Citizen participation in decision making on the local level in Poland Rafal Stanek

Sources of information about local government decisions n City council meetings are open for citizens and media. n Council resolutions are publicized in: –local media; –city hall; –internet; n Meetings organized by the mayor or councilors

When citizens may be involved? When local government prepares important strategic documents; When major investment projects are prepared; In local budget preparation process; During city council meetings;

Preparation of strategic documents Economic development strategy questionnaires and local meetings to collect information, NGOs and citizens are invited to participate in SWOT analysis, definition of strategic goals, working on defining strategic tasks. Sometimes groups of citizens are organized to work on economic development strategy

Preparation of strategic documents Spatial plans before spatial plan is prepared all citizens may submit their proposals, citizens should be informed (in written form) where and how long spatial plan draft is publicized, citizen may disagree with spatial plan (especially when their proposal is not implemented), when somebody disagree, council has to discuss the problem again, citizen still has right to submit disapproval to the administrative court.

Preparation of the major investment projects Investment needs are collected from citizens by organizing local meetings (in villages, districts etc.) or or by questionnaire; Before major investment project is decided usually all citizens are informed (local media); Citizens having land neighboring investment project should be informed in written form and may influence the process; Some local governments prepares multiyear investment plan and involves citizens in setting investment priorities;

Budget preparation Budget draft (prepared by mayor), should be publicized in the city hall, usually it is publicized in local media and internet; Each citizen or NGO may deliver to the city hall their proposal to the budget draft, city council has to approve or disagree with such proposal; Very often meetings / forums are organized: budget draft is presented and proposals are collected; Approved budget should be publicized(city hall and usually it is publicized in internet and local media);

City council meetings City council meetings are open for the citizens (and NOGs, local business) and media, when participating in the meeting citizen may present their opinion, councilors may support such opinion or not

Example In Zabierzow municipality decision about local taxes is done before budget approval. During the last meeting when such decision was done all parties agreed about tax level in advance. But business representative (not councilor but present on the meeting) said that taxes are too high for the business. After long discussion councilors agreed to establish lower local taxes.

Referendum Referendum may be organized when group representing 10% of the population wants to organize new elections (to the council); When new local tax is going to be introduced; In other situations important for the local community;

Information technology Almost all local governments have web pages s are not good way for communication Very often all council resolutions or decisions of the mayor are publicized Sometimes procedures and forms are publicized Electronic signature and submitting documents by internet are not introduced (but legal base exists) Sometimes information from citizens are collected by using internet

Information technology Typical administrative software is used for: budget accounting business registration / database driving licenses database land use database and GIS local taxes register calculation and accounting other databases such software is not standardized Standardized software is used for issuing personal ID (data is encrypted and sent by GSM network) Standardized software is used for financial reporting to the MoF, data is sent by internet or delivered on diskette to the local branch of the MoF