At the session of the Municipal Council in Burgas, scheduled for February 23, the most important report for the year will be considered and voted, namely – the draft budget of the municipality for 2021. In addition, a new public mediator must be elected. The important thing in this case is that this is done by secret ballot, which implies the mandatory physical presence of municipal councilors, who must cast their vote.
Despite all this, a decision was made today at the Conference of Presidents and this month the meeting of the Municipal Council will be held online, not live, Iskra.bg has learned. Our information was also confirmed by the Municipal Council. This fact is extremely surprising. The reason is that on February 4 a message was published on the website of the Municipal Council, which is still standing, and which states that the session will be held in person in the hall „Boycho Branzov“. Moreover, media representatives will be admitted to it, and video broadcasting will be provided. That is, first it was decided not to hold the meeting online, and today the opposite was voted. Here the important question arises why the majority, dominated by GERB, has changed its position?
GERB is a party that does not enjoy a good name and with which a series of scandals are connected. They regularly use legal tricks to cover up one or another abuse or to avoid completely reasonable criticism. All this is happening in Burgas, where the mayor is the deputy chairman of the political force.
There were disputes at the last meeting of the Municipal Council in January. The reason is that the system for the online session does not work well, municipal councilors can not speak, there was even a request for a roll call and the inclusion of cameras of all 51 members of the local parliament. A roll call was done, but no one was able to turn on the camera. The recognition was made only on the basis of the voice of the municipal councilors. Even then, criticism was heard that the budget would be adopted in the same way, but President Sevdalina Turmanova said no such suggestions were made. Now it turns out that these are not suggestions, but the truth itself.
And why does GERB want the budget to be viewed and adopted in this way? Are they afraid of well-founded criticism and are they trying to silence the voices of certain municipal councilors? These are all important issues that arise after today’s decision of the Conference of Presidents. The argument for saving people’s lives and health in this case is not valid, because in October, for example, the incidence was much higher than now, and then the session took place in the hall „Boycho Branzov“ and was not postponed.
It remains to be seen whether deja vu will be reached this year as well, after last year only 40 pages of the draft budget were given to the public for discussion, which later turned out to be 182 pages. The draft itself was submitted to members of the local parliament a few days before it was considered in committees, and it was rejected, as happened in the Committee on Economy and Investment Policy, for example.
Another important argument for holding a meeting this month is the fact that councilors will have to physically go to the municipality to secretly vote for a new public mediator. Thus, many people will gather in one small hall, which will inevitably lead to crowding, and this can be avoided in „Boycho Branzov“, where there is enough space for members of the local parliament, and for representatives of the media and the administration.
