Author Topic: Model Local Government Laws  (Read 564 times)

Glen Wright

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Model Local Government Laws
« on: March 20, 2015, 06:59:24 GMT »
I would be interested to receive from colleagues some examples of local government laws that might serve as model for development of new Organic Law in Albania.  The new law would cover the principles of LGUs, their rights and obligations, their functions, revenues,  organization and structure of the local governments as well as regional government.  What you suggest as further chapters or contents of this law.  Do you have some examples of good model provisions for a decentralized local government system, 

FitzFord

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Re: Model Local Government Laws
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2015, 19:06:06 GMT »
Glen,
I have been thinking about what suggestions to make. I continue to be confronted by my reluctance to suggest examples that were custom designed for specific circumstances. Would you like to have an initial discussion offline? Mauro can give you my email address.

Fitz

FitzFord

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Re: Model Local Government Laws
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2015, 16:22:09 GMT »
Glen,
In thinking through Local Government Laws, I tend to think about what are the characteristics of the country and its subdivisions, and how will these influence the success or stumbles of subnational divisions and, as a consequence, the laws, assignment of responsibilities and resources, and constraints that would need to formulated, implemented, monitored and limited, and what should be encouraged and rewarded, and how.
This is my first cut at setting out the factors that in my experience help or hurt the performance of communities, especially with regard to cohesiveness and conflict. The cohesiveness would be expected to predispose groups to be willing to trust and work together, and share. Conflict, of course, tends to create suspicious and tensions. In real life, the barriers and lines are not necessarily rigid, but if poorly managed, could make unnecessarily difficulties. When the processes for decision-making, establishing priorities and allocation of resources relationships, are clearly set out in a manner that is accepted as fair, over time, communities usually work better and trust grows and reinforces. So, these are my usual areas to start quietly exploring. When these are fairly well understood, the outline of the decision-making and implementation of programs, including who gets to participate, how leaders are chosen, the assurance of transparency ensues. I also tend not to express the process in quite this way because some will bristle. So language is also important. What helps is that everybody/group do not necessarily want the same thing, or at the same time, so that priority of items are also important to understand. We could start out by classifying the population groups and elements of the agenda and who and where the priorities are. Then we could look at who is benefitting from what (processes; products) at this time, and how each group would be likely to react to particular proposals. Surprisingly, I have found that when you lay out the draft results and indicate how it would be possible to improve each groups benefits, a viable negotiable proposal can result. What is important for the interlocutor is to be seen as non partisan and aiming to have everyone get closer to their objectives over a reasonable period of time.

I would also try to address the circumstances of different characteristics among different localities/regions. Generally, it is reasonable to take into account the local wellbeing in allocating center resources to regions. It is usual to allow more scope in the decision making of the amount, size and range of programs where the regions are less dependent. Relatively, these regions also should be allowed to use their own resources to take reasonable risks and establish priorities that represent genuine consensus in their regions. We can continue to refine these distinctions.

This may be a good place to pause and let you add and substract.

Fitz.

 
 I hope this is a helpful start. As you know, this is just the start!


I forgot to address the circumstances of different characteristics among different localities/regions. Generally, it is reasonable to take into account the local wellbeing in allocating center resources to regions. It is usual to allow more scope in the decision making of the amount, size and range of programs where the regions are less dependent. Relatively, these regions also should be allowed to use their own resources to take a reasonable risks and priorities that represent genuine consensus in their regions. We can continue to refine these distinctions.

 

Glen Wright

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Re: Model Local Government Laws
« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2015, 09:11:29 GMT »
Hello Fitz:  Thanks for this contribution.  You are making an important point about the characteristics of the communities and it is a key area to be addressed in developing the local government law.  I think there are some interesting comparisons to be made in Central and Eastern Europe about how these characteristics have impacted the local government system. As I recall in Macedonia there was a consolidation of local governments and one of the factors, whether explicit or not, was the ethnic makeup of the newly created units.  The map was effectively drawn to avoid some potential problems based on the ethnic character.  I believe I am correct in recalling this but perhaps some one else can add more or another perspective to this.

Recently in Albania there was a merging of units and one of the contentious issues was the inclusion of the Greek population in a particular area into a larger jurisdiction and there was much resistance to this.  There was supposedly some consideration of taking into account historical, cultural and ethnic characteristics in the drawing of the municipal boundaries, but still there was some areas that could not stand alone just based on ethnic considerations.

One solution I know that would fit to inclusion in a law on local government was the idea of minority villages and that certain representations and functions would be assigned to them outside the normal functions. I believe this was done in Hungary, particularly for Roma villages, and this seemed to solve some of the tensions in the communities.  I would like to hear of other ideas on how this has worked.

FitzFord

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Re: Model Local Government Laws
« Reply #4 on: April 09, 2015, 16:02:37 GMT »
Glen, as I was thinking about what would be useful examples to use in response to the dilemma you noted, various cases that were imperfect came to mind. I suspect that diversities cannot be avoided. Perhaps the most useful approach is to have built into the system, periodic (say 5/10 years) reviews of performance where limited adjustments would be made to the system to improve a limited selection of the most egregious problems. The rules for these reviews should be agreed in the initial framework of the decentralization system. Perhaps some of our colleagues may be able to cite some examples.

Fitz.

Napodano

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Re: Model Local Government Laws
« Reply #5 on: April 20, 2015, 07:40:07 GMT »
Hi, Fitz and Glen;

I found this WB report 'Local Government Discretion and Accountability: Application of a Local Governance Framework' (attcahed)

Among the findings:
'There remains a significant disjuncture between laws and practices largely due to a lack of sufficient incentives of both central and local authorities to implement laws, and a lack of sufficient capacity to carry out the newly assigned roles and responsibilities

The report  is dated (2009) but could contain some still valid points for your discussion.



Glen Wright

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Re: Model Local Government Laws
« Reply #6 on: October 06, 2015, 04:43:37 GMT »
Dear Colleagues:   I attach the recently drafted Local Government Law in Albania and would be interested in your comments as to how it compares with local government law in your country.

FitzFord

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Re: Model Local Government Laws
« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2015, 18:44:33 GMT »
Glen,

As a bureaucratic instrument, this covers pretty much all the bases. As I don't know the country directly, I am not comfortable in determining how well this fulfills the needs of this environment. Just a few thoughts came to me on this first reading: There was no reference with regard to payment to the members of the Boards (or, I missed it). Generally, these bodies that have to spend a substantial time in  their roles should be reasonably well paid to discourage having temptation from outside. I may have also missed the publishing of accounts and decisions. The process of engaging the community (or communities) I may also have missed. I will read it again and try to get a better overall understanding. As I said, it does have most of the structural items and that is not trivial ...

 Fitz.

Glen Wright

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Re: Model Local Government Laws
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2015, 04:03:18 GMT »
Fitz: 

Thanks for your comments.  This is considered a basic law meaning it has the same status as the constitution.  With regard to compensation, the councils will enact their own operating procedures and most likely this would include any compensation for boards and commissions.  This is likely to be very low levels of compensation and not sufficient to deter any corruption.

With regard to public notice and information, there are some provisions requiring the local government to post notices and provide communication and consultation on public issues and the budget and financial accounts.  Again, the operating procedures and local ordinances would likely supplement these requirements.

Look forward to any other comments you may have.

Glen

John Short

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Re: Model Local Government Laws
« Reply #9 on: October 12, 2015, 11:28:03 GMT »
It would be good if the regulations supporting the basic law were watertight and removed any ability to create structures not compatible with the basic law.

FitzFord

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Re: Model Local Government Laws
« Reply #10 on: October 12, 2015, 17:51:21 GMT »
I don't know about the diversity of the population but the degree of diversity may require special consideration in composition of participants, programs, communication, etc. The sense of fairness in resource allocation  (and taxation) will contribute substantially to success. As you know, diversity is often the motivation of decentralization.

Glen Wright

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Re: Model Local Government Laws
« Reply #11 on: October 13, 2015, 05:05:09 GMT »
Just to give more background to this, Albania prior to drafting this Local Government Law undertook an administrative-territorial reform and reduced the number of local governments from 360 to 61.  This eliminated the commune level, largely rural, and put them into larger municipalities.  Now they are trying to develop a local government law to deal with these larger units which are suppose to be more efficient and economical in service delivery.  They recently held local government elections and the ruling coalition won over 50 of the local government councils and mayor positions.

With regard to the diversity of the population, there is not much in this respect, although during the debate on the administrative territorial reform this was a consideration and there was some demand by the Greek population in the south to have a local government for their concentration of population.  This did not happen.

Albania does not have a local government finance law and this is being considered along with a new transfer system to promote more equalization among the local government units. Local government finance is very limited with no effective property tax or own source revenues and borrowing is very limited. 

The control of the local governments is largely being done through the prefects.  This position seems to have been strengthened in this law, even though there was some debate about whether this position was still needed if you have large and capable local governments.  The prefect effectively supervises the local councils and review of their laws or ordinances to see if they comply with the constitution and the law.  In fact, they tell the councils what they can do with the national policy framework.

So, while the law reads well for decentralization the reality is that not much changed in the relationship between the central and local levels.

 

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