More than 7 thousand heads of municipalities gathered at VDNKh for the forum “Small Motherland – the power of Russia”

On Monday, as part of the “Russia” exhibition at VDNKh, a two-day forum “Small Motherland – the Power of Russia” opened, where more than 7 thousand heads of municipalities gathered. His main panel discussion, “Strength in People,” focused on the philosophy of effective training “on the ground.” The mayors were addressed by First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration (AP) Sergei Kiriyenko, Assistant to the Head of State Igor Levitin, Minister of Labor and Social Protection Anton Kotyakov and Rector of RANEPA Alexey Komissarov, who shared their thoughts on the nature of public service.

The tone for the discussion was set by Sergei Kiriyenko, who, in response to the moderator’s question about the “critically important” quality that any official should have, stated that this is “service”, and immediately recalled the words of Vladimir Putin that the main quality for a president is the ability to feel another person’s pain as if it were your own. Igor Levitin added endurance to the “collective portrait” of the employee, Anton Kotyakov added caring, and Alexey Komissarov added the desire to develop and learn. According to the head of the Novgorod region Andrei Nikitin, the employee must be competent in the broad sense of the word. He must also be responsible, hardworking and, finally, love his small homeland, the mayors of Rostov-on-Don and Irkutsk Alexey Logvinenko and Ruslan Bolotov completed the collective image.

Developing his idea, Mr. Kiriyenko stated that the ability to serve “either exists or not”: “Knowledge, skills, qualifications can be gained, but it is impossible to teach caring. It is a matter of sincere experience. People feel this with their hearts: either it comes from the heart, from the soul, or no competence, qualification, or knowledge can replace it.” As an example of sincere service, he cited Vladimir Putin, who on January 1 visited the wounded participants of the special operation in the hospital, and spent Christmas night with the families of the victims. “New Year, then Christmas are family holidays, absolutely everyone strives to spend them with their family and relatives,” explained Sergei Kiriyenko. “In my opinion, this is an attitude towards the children and their family members as their relatives, as their own family – an example of real caring and things that come from the heart.”

Service is an understanding of “who you work for and how the result of your work is measured,” and it is measured “not in billions or trillions of rubles,” not in “millions of square meters, pieces, kilograms”—the main measure is the assessment of people, he continued Mr. Kiriyenko: “During the election period, people show their assessment by voting, between elections there are opinion polls… Understanding service is understanding for whom, for what and in the name of what. If you always remember that you are working for the people who elected you to this position, then everything falls into place.”

Igor Levitin recalled that in the civil service, unlike the military, there is no oath: “But you understand that you are on a team, and your leader, if he is elected by the people, serves these people and takes the oath, and we, his team,— with him”. He also called on municipalities to be more attentive: “A lot depends on you: all the information that comes to the president starts with you. It is very important to understand the mood of people, to understand the situations to which you need to quickly respond, so that you clearly know and report truthfully to the authorities.”

Anton Kotyakov talked about personnel: for them, the municipal service is forced to compete with large corporations and enterprises and often loses to them. But at the local level, a program of continuous professional development has been built: 23–25% of officials are now undergoing retraining, updating their skills and knowledge, the minister said. Separately, he drew attention to the institution of personnel reserve and said that a presidential decree is expected soon, which will allow the formation of a reserve throughout the country – “from municipal to civil service”: “Inclusion in the reserve is a kind of criterion for assessing the results of a particular person at his particular job place, and this is one of the tools for a social lift in municipal authorities.”

Alexey Komissarov continued the topic and spoke about the achievements of RANEPA in personnel training, ranging from the “Leaders of Russia” competition, launched at the initiative of the president in 2017, to the “School of Governors” and the recently launched “School of Mayors”. The latter already has 160 students, the rector proudly announced, and it aroused serious interest: the competition was four people per place (despite the fact that only governors could recommend candidates).

Governors and mayors followed, sharing current municipal practices. Thus, the Novgorod leader Andrei Nikitin advised not to “link” career growth to salary growth, since there is a cohort of people who want to receive “decent” money, but not be managers, and this approach repels them. He also boasted of the experience of creating a regional “School of Mayors”, where 400 people have already applied, and 20 potential officials have been enrolled in the reserve. The head of Rostov-on-Don, Alexey Logvinenko, said that 25% of city hall officials are now undergoing a retraining program. And the mayor of Irkutsk, Ruslan Bolotov, simply thanked the AP for the fact that “there are more than enough training programs” and “there has never been such an attitude towards the municipal government system.”

The result was summed up by Sergei Kiriyenko, summing up that “the most important thing” for an employee is trust and “the same understanding of goals” with the team. “We must strive to have people who are stronger than you work with you,” admonished the first deputy head of the Administration. “It is more convenient to select people who think like you, speak like you, but this weakens the team. It is strong when it contains people with different views, experiences, and approaches.”

Andrey Prah