Author: Oleksandr Vrublevskyi, expert-consultant of DESPRO on starostas’ activity and cooperation of hromadas

There is a number of myths regarding the executive committee, its legal status and activities that we will consider.

Myth 1. The council has wider powers than the executive committee

If you calculate carefully, it turns out that the executive committee has three times more powers than the council. If the council, by its decisions as normative acts, determines the final socially useful results necessary for the hromada, the executive committee ensures their occurrence, carrying out both normative and managerial activities for this purpose.

Myth 2. The executive committee is subordinate to the council that formed it

Executive bodies (directorates, departments) make the apparatus of the council and are subordinate to the village, settlement, city head, since it has exclusive sole authority over the appointment and dismissal of executive heads. Therefore, executive bodies should not be identified or confused with the executive committee, which is a collegiate, self-consistent and independent body with the appropriate legal status. Unlike executive bodies, the executive committee takes decisions within its powers, which are an integral part of local legal acts. This proves that the executive committee is not subject to the council, and members of the executive committee are not subordinate to the council or village, settlement, city head.

Myth 3. The executive committee is the body coordinating the work of the team of village, settlement, city head

The executive committee may coordinate the team of the village, settlement, city head, when there are more "people of the head" than starostas within its structure. If the executive committee has a dominant majority of starostas, then it's just a myth.
P.S. Additional questions can be put in the forum of starostas http://forum.decentralization.gov.ua

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