis will be replaced by the two remaining deputy mayors, A. Palionis and Mantas Jurgutis.
“The local self-government law establishes the maximum number of deputy mayors in the municipalities, depending on their size. This decision of the council is more formal, indicating that the deputy mayor will have two deputies for the moment. legal issues and unnecessary interpretations. “, – why it will be proposed to reduce the number of deputy mayor positions, explained A. Palionis to Kaunas Day.
A. Palionis said the area overseen by the former deputy mayor was occupied by others. (Photo by Vilmantas Raupelis)
When asked why, a few months after Rasa Šnapštienė resigned from the post of deputy mayor, he proposed to abolish this post. If the city authorities see that three deputy mayors are not needed for Kaunas, perhaps it was possible to abolish this position earlier?
“When the town hall was chaired by the mayors of the political parties, all positions of political trust (deputy mayors, advisers to the mayor) were occupied. However, there were still no significant changes in the city.
We must look at quality, not quantity. We have now assembled an efficient and well-calibrated team – people have divided responsibilities and strive for concrete results. We are ready to work with Kaunas on such a composition, “said A. Palionis.
The works will not suffer
According to the deputy mayor, no further changes related to the dismissals are foreseen so far. “Today, no more changes are expected, but they are constantly happening in life. People’s life plans are changing, challenges are changing in the city. Work teams change accordingly. The pandemic will end, the details of the work will change again, and then we will decide on the replenishment of the equipment., – said the deputy mayor.
According to A. Palionis, the work of the former deputy mayor is currently being taken over by other employees of the municipality, so all areas continue to be well supervised and the work does not stop.
We now have an efficient and well-calibrated team: people with shared responsibilities and concrete results.
“There is more than one person working in all areas of the city, it is teamwork. By the way, sports and non-formal education schools, social services and their accessibility are often intertwined, for example. , these areas do not “Both the deputy director E. Andriuškienė and the heads of the departments of Education and Social Services are very involved. Both deputy mayors will now pay more attention to these issues, “explained the interlocutor.
Team change
The newspaper recalls that a post of deputy mayor of Kaunas became vacant at the end of December last year, when Rasa Šnapštienė, a member of “United Kaunas”, voluntarily resigned. She remained a member of the council.
This time, the politician said he was leaving the mayor’s team for personal reasons. “I appreciate the trust and opportunity to contribute to the important processes that have driven the growth of our city. I have no doubt that the colleagues will maintain the momentum achieved during five years of hard work. I will try to contribute to its continuity by actively working in the Kaunas City Council, “R.Šnapštienė. He worked as Deputy Mayor of Kaunas during the last term, when V. Matijošaitis was elected mayor of the city for the first time.
However, R. Šnapštienė is not the first to leave the mayor’s team. 2018 his partner Povilas Mačiulis said goodbye to V. Matijošaitis. He left not only the post of deputy mayor, but also “United Kaunas” and joined the ranks of advisers to President Gitan Nausėda.
After V. Matijošaitis’ second victory, the deputy mayor’s offices were not immediately filled either. Only after being sworn in, were two deputy mayors confirmed: R. Šnapštienė and A. Palionis. The third position was vacant for about four months. Only then did Mr. Jurgutis offer himself.
Perspectives of political scientists
Kauno Diena asked how political experts evaluated the decision of the city government to abolish the office of a deputy mayor. Bernaras Ivanovas, a political scientist at Vytautas Magnus University, took the position that citizens would not feel the difference between three or two deputies.
According to B. Ivanov, for the public it does not matter how many vice-mayors Kaunas will have. (Photo by Evaldas Šemiotas)
“In any case, there is a domain of ‘United Kaunas’ in Kaunas. I think there is no need to hope that the public interest is better protected because of one or the other deputy mayor, there is no need to have such illusions that something will fundamentally change.” Well that’s why the third one is needed, to remove excess details from the system. The savings are really nothing, because those few thousand won’t really make a significant budget advance, “B Ivanov said.
According to the political scientist, the mayor of Kaunas is a leader, so there is no need for other leaders who can serve as a deputy. According to the policy analyst, the team needs workers to carry out the instructions.
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