The government of Chelyabinsk is reminding people about the long-standing issues of the city.
The gathering of officials in Trekhgorny, Chelyabinsk region, is prepared to give a negative evaluation of the leader of the city, Evgeny Sychev, who has been in charge since 2014. The officials justify their stance by the decrease in their own budget revenues, bankruptcies and debts of municipal enterprises, which directly affected the city's housing and communal services. They also criticize the long-lasting bridge repairs, the poor city cleaning, and the mayor's failure to address these issues despite frequent changes in the management team. The officials recall that in 2020 they were already leaning towards a negative assessment of the mayor's performance, but were lenient. However, over the past 2 years, the quality of municipal services has not improved, and a dialogue with the city-forming enterprise has not been established. Despite this, the officials acknowledge Sychev's working abilities and speculate that he may be offered a job at a large enterprise if he resigns, and Rosatom is already providing evaluations.
The gathering of officials in Chelyabinsk Trekhgorny (ZATO Rosatom) is getting ready for the report of the leader Yevgeny Sychev, which will take place in March. The parliamentarians, citing several sources, will express 'extreme dissatisfaction with the city management team's performance', which nearly resulted in the budget not being approved.
One of the reasons for the assembly's dissatisfaction was the 'extremely poor quality of street cleaning.'
According to Dmitry Chekasin, head of the budget committee of the assembly of officials, the reagents used for sprinkling roads ended up flowing into the Yuryuzan River, and the excessive concentration of chemical substances led to a fine of 16 million for MUP Energoseti, which operates the stormwater drain. At the insistence of the officials, the reagents were replaced with crushed stone of a fine fraction. However, the cleaning quality remained low.
'There used to be a service for maintaining the city's housing stock, which was in charge of cleaning, including the surrounding areas, as no land surveying was conducted. But its leader left, and the service was divided into two enterprises, both of which went bankrupt. All the janitors resigned, and the city hired an external contractor,' said Dmitry Chekasin.
The leader acknowledges that there were problems with the cleaning. He says that Kuznetsova was hired by the MKU “Customer Service” to do the work. During the inspection, the mayor’s office's control and auditing department fined the contract executor, and the overseers of the cleaning received a punishment.
Ilya Benifand, chairman of the Civic Chamber of the city, says, “The social situation is very tense. Our city used to be compared to Switzerland, but now it's turned into a big mess.
In 2021, Trekhgorny was filled with garbage because the regenerative operator Komritservice refused to work with a local subcontractor. The new company they hired only focused on open areas, neglecting most of the garbage from the garbage chutes. Residents expressed anger on social media and planned to take bags of garbage to the city hall. The regional operator was changed in November by the decision of the Ministry of Ecology, and the local ATP LLC was chosen as the carrier in ZATO.
The extended repair of two bridges is causing a lot of complaints from the population. Local deputies are not able to provide the exact dates for their completion.
“The bridge across the Bakhtiyarov Creek was closed 3 years ago. People were told to take a detour across the Smolny stream, but this bridge was also closed. In 2020, the city received 40 million rubles for its repair, but the work was not done, and the money had to be returned. In 2021, we allocated 15 million for the demolition of the bridge, and this year, it seems, we will only apply for funding the construction,” describes the head of the budget committee.
On the other hand, the mayor believes that there are funds for the bridge across the Smolny and the object will be built by the summer of this year. The repair of the bridge across the Bakhtiyarov Creek required adjustments and land surveying, according to him.
Public activists talk about unfinished improvement projects, including the ongoing work on the “Square of Lovers” for three years, changes in public transport routes, and poor-quality repairs at the Children’s Creativity Center, where children continue to work with the current roof, neglecting the need to update sports facilities.
MP Oleg Belyakov shares that the Trud city stadium has needed repair for 10 years, and the issue of creating a ski-roller track has been raised multiple times but postponed. Konstantin Pervukhin, a member of the youth activists of the “Instrument-Making Plant,” adds the lack of work with youth and leisure centers.
The leader himself explains the underfunding of the social sphere as a result of the municipality's long-term debts. Now, he says, there are opportunities for investments, and ZATO has applied to be included in regional programs for the repair of city and school stadiums. Documentation is being prepared for the construction of a sports and recreation complex and the Ice Palace.
“We raised the issue of building sports facilities 2 years ago. They also talked about the extremely low salaries of municipal employees, including those in the field of sports. Employees sometimes receive 15-18 thousand rubles. It is not surprising that cadres are fleeing from the administration, and young people are leaving the city,” says Oleg Belyakov.
It should be noted that Trekhgorny is traditionally distinguished by high budget security. With a population of 32 thousand people, the city budget in 2021 exceeded 1.5 billion, and the project for 2022 already included 1.6 billion. At the same time, deputies point to a reduction in their own budget revenues by 100 million due to a decrease in the profits of municipal unitary enterprises. The administration did not offer them a strategic plan to get out of this situation.
To conduct a dialogue with the city team, members of the depkorpus say, is becoming difficult due to constant personnel changes, and the head himself was absent from the workplace due to illness for a significant part of the time last year.
In the meantime, 3 deputy heads left the mayor’s office at once: Olga Filonenko for social issues, Yegor Dorofeev for finance, and Vladimir Belyakov, first deputy. The position of the latter is still vacant, and the Duma and the head had another conflict because of the candidates proposed for it.
Meeting of deputies Trekhgorny
According to well-informed sources of the publication in the meeting of deputies, the city-forming enterprise and State Corporation Rosatom took a neutral position in this case. In general, as they say, “the merits of the head are recognized, but increased attention is also paid to shortcomings, especially on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the city.”
In the event that Yevgeny Sychev leaves his post, the interlocutors of the publication share, he, with a high degree of probability, “will be offered a decent job at the enterprises of the State Corporation.” “Here, Rosatom acts as an arbitrator, and according to our information, a constructive proposal will be made to the head. It is necessary to stop the intensity of passions in the city, but Sychev also deserved the good attention of the state corporation, ”one of the Trekhgorny deputies says to the publication.
According to well-informed sources of the publication, the state corporation will not leave Sychev if he leaves the post of head of the city.
