New competences of the chairperson of the constituting and controlling body of a local self-government unit after the amendment of Self-government Acts of 11 January 2018 – a few comments

Abstract

Due to the Act of 11 January 2018 on Amending Certain Acts to Increase the Participation of Citizens in the Process of Selecting, Functioning and Controlling some Public Bodies, provisions establishing new competences of chairpersons of the constituting and controlling bodies of local self-government units were introduced to self-governmental systemic acts. They concern the authority of the chairperson of a constituting and controlling body of local self-government unit to issue service instructions to the employees – respectively – of the municipal office, the county office and the marshal office performing organizational, legal and other tasks related to the functioning of the municipal council, the district council or voivodeship council, their  committees and councilors, and establishing that these employees are subordinate to the chairman. Despite the legitimacy of the intentions related to their introduction, the provisions determining the competences in question give rise to numerous interpretative doubts with regard to the personal scope, the subjective scope, as well as the possible effects of the established powers of the chairperson of the constituting and controlling body of a local self-government unit.