Kolašin Municipal Assembly session ends without opposition and with quorum problems

The session of the Kolašin Municipal Assembly ended without the presence of the opposition and with difficulties in ensuring a quorum. As the opposition Movement "Let's Build Kolašin Together" (DPS, SD and non-party figures) told "Vijesti", the decision to leave the session is the result of the executive branch's attitude towards opposition councilors. This political entity reminds us that they have repeatedly ensured a quorum for the sessions of the Municipal Assembly and meetings of the assembly committees.

"Since this was not acknowledged by the executive branch and due to the attitude towards the councilors at today's session, the opposition decided to first deny the quorum, and then not to participate in further sessions of the Assembly," explained the "Together We Build Kolašin" Movement.

The session of the Municipal Assembly was interrupted twice today due to an apparent lack of quorum, although this was not officially stated. Initially, even with the opposition councilors in the hall, there were not enough councilors for further work and decision-making. After the opposition left the session, there were also not enough councilors. Deputy President of the Municipal Assembly Zoran Đurišić, who was chairing the session at that moment, said that he was giving short breaks due to "technical problems". The session continued after several initially absent councilors of the ruling majority arrived in the hall.

Once a quorum was secured, the councilors of the authorities "mastered" the extensive agenda in less than half an hour. Reports on the work of "Water Supply and Sewerage" were adopted, as was a proposal for a decision on the Statute of the future company Sports and Tourist Park Kolašin, and the current acting directors of the Agency for Design and Spatial Planning and Parking Service, Andrija Mirović and Nikola Krneta, were appointed.

The councilors also adopted draft decisions on granting consent to the proposed contract on entrusting utility services, management, maintenance and use of public parking lots in the territory of the Municipality of Kolašin, as well as the price list of services for general and special parking lots.

The proposed decisions on determining the coefficient for the salaries of employees of the LLC "Agency for Design and Spatial Planning" Kolašin, on the supplement to the basic salary for performing certain jobs in that company, as well as on the election of the director of that company, were withdrawn from the agenda because the Government's consent for these acts had not been received by the beginning of the session.

At the beginning of today's session, the President of the Municipal Assembly Vasilije Bulatović suggested the need for the local community to be more proactively involved in the selection of personnel solutions for state-owned enterprises and institutions. He said that he had received such an appeal from several citizens. As he said, ministries or other competent state institutions do not always have a good picture of the references of local personnel. He recalled the case of the "Braća Selić" Secondary School, where, as he claims, "a staff member was appointed as acting director who had not previously passed the test for director, and had not previously, as a teacher, failed to satisfy the regular educational supervision."

Late responses to councilor questions

Opposition councilors had numerous complaints about the delay in answering councilors' questions. Ms. Vujisić from the Voters' Group (GB) again insisted on an explanation of the situation regarding the plots of land in Lug, or, as she said, the selective attitude towards the owners of those plots.

According to her, only some of the owners of the plots, on which they built houses long ago, found themselves "in front of the Constitutional Court".

The President of the Municipality, Petko Bakić, said that the complete decision on the allocation of plots of land in Lug is before the Constitutional Court. However, as he stated, for more than a decade and a half, some of those plots have not been used for their intended purpose. In the meantime, as he said, the space in Lug has been "spent".

"According to the decision, plots of land ranging from 300 to 500 square meters were divided. Most used 500 square meters, so the space was 'spent'. Plots that were not used for their intended purpose do not exist, except 'on paper'. The owners of those plots then filed lawsuits, demanding that the Municipality either provide them with other plots or pay them money. That is why we were forced to send the decision for a constitutional review," said Bakić.

Marta Šćepanović, a councilor of the "Let's Build Kolašin Together" Movement, asked the executive authorities to what stage the city garage project had been implemented. She reminded that the latest information about the project, namely the selection of the conceptual design, was published in October last year.

Bakić responded that the garage project has been included in the public procurement program and announced that the tender will probably be announced next week.

Her party colleague Duško Šćepanović repeated the question he asked at the beginning of April this year, to which, as he said, he did not receive an answer. The question refers to the project for the pedestrian development of the Tara riverbank. The councilor said that several contracts have been signed within the framework of that project.

Bakić promised answers, but said that councilor Šćepanović repeatedly asked different questions on the same topic.

The Mayor claims that there is no attempt to hide anything regarding the project. He has repeatedly insinuated that the opposition councilors "have outside help" in raising questions. The Mayor of the Municipality, Bulatović, reacted to this by warning Bakić to be careful with terminology when communicating with any councilor.

Maratije Bulatović, a councilor of the "Together We Build Kolašin" Movement, said that opposition councilors are open to all problems that trouble citizens and called on everyone, regardless of political affiliation, to ask the executive branch anything they are interested in through his councilors' club.

Vujisić: Caring for the old school building and the monument to students killed during World War I

In addition to praising the work of the Cultural Center, Councilor Vujisić suggested the need for greater care for the building in which the National Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Montenegro and Boka Kotorska (ZAVNO) was constituted in 1943, the so-called "Old School", as well as the arrangement of a monument to students killed during the First World War.

Milosava Bulatović, head of the European Integration Service, said that for the past seven years, the Municipality of Kolašin has been sending a proposal to the Ministry of Culture for the development of a conservation project for the "Old School" building.

She reminded that the building is owned by the Ministry of Education and is a protected cultural asset.

"Last year, the Ministry did not include the development of a conservation project in the program, so we did not receive funds for that purpose. We submitted the same proposal again in January and we are expecting a response from them. As for the Monument to Fallen Students, we did not propose interventions because the conservation works, carried out seven years ago, were not carried out in a quality manner," she said.