Cities with District Division - The Discussion continues

by Daniela Mihovska,

Programs and Projects Team Leader, FLGR

I haven t seen more lively conversations and discussions than the ones I saw at the International Conference Management of Cities with District Division , organized by the Foundation for Local Government Reform with the financial support of the LODE Program, Council of Europe and the United States Agency for International Development in Plovdiv on Noevember, 28/29, 1997. If you ask me what exactly happened in Plovdiv I will with no doubt hurry to answer that for the first time a great number of district representatives of the three biggest Bulgarian cities had an opportunity to understand and share the ideas and thoughts of their colleagues, working under the conditions of rather unclear and limited legal framework of the municipal district administrations and district councils.

Plovdiv Hall of the International Fair gathered more than 170 mayors and district mayors, city chairs and district chairs, municipal councilors and district councilors, municipal experts from the city administrations of Sofia, Varna and Plovdiv, representatives of the Standing Committee on Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Public Utilities, National Assembly, Local Administration and Regional Policy Department, Council of Ministers, regional administrations and tax offices, as well as experts from LODE Program, CE and USAID. Many local journalists and national media representatives also attended the forum. The active involvement of the participants greatly exceeded the expectations. Time was not enough for all questions and comments of the audience during the two days of the conference. Thanks to the efforts of the Initiative Committee consisting of Mrs. Ginka Kapitanova, Executive Director of the Foundation for Local Government Refom, Mr. Antoan Nikolov, Chair of Sofia City Council, Mr. Ventseslav Nikolov, Deputy Mayor of Sofia, Mr. Vassil Lechev, Chair of Agrarian Reform and Land Use Standing Committee - Sofia City Council, Mr. Vesselin Stoikov, Regional Governor of Sofia, Mr. Krasimir Obretenov, Chair of Plovdiv City Council, Mr. Nikolai Stoyanov, Chair of Varna City Council, Mr. Tsonyo Botev, Chair of the Standing Committee on Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Public Utilities - National Assembly, Mrs. Mariya Stoyanova, member of the Standing Committee on Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Public Utilities - National Assembly and Mrs. Veska Yaneva, Chief of Local Administration and Regional Policy Department - Council of Ministers, the Conference offered to the participants a well structured and needs-oriented working agenda. It allowed the discussions to follow the most important and current topics, such as distribution rights and responsibilities between the municipal structures in the cities with district division, improvement of customer service, funding of the districts. I am not able to enlist the diversity of views and the great number of proposals within the limits of this article but I have to mention, that two different groups of views emerged at the conference. The first group supported the desire for financial independence of the districts. The second was rather reform supportive and denied the necessity of the districts existence. Some of the participants raised the issue of unification of the two opposite models.

The Council of Europe experts were of great assistance to the participants because after they introduced them to the management practices in Barcelona/Spain, Bern/Switzerland and Belgium, they had the opportunity to participate in the discussions with specific examples from their countries, which allowed Bulgarians to get aquatinted with different European models of big cities management.

At the very end of the Conference a Standing Committee was formed and a Memorandum of Intent was accepted by all participants. I have the feeling that the memorandum is not just a piece of paper with an usual for such occasions content. As you yourselves would be able to see, it is a proposal by all 34 districts of Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna to work for the development and improvement of the district local authorities. I do believe those people because I saw the inspiration on their faces, I saw their willingness to defend their ideas. That is why I would like to thank the Initiative Committee and the staff of the Foundation for Local Government Reform because they made everything necessary this Conference to become reality. I also would like to thank all who will support in future all the initiatives of the Standing Committee and express my deep faith in the success of all participants efforts.

M E M O R A N D U M

adopted by the participants in the International Conference Management of Cities with District Division

Plovdiv, November 28 and 29, 1997

We, the participants of the International Conference Management of Cities with District Division , held on November, 28/29, 1997 in the city of Plovdiv, agree that the legislative basis of the local self-government in the cities of Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna creates numerous problems before the municipal and district councils and administrations.

Weakness of the local authorities in the three cities, in which more than one quarter of the Bulgarian population lives, is that not all of the law regulations opportunities are used to achieve effective management and citizen services improvement.

After a fruitful and constructive discussion we agreed on the following:

1. We establish the beginning of a public dialog and discussion on the local self-government model in the cities with district division, which to meet the principles of democratization and decentralization of management and finances.
2. We will create in a period of one month a Working Group, including representatives of the municipal and district councils and administrations, which to analyze the problems, caused by the existing legislature, and to prepare proposals for the necessary legislative changes.
3. The Foundation for Local Government Reform will prepare comparative analysis of the European management models of cities with similar administrative division in order to assist the work of the Working Group.
4. The Working Group through the National Association of the Municipalities in Republic of Bulgaria will participate in the discussions on all draft laws in the field of local self-government in order to present the specificity of the cities with district division.
5. We accept as a necessity the organization of follow-up meetings on this issue, discussions and exchange of information between the municipal and district councils administrations of the three biggest cities.

We thank the Foundation for Local Government Reform, the Council of Europe and the United States Agency for International Development for the organization of the present Conference and express our hope for future cooperation in the process of effective local self-government establishment in the cities with district division.