The Novosibirsk City Council approved the procedure for holding a competition for the post of mayor

The Novosibirsk City Council on Wednesday approved the procedure for holding a competition for the post of mayor, which will take place next fall after the expiration of the powers of Anatoly Lokot (Communist Party of the Russian Federation). Candidates who can correctly answer 16 out of 30 test questions and then score at least 2.6 out of 5 points at the interview will be allowed to participate in the election of the mayor at the session of the municipal parliament. However, not all deputies were satisfied with such rules.

On October 25, the Novosibirsk City Council considered the procedure for holding a competition to select candidates for the position of mayor. Direct elections of the mayor were canceled in April 2023: now he will be elected not by citizens, but by deputies from among the finalists of the competition. This post is currently occupied by communist Anatoly Lokot, whose powers expire in September 2024.

The project was prepared by a working group headed by the speaker of the City Council Dmitry Asantsev (United Russia), which also included representatives of the regional government, the legislative assembly and the mayor’s office. According to the document, candidates for the post of head of Novosibirsk must go through several stages of selection. The first is a written test of 30 questions on knowledge of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, legislation and other regulations. Answers must be given in one and a half hours. Applicants who correctly answer at least 16 questions will advance to the next stage. There they will have an interview with members of the competition commission, which includes a statement of the city development program. Applicants will be given a score from one to five; at least two candidates with an average score of 2.6 or higher will advance to the finals and will be able to speak before city council deputies, who will elect the mayor. To win, the support of a majority of the established number of deputies (50 mandates), that is, 26 votes, is required.

The competition commission will include eight people—four each from the head of the region and the city council—but the post of its chairman is reserved for a representative of the governor’s quota. Who will compile the tests has not yet been determined. In other Novosibirsk municipalities, this is done by the regional government’s corporate university, the Center for Assessment and Development of Management Competencies.

The proposed criteria partly look less democratic than in the capitals of neighboring Siberian regions. For example, in Omsk and Tomsk there are more members of the competition commission – 14 each, and in Krasnoyarsk, Kemerovo and Barnaul – 10 each. As a rule, the post of chairman is not reserved there – he is elected at the first meeting. The Novosibirsk formulation that “half of the commission members are appointed by the council” does not indicate that the deputies themselves should be included in it, although in Omsk and Tomsk the regulations directly stipulate that all factions of the municipal parliament should be represented there. In Krasnoyarsk, the city council quota is formed “from among persons represented by deputies of the city council and deputy associations,” and in Kemerovo, groups of deputies consisting of at least seven people have this right. Finally, in the Tomsk City Council, a candidate for mayor must win not a simple, but a qualified majority (2/3 of the votes).

On the other hand, in Tomsk or Krasnoyarsk the regulations do not specify what criteria the commission should use when determining the number of candidates for subsequent presentation to the city parliament. Thus, in Krasnoyarsk in September 2022, the commission decided to select only two candidates who scored more than 1.5 thousand points, although such a rule is not documented. In Tomsk in August 2023, as Kommersant reported, the commission’s decision to allow only three candidates into the finals sparked criticism from representatives of a number of factions. There, the filter did not pass, for example, Evgeny Makarenko, who previously worked in the Tomsk mayor’s office, the administrations of two regions and in the Ministry of Eastern Development of the Russian Federation.

Despite the mathematically unambiguous selection criteria in the Novosibirsk version, the project aroused criticism from the opposition. “What was the working group guided by when it prescribed that the chairman of the commission must be a person appointed by the regional government? Why are we giving up our municipal government so easily?” — independent deputy Svetlana Kaverzina was indignant. Alexander Burmistrov (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) completely came to the conclusion that the procedure is decorative in nature, and local government in Novosibirsk is “self-destructing.”

Dmitry Asantsev explained the reservation of the post of chairman of the commission by the fact that it could be taken personally by Governor Andrei Travnikov (ER). In addition, the head of the region, according to the speaker, is responsible for all decisions made in the region. “The region helps us very well in implementing all programs. Naturally, it would not be entirely tactful and correct not to appoint as chairman the person proposed by the governor,” United Russia member Andrei Gudovsky developed this idea. And independent deputy Igor Ukraintsev suggested not discussing the details at all, since, in his opinion, the city council has no influence on anything in this case. “Does anyone have any doubt that the next city manager will be the governor’s man?” – he asked a rhetorical question.

As a result, the procedure for holding the competition was adopted in the first reading by 30 votes, four against and three abstentions. “The rules for holding a competition must be certain, but the governor’s opinion cannot be ignored either. It’s another matter if it turns out that the candidate is not up to the task at all. Then you need to ask questions. In Novosibirsk there are such opportunities, since society in any case is democratic in nature,” Novosibirsk political scientist Vladimir Leontyev told Kommersant.

Changes to the document can be made during the second reading. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation, as stated by the vice-speaker of the city council from the party, Anton Tyrtyshny, insists on the publicity of all stages of the competition.

Valery Lavsky, Novosibirsk