2023-04-25 08:25:29
April 20 Alvydas Vaicekauskas, re-elected for the fourth term, the mayor of the municipality of Prienai district, and members of the Council took the oath. Jūratė Mickevičienė, deputy chairwoman of the Prienai District District Election Commission, took the oath and handed over the certificates. This event caused a festive commotion in the meeting hall – the representative of the Government in Kaunas and Marijampole counties Andrius Cechanavičius, Birštonos came to congratulate the mayor and Council members 
the mayor of the municipality Nijolė Dirginčienė, the administrative director of the Kaunas Regional Development Council Simona Stočkienė, the assistant of the member of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania Orinta Leiputė Aurelija Lankelienė, representatives of the administration of the municipality, elders, institutions, non-governmental organizations and other guests.
Seven of the 25 members were sworn in for the first time
Representatives of 6 political parties will work in the new municipal council of Prienai district. The largest number of social democrats, who won 12 mandates in the elections, was the Union of Democrats “On behalf of
After the inauguration, mayor A. Vaicekauskas was one of the first to be congratulated by Birštonas municipality mayor N. Dirginčienė.
Lietuvos” has 5 mandates, the Union of Lithuanian Peasants and Greens – 3 mandates, the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats – 2 mandates, the Party of Regions of Lithuania – 2 mandates, the Christian Union – 1 mandate.
The ruling majority consists of 16 Council members: social democrats Aleksas Banišauskas, Ramūnas Buikus, Deividas Dargužis, Andrius Grumadas, Daiva Macijauskienė, Jaunius Mališauskas, Angelė Mickienė, Henrikas Radvilavičius, Mindaugas Rukas, Eimantas Šalomskas, Simona Vaicekauskaitė-Šalčė, Rima Zablackienė; Lithuanian peasant and green unions 
representatives Artūras Buitkus, Jonas Vilionis and Rita Keturakienė; Rasa Ivanauskienė, representative of the Christian Union.
The remaining 9 Council members joined the Council minority (opposition): Loreta Jakinevičienė, Aušra Deltuvienė, Vaidotas Karvelis, Algis Marcinkevičius, Cezaras Pacevičius (Faction “For Lithuania”), Arūnas Vaidogas, Egidijus Visockas (Faction of the Regions), Rasa Juocevičienė and Jovydas Juocevičius ( TS-LKD).
Most of the local politicians were elected in direct elections, some of them entered the Council when the party members on the higher lists refused the mandates they won due to work interests or offered positions of political trust. Seven politicians were sworn in for the first time. The youngest member of the Council 
A. Grumadas, who will turn 20 this year.
Vice mayors are entrusted to women
At the first meeting of the Municipal Council of this term held after the inauguration, Mayor Alvydas Vaicekauskas read the coalition agreement of the Council signed on March 15, which was concluded by representatives of LSDP, LVŽS and the Christian Union, who promised to implement the coalition program together. According to it, it was agreed on the posts of vice mayor and director of administration for social democrats and the post of second vice mayor for “peasants”. Therefore, on the recommendation of the mayor and the votes of the majority of the Council members, two vice-mayors were approved: Laimutė Jančiukienė (LVŽS) and Jūratė Zailskienė (LSDP).
The representatives of the opposition took care of whether the two vice-mayors will be able to avoid a conflict of interests due to the fact that people close to them work in the Municipality administration. The mayor assured them that the vice-mayors would not personally create areas related to their family members. For this reason, in order to avoid violation of public and private interests, J. Zailskienė changed her job in the Municipality Administration to the position of vice mayor.
There are five women in the mayor’s political trust team. Agnei Dargužiene and Viktorija Ignatavičiene have been entrusted with the duties of his advisors, Birutė Žvirblienė will continue to work as the secretary of the Council meetings.
Council committees were approved at the meeting, committee chairmen and their deputies were appointed: Chairwoman of the Health and Social Affairs Committee R. Keturakienė, deputy R. Ivanauskienė; Chairwoman of the Economic Development, Finance and Investment Committee S. Vaicekauskaitė-Šalčė, 
deputy R. Zablackienė; Culture, Education, Tourism and Sports Committee Chairman D. Dargužis, Deputy A. Buitkus; Chairman of the Communities and Rural Affairs Committee A. Banišauskas, deputy M. Rukas; Chairman of the control committee Arūnas Vaidogas, deputy Cezaras Pacevičius.
Appointed Council members who will replace the mayor at Council meetings in cases where his powers are terminated before the deadline; when the mayor loses his mandate, etc. The majority of votes approved the candidacies of social democrats David Dargužis and Aleksas Banišauskas.
The opposition will use the rights granted to it to protect the interests of the population
At the press conference held immediately after the solemn oath, the representatives of the minority of the Municipal Council read a statement on the directions of work in the opposition. The leader of the opposition was presented at the conference – the trust was given to the representative of the “Vardan Lietuvos” faction 
To Loreta Jakinevičieni, it has been announced who will serve as the elders of the factions.
L. Jakinevičienė informed that, according to the law, the three leading positions in the Council belong to the opposition, therefore, using this right, Arūnas Vaidogas, who previously worked in this committee, was proposed for the position of chairman of the Control Committee, and for the position of chairman of the Ethics Commission – Algis Marcinkevičius (faction ” On behalf of Lithuania”), and Jovydas Juocevičius (TS-LKD faction) to the position of chairman of the Anti-corruption Commission. L. Jakinevičienė regretted that the coalition did not agree to let go of the chairman or his deputy 
position in none of the remaining four committees, although in the previous Council, the then representative of the opposition, R. Keturakienė, headed the Health and Social Affairs Committee. From this one can conclude what democratic principles will be followed, L. Jakinevičienė observed.
The nine minority representatives of the Council, who signed the joint statement, pledged their activities to ensure that the principles of publicity, transparency, legality, supremacy of public interests over private interests and honesty are observed in the Municipality, and also spoke out against 
manifestations of nepotism and cronyism in the Municipality, when relatives, close acquaintances, i.e. persons favorable to themselves, are appointed to certain professional or political positions.
According to the new Law on Local Self-Government, the rights of the opposition have been strengthened, therefore, according to L. Jakinevičienė, the opposition promises to periodically call press conferences, at least once every six months to use the right to hold a Council minority hour at the end of the Council meeting and ask questions to the mayor, vice-mayors, committee chairmen, the Administration to the director. Once every six months, the opposition will be able to add the issues it cares about to the agenda of the Council meeting. The minority of the Council will publicize its activities and adopted statements in a specially created Facebook group.
Algis Marcinkevičius, the elder of the “Vardan Lietuvos” faction, hopes that working in the opposition he will be successful in not straying too far from the electoral program of the Democratic Party, for this purpose it is intended to prepare and submit to the Council for approval projects of solutions relevant to the residents regarding a more significant contribution of the Municipality to the maintenance of land reclamation facilities, regarding the installation of individual sewage networks co-financing of part of the funds for the residents, due to the monetary support of the Municipality for the family after the birth of a baby.
Arūnas Vaidogas, a member of the regional faction, believes that the municipality should find opportunities to help residents, especially those of retirement age, by connecting to centralized sewage networks. It is expected that these proposals will be supported by the ruling majority.
According to the belief of the elder of the faction of regions, Egidijus Visocks, it is important to turn to the people, to strengthen the role of the family in the self-government of the community, for this reason he will propose the establishment of a Family Council at the Municipality, which would take care of children’s education, strengthening and increasing families.
Elder Jovydas Juocevičius of the TS-LKD faction is determined to solve the problems facing the residents here and now, to publicize them. While working in the Economic Development, Finance and Investments Committee, he intends to delve deeper into the topics of business development, investment attractiveness of the municipality, roads, and preservation of historical memory. Another member of the group, Rasa Juocevičienė, is the former head of the Education Department for many years, so she will focus on issues in this area.
Prepared by Dalė Lazauskienė
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