Activists and journalists of Kremenchuk sue the city council due to violations of access

One of coordinators of the project “Open access” Larysa Horyslavets filed a claim to the Avtozavodskyi district court of Kremenchuk city against the city council of Kremenchuk with a demand to declare null and void the resolution of the city council's executive committee as of October 6, which sets forth the procedure of open hearings about the tariffs. The activist thinks that the decision was approved in breach of the Law “On Access to Public Information”, “Telegraph” reports. The court session will be held on February 8, 2018, the judge of the case will be Dina Andriyets. The claim of Larysa Horyslavets to the executive committee of Kremenchuk city council states that by taking certain decisions, the committee violated the standards set out in the Laws “On access to public information” and “On bases of state regulatory policy in the sphere of economic activities”. The draft resolution of the executive committee on open hearings was published at the website of the city council on October 6, and was approved on the same day. But the Law “On access to public information” stipulates that such drafts must be published at least in 20 days before they are approved, unless otherwise stipulated by the law (this a general norm). For draft of regulatory acts, the norm is even tougher: they must be published a month before approval to enable citizens to read them; analysis of regulatory influence must be conducted; and all proposals on drafts must be considered or rejected with an explanation. Because of violation of these norms, the claimant asks the court to judge it null and void. “I am tired of how authorities in Kremenchuk (and in the country in general) consider the opinions of people only right before elections. Later, no one even explains anything and they do whatever they want. The situation with increased tariffs from communal enterprise “Teploenergo” is the best example. Kremenchuk authorities did all to push through these tariffs. Quick and simple. The executive committee approved procedure for public hearings where the communal enterprise must publish announcements anbout them at least in 2 days before the event. The hearings were held in the working time. Us, the consumers, were not even able to learn about the hearings and study the background information. And that's it, it was the community's only chance to speak “for” or “against” or just to hear the question: “Why in Krememchuk they raise tariffs even though the government declared nationwide that there are no bases for increasing them?” Horyslavets commented her decision to sue the city council.