Ukraine Yearns for Western-Style Governance

A couple of years ago, I had the fortune of being selected as a member of a US delegation to help teach Ukrainian government officials about U.S. style local government. This assignment was through the American Council for International Education, an affiliate of the US Department of State. This occurred prior to the winter of 2014 uprisings that tore the country apart due to the former president’s actions that refused a movement to the west to instead stay within the Russian orbit.

In reading my notes from that time, I am reminded how western-led projects, such as the one I was involved in, could be seen as threatening to those who wanted to maintain the status quo. I am struck, both then and now, how strongly the desire was and is to undo the status quo and to thrive under a democratic system of government.

The following is a summary of my time in Ukraine. For those not fully aware of the modern day struggles in Ukraine, these notes may help illuminate and explain the country’s desires and why Russia feels threatened.

A. Overview

Our delegation consisted of me, from Illinois, two men from Washington State, and a woman from Washington DC. We all worked in varying capacities for local or regional governments or not-for-profit organizations. We traveled throughout the country, visiting educators, citizen groups, and governmental officials in the cities of Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv, and various smaller cities and districts in between.

Our delegation (l to r) Yveghen (local official), Mark, Marcia, Dave, and Paul

Ukraine only recently became independent in 1991. They are a twenty year old country in a region with centuries of customs, traditions, and various regimes. Ukrainians value what the U.S. has to offer. They know our 200+ years of experience being a country hasn’t come easy, that it has taken us this long to become what we now are, and that we are still working on it.

B. The provision of basic government services is challenging

Reliance on their government for services oftentimes proves to be frustrating. To work “around” this, they rely on non-governmental organizations (NGOs). We rely on NGOs in the U.S. in our various out-sourcing contracts and professional service agreements. But we do so in the name of efficiencies and cost savings. In Ukraine, they do so out of the necessity of receiving basic services. We shared how we privatize and outsource traditional government service to for-profit and not-for-profit entities. We explained that doing so is oftentimes more efficient and less expensive than if the public sector itself were to attempt to provide the service.

Slava, our guide and host in Kharkiv and Kiev

Natalie, our guide and host in Lviv

C. They value the US style project planning and scheduling that was impressed upon them by our group.

Short and long term planning practices were shared with the groups we met with. While the Ukrainians are very proud of their country, they are also very critical of their country's methods of doing, or not doing, business. They fret on how unorganized things are, where there is no pre-planning or impetus to get things done on a timely basis. A key example pointed out to us was a luxury hotel that was under construction near the Kiev stadium, the site of the upcoming international soccer championships. Kiev had known for five years that they would be the site of this event, yet only in the past six to nine months did they bother to begin this hotel's construction. It will not be done in time for the event.

Speaking at a university symposium

D. There is a lot of waste and inefficiencies.

Under the old Soviet system, there was, and still is, inadequate means of conserving and measuring energy usage, so there is a lot of waste and inefficiencies as a result. Large portions of municipal and private business budgets are spent on energy costs. We discussed the systems and techniques they are employing to encourage meters, measurement systems, and energy efficient building codes.

The motivation for change at the local level is strong. At the federal level, however, the motivation is minimal. The privately held, and unregulated, electrical and natural gas utility companies make more money only if more energy is used. They hold significant influence over the federal government and block measures that would encourage conservation and more efficient methods.

Corruption, we were told, runs rampant in much of the governments’ operations. Trying to reverse course after all many years of the Soviet way of doing things proves difficult. They are continually working at trying to cure themselves from the "post-Soviet disease".

E. Citizens are beginning to test how far they can go in criticizing, challenging, and participating in their governments.

We met with citizen activists at a park in a city outside of Kiev. They are trying to save the park from a development project that many on their City Council want to see happen. These citizens seemed to be doing the right things as far as petitioning their elected officials to stop the project from happening.  The activists seemed pleased that officials from the U.S. think that they are going about things correctly.

We met with the Mayor and the City Council of this city. We discussed and shared practical examples of city management techniques such as budgets, transparency, openness, and citizen input and participation. Our responses on the need for open and accessible government seemed to please the members of the public who were in attendance. However, the council members seemed to squirm a bit. But then, my response on using professionals to lead a planning process, with citizen input as a guide in doing so, seemed to please the council members. Apparently, many of the locals believe they are to take on the technical handling of drafting the plan itself.

I might add that after the meeting, the council and the citizens in attendance, along with me, my US counterparts, and our guides/interpreters, all got together in a room next to their council chambers for shots of vodka to toast our goodwill and friendship. This was not unusual throughout our visit. Maybe local governments in the U.S. will want to amend their Council procedures so that they too can…….um….well, never mind.

The usual toast of vodka after a City Council meeting

F. Decentralized government, local governance, and local control are being sought after many years of a centralized, soviet style, way of doing things.

Private property ownership is a relatively new concept. So too is the assessment of a property tax. The fact that in the U.S., we generate revenues locally and that they are then spent to provide local services to benefit the local citizens, is a concept that is foreign to Ukrainians. Their taxes are primarily income and sales tax based. Very little of the amount they pay locally in taxes is returned to benefit their community.

Instead, what is generated, if not siphoned off to feed the rampant corruption, is sent to the federal government. The local mayors and city councils have to lobby, bribe, or essentially beg to get some of it back to benefit them. There is no set pattern or method by which funds are distributed back to the localities.

If there is a method, it is unknown to the citizens since the parliament acts in private without the public having access to view and observe what they do. We did learn, however, that the district where the country's president is from seems to get more than their fair share.

Another concept foreign to the Ukrainians is one of access to city or other government officials. I told them that when I was a City Manager in Illinois and elsewhere, a normal citizen who wanted to talk to me or the mayor would simply pick up the phone or write an email asking to meet. We look at our calendars, find an opening, and the meeting is held. In Ukraine, you have to make an appointment on only one or two days in every month that are designated days to meet with officials. And sometimes you have to "buy" this access.

The concept of having customer service policies that city staff must return phone calls within 24 to 48 hours drew gasps amongst those we spoke to. Apparently, a return phone call is a rarity. Again, there is very limited access to the government officials that are supposed to serve the people that elect them. Some quietly told us that government in Ukraine is more interested in serving itself than it is in serving the people.

While the current situation in Ukraine may prevent further similar diplomatic missions, I know that the citizens are hungry for change and would welcome additional visits once the political situation and tensions are resolved.  I believed our talks and information sharing was beneficial to those with whom we met.

Perhaps our talks and information exchange will help contribute, however small, to an eventual change in the ways things are done in the Ukraine. When I mentioned this to one of our guides, she told me that there is a saying in Ukraine: "Small drops of water overtime eventually erode the rock."