In Estonia, a number of city or municipal council members are simultaneously directors of municipally-managed institutions. For example, Tallinn City Council chair Toomas Kruusimägi (Reform) is also the principal of Tallinn English College. Likewise, the principal of Tartu Forselius School is also a member of the Tartu City Council, and the principals of Jõõpre Kool and Rääma Basic School both serve on Pärnu City Council.

According to the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture's information, as of the beginning of 2022, there were 93 local council members across Estonia who at the same time served as directors of a city- or municipally-managed institution.

The minister of regional affairs believes this is a clear case of conflict of interest, and that in the future, school principals elected to local councils should choose clearly between taking up their seat on the council or keeping their job as the director of their institution.

"The role of the [local] council is to establish clear development guidelines for subordinate institutions and keep tabs on whether the institutions implement them," Hartman noted, adding that the institutions' job, then, is to implement these decisions.

"However, if an institution director sitting on a council finds these goals unappealing for some reason, or they don't like the local mayor or municipal mayor for placing greater demands on their institution, for example, I don't think it's wise to allow for such a situation in the organization of local affairs," she explained.

Eesti 200 and Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas likewise brought up the clear conflict of interest.

She pointed out that as a local council is the direct employer of its subordinate institutions, the institutions' directors cannot simultaneously be both employer and employee.

"We've had cases in Estonia where mayors have been [ousted by means of a] no-confidence vote for having called the Language Inspectorate on school principals, to test their [Estonian] language proficiency," she said. "These people have been council members, they've initiated a no-confidence vote against the mayor, and that mayor has been removed from office."

Hartman: Mostly an Ida-Viru city problem

The regional affairs minister also noted that such conflicts of interest have chiefly arisen in cities in Northeastern Estonia's Ida-Viru County.

For example, two years ago, Narva ex-mayor Katri Raik (SDE) dismissed Irina Janovitš from her position as principal of Kreenholm High School; at the time, Janovitš was a member of the opposition. Raik appointed Jekaterina Golubtsova, a city council member who supported the mayor, as acting principal of the school.

Now, Janovitš is chair of Narva City Council – and also principal of Narva Pähklimäe School. The deputy city council chair also serves as director of the social work center, and likewise sitting on the city council are the principals and directors of Narva Language School (NKL), Narva Children's Creative House and a kindergarten.

Years ago, city councilmember Jelena Pahhomova, a member of the opposition at the time, served as director of Narva City Housing – the foundation managing dormitories and city enterprises – until 2021, when she was dismissed by city authorities. Now, the foundation is run by Pahhomova's son.

Kruuse: Local governments could lose pivotal figures

MP Urmas Kruuse (Reform), chair of the Rural Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu, said that the Reform Party has discussed the matter within its parliamentary group, and most of them agree that there's really no need to amend the law.

"In fact, one could argue that similar influences could also arise if people aren't the directors of subordinate institutions, but are closely related to them," Kruuse noted.

"This means that, as a [local] council member, one might be inclined to act in the interests of someone close to them," he continued. "So the problem they want to resolve wouldn't actually be resolved."

The committee chair also warned that imposing restrictions like this could result in smaller municipalities losing several qualified people, and the overall quality of local governance would suffer as a result.

"If we exclude these people from local government leadership, it could happen that we may not have enough leaders left at all," Kruuse said.

"We know that kindergarten or school principals have been truly pivotal figures in their communities, and that they play a significant role," he continued. "This damage may prove greater than the hypothetical harm we're trying as legislators to address."

Kallas, however, remained unconvinced by this argument.

"Teachers are also qualified in education, but they lack a direct conflict of interest, because they are not employed by the mayor or municipal mayor," she pointed out. "I think there are quite a lot of teachers, cultural workers or social workers that could represent their local communities on the [local] council."

No consensus among cities, municipalities

Mihkel Juhkami is deputy chair of the Association of Estonian Cities and Municipalities (ELVL) as well as chair of Rakvere City Council. He said that local governments don't have a unified stance on the issue, adding that there likely is no black-and-white solution here.

"I understand those who want to achieve the desired result with this restriction, but I'm not sure if that will happen," he said.

The city council chair likewise pointed out that even if institution directors could no longer serve on local councils, their subordinates could. This means that theoretically, an institution director could pressure their subordinate employees.

"I suppose that either way, there will always be a lot of people on [local] councils that have some sort of direct or more indirect interests," Juhkami acknowledged. "That's by no means impossible for anyone."

Local city or municipal government officials and employees are currently not allowed to simultaneously serve on the same local government's council. There is, however, a subtle difference between the two categories of civil servants.

Currently, if officials decide not to resign from their current post, their powers as a members of the council are terminated prematurely. This means that they cannot return to serve on the council during the ongoing term. If employees choose not to resign from their current job, however, their powers as members of the council are suspended. This means that should they later quit their job, they have the option to take up their seat on the council.

The rural affairs minister's proposal aims to harmonize these requirements so that in the future, officials' powers as a member of the council would be suspended instead, same as with employees.

Hartman said she hopes these proposed amendments to the Local Government Organization Act will be approved by the government soon, so they can then be submitted to the Riigikogu for handling.

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