“It’s beyond his powers. What can he do?” during the course of 2007 the Mayor’s Office in this community of 740 received 7 petitions. Despite the fact that public receptions are held almost every day the villagers mostly knock on the Mayor’s door with problems of a personal nature. The villagers remain basically ignorant whether regarding Council Sessions or decisions that have been passed. Mayor Hrachya Sargsyan noted that, “we hold review meetings about twice a year.”

Decisions passed by the Council in Hankavan are publicized as prescribed by the law. They are posted in the window of the Mayor’s office or on the door of the village’s only store. “But the people mostly tear them down and don’t read them” said Anjela Gasparyan, the office secretary. During our conversation a young person from Hankavan, Nora Khachatryan, recalled seeing a notice in the store but said that she hadn’t read it.

The Mayor’s Office in Byureghavan also mostly receives petitions of a personal nature. Resolutions adopted by the leadership aren’t posted. Lianna Dallakyan, the office secretary explained that, “There’s no enclosed place to post such notices. We used to post them on the first floor of the Mayor’s Office but since the place was renovated we have no appropriate spot.”

In Saralanj, notices regarding decisions adopted by the Council and community leadership are posted either on the wall of the Mayor’s Office or local clubhouse, but no one reads them here also. Saralanj residents say they trust their mayor and that since the budget is small their suspicions are few.

It must be noted that in Armenian communities the notion of an “assertive resident” is still alien. Residents in basically all communities are indifferent when it comes to information that is posted. Today, they are little interested as to the size of their community’s budget and what expenditures are planned for the coming year. The reason for this is the ignorance of the people when it comes to the workings of the mayor’s office and the resources at its disposal.

On January 17th in the session chambers of the Charentsavan Mayor’s Office, the most important document of the community was being debated and discussed, the 2008 budget. Prior to the debate, copies of the draft budget had been posted on the Mayoralty building and at five other busy sites in the town. However, up until January 17th not one written proposal had been received and even members of the Community Council made oral recommendations. On the day the budget was to be approved not only were local residents and community groups not present, but also only 8 of the Council’s 12 members had shown up. Council member Manuk Asatryan, who also the Director of the Charentsavan station of the Armenian Water and Sewage Company, explained that he was unable to attend because he was busy with company work (a water pipe had been damaged) and that in any event he had reviewed the draft beforehand and made his observations. Mr. Asatryan said that, “I noted that they hadn’t allocated any monies for water distribution and that they must work to correct this.”

Overall, the review of the budget took place without any serious disagreement and that the Council members passed it unanimously.

 Council members based their “activism” (a word which they agreed to with some difficulty) on their observations and proposals that they had made beforehand and which had been included in the draft. Mayor Hakob Shahgaldyan explained that this atmosphere of confidence arose from the work carried out.

Looking through the list of decisions passed by various Community Councils one is hard-pressed to come across votes cast against such resolutions. In the Mayor’s Office in Byureghavan it was stated that all proposals are exhaustively discussed and debated beforehand and that a common consensus is reached. Only then are the resolutions presented for a final vote. A similar explanation was given by the Mayor of Geghadir who confessed that it would be incorrect to describe the Council as active.

As for the village of Saralanj, it didn’t have a Community Council for quite some time. Mayor Gegham Zilifyan recounted that, “They would ask me, do you even have a budget for us to review?”  In any event, they finally found five people to serve as a Council.

Kotayk