For six months, the public focus and the media attention have been on the problem of transferring the powers of local self-government bodies to military administrations or their chiefs, which is demonstrated by the story in Chernihiv.

Following the court decision, Vladyslav Atroshenko winning the 2020 regular local elections terminated the mayoral powers before term. Until the next local elections, the powers of the mayor will be exercised by the city council secretary.

Timeline

  • At the end of 2022, the mayor of Chernihiv Vladyslav Atroshenko was deprived of the right to hold this position for a period of 1 year (decision of the Yavoriv District Court of the Lviv Oblast). The appeal left the sanction unchanged.
  • In accordance with the law “On Local Self-Government in Ukraine”, the powers of the mayor of Chernihiv passed to the secretary of the city council, Oleksandr Lomako. According to the law, within 15 days, the secretary had to apply to the Verkhovna Rada with a request to appoint early mayoral elections. At the same time, under the martial law, elections cannot be held. 
  • Moreover, on February, 7, 2023, the Chernihiv City Military Administration was established.
  • In April 2023, a complaint appeared on the website of the Ministry of Justice on behalf of the Chernihiv City Military Administration against the Chernihiv City Council. Chernihiv CMA, represented by its chief Dmytro Bryzhynskyi, also sued Chernihiv City Council, acting mayor of Chernihiv Oleksandr Lomako and suspended the city head Vladyslav Atroshenko because he was still considered the head of the city council.
  • On June 1, 2023, the Chernihiv District Administrative Court upheld in full the claim of the Chernihiv City Military Administration. It recognized illegal and cancelled the order of the Chernihiv City Council to suspend the powers of Vladyslav Atroshenko as mayor of Chernihiv; it ruled illegal the inaction of the acting mayor Oleksandr Lomako due to the unregistered dismissal of Atroshenko and also obliged Lomako to dismiss Atroshenko from office.
  • On June 6, the mayor of Chernihiv Vladyslav Atroshenko was dismissed from office. The personnel department of the Chernihiv City Council made a corresponding entry in his employment record book.

Read more about the decision of the district court

On June 1, 2023, the Chernihiv District Administrative Court upheld in full the claim of the Chernihiv City Military Administration in case No.620/4428/23.

The Court

  • declared illegal and canceled the order of the Secretary of the Chernihiv City Council dated 02.02.2023 No. 48rkp/vs "On Suspension of Exercise of Powers as Chernihiv Mayor".
  • declared unlawful the inaction of the acting mayor of Chernihiv in terms of failure to take measures to formalize the dismissal of Vladyslav Atroshenko in connection with the early termination of the powers of the Chernihiv mayor in accordance with paragraph 3-1 of Part 1, paragraph 2 of Part 11 of Article 79 of the Law of Ukraine "On Local Self-Government in Ukraine" without a decision of the relevant council.
  • obliged the acting mayor of Chernihiv to take measures to formalize the dismissal of Vladyslav Atroshenko in connection with the early termination of the powers of the mayor in accordance with paragraph 3-1 of Part 1, paragraph 2 of Part 11 of Article 79 of the Law of Ukraine "On Local Self-Government in Ukraine" without a decision of the relevant council.
  • recognized as illegal and canceled paragraph 3 of the decision of the Chernihiv City Council dated 09.02.2023 No.28/VIII-1 "On the temporary exercise of mayoral powers" in terms of entering information about the legal entity — the local self-government body Chernihiv City Council (code 34339125) and the legal entity — the local self-government body — the executive committee of the Chernihiv City Council (code 04062015) in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Public Formations of information on the suspension of Vladyslav Atroshenko.

In the decision, the court noted that from the analysis of the provisions of Article 79 of the Law "On Local Self-Government in Ukraine" it follows that the legislator determined the only way to early terminate the powers of a village, settlement, city mayor in case of entry into force of a court decision to prosecute him for a corruption-related offense, which imposed a penalty in the form of deprivation of the right to hold office or engage in activities related to the performance of the functions of the state or local self-government, and ordered the dismissal from office and determined the moment from which the person is considered dismissed - from the day following the day of receipt by the council or its executive committee of a copy of the relevant court decision without a decision of the relevant council. In addition, the decision says that this provision is imperative and does not provide for alternative ways of early termination of powers of the village, settlement, city mayor, including suspension of the execution of powers of the village, settlement, city mayor for a certain period or removal from office.

At the same time, the court's decision has not yet entered into force. Under p.1 of Art. 255 of the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine, the court decision comes into force after the deadline for filing the appellate complaint by all parties to the case if the appellate complaint has not been filed. According to p.1 of Art. 295 of the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine, an appeal against a court decision shall be filed within thirty days, and against a court decision - within fifteen days from the date of its proclamation.

Legal adviser of Civil Network OPORA Pavlo Romaniuk, generally agreeing with the court's conclusions, says that legal consequences in the form of early termination of powers of a mayor and other elected officials, which occur in connection with bringing to administrative responsibility for corruption-related offenses, require discussion on their proportionality of administratively punishable actions and compliance with democratic standards.