Local Administration

The local public administration's authorities that are responsible for the local autonomy are:
· The Local Council as a deliberative body
· The Mayor as an executive body
· The Local Councils and the Mayor's office function as authorities of the local public administration.

The Mayor's and the Local Councilor's mandate is on a 4 years period. The mandate is exercised under the provisions of the local and national laws. In order to insure the local autonomy, the local public authorities have the right to establish and levy local taxes, to elaborate and approve incomes and the expense budget of the City.

Data regarding the organizing and the functioning from an administrative point of view:
Until the apparition of the Law of public administration number 215/2001 the mayorie of Petrila carried on its activity according to the law 69/1991 where is stated that the authorities of the public administration through which the local autonomy in the communes and towns is achieved are the loal councils, as deciding authorities and the mayories as executive authorities. Once with the local election on the 4th of June 2000 it was passed from a Local Council with different parties (CDR, APR, PNL, independent councilors) to a Local Council with three main parties: PDSAR, now PSD, PD and PRM. The validation of this council wasdone in the meeting for constituting the Local Council of Petrila in 15th July 2000, a meeting whre the Mayor Ilie Paducel was also validated.
At the local election there were 200881 voters distributed to 16 voting sections.

Types of taxes:
· building and terrain imposit for physical for persons
· tax on transportation means for physical for persons
· profit imposit
· other imposits and taxes from the population
· tax for using state owned terrains
· building and terrain imposit for juridical for persons
· tax on transportation means for juridical for persons
· other direct taxes and imposits
· other indirect imposits (extrajudiciary stam taxes etc.)
· incomes from recuperating compensating judge expenses
· incomes from fines and other sanctions
· incomes from concessions and rentings
· incomes from selling places to live from the state locative fund
· quotes and sums from the income imposit
· incomes with special destination

Mayor Office

The Town Hall
The Town Hall represents the executive body. The Mayor is the head of the local public administration. The Local Council can hold the Mayor responsible of the good functioning of the local public administration. The mayor represents the village or the city in his relations with physical and juridical persons from the country and from outside the borders of the country. Moreover, the mayor represents the city in court.

Mayor: Mr. Ilie Paducel

The Mayor's Responsibilities
The Mayor has the following responsibilities:
· He ensures that the fundamental rights and the liberties of the citizen, the Constitution, the laws of the state, the decrees of the President of Romania, the Government decisions, the papers issued by ministers and other authorities of the central public administration and the decisions of the County Council are abided by;
· He ensures the implementation of decisions adopted by the County Council;
· If he thinks that a Local Council decision is illegal he has to announce the Prefect within three days since he acknowledged it.
· He can propose referendums for important issues to the Local Council, and he has to organize the referendums if the Local Council approves them;
· He drafts the local budget proposal and the balance of closure of the budget and submit them to the Local Council for approval;
· He exercises the rights and fulfills the responsibilities of the city or village in its quality of juridical civil person;
· He ensures the public order through public guards and with the help of the gendarmerie, police, firemen and public defense. The latter have the duty to respond to his requests, provided that they are within legal frame;
· He exercises control over commercial activities, public alimentation and services, within the law's boundaries;
· He takes measures towards the suspension or interdiction of public shows or other public manifestations that contradict the legal order or are contravene to the public morals or public order;
· Controls the hygiene of public locals and of alimentary products put on commercialized for the population with the support of the specialized institutions;
· He distributes social homes on the criteria approved by the Local Council;
· Ensures the maintenance of the public roads of the village or city, provides proper signalization (road signs) and ensures the normality of the traffic;
· He oversees the fairs, market-places, and amusement parks and takes operational measures for their good functioning;
· He leads the public local services including the civilian status services and child care;
· He oversees the observance of the social assistance, social care and child care laws
· He appoints and dismisses from function the Town Hall personnel except for the secretary;
· He proposes the dismissal from function of the heads of the commercial and public institutions that are under the authority of the Local Council;
· He controls the activity of the Town Hall personnel.
The mayor has other attributions as enumerated in the Public Administration Law no. 215/2001 or as entrusted in him by the Local Council.

Local Council

A councilor's mandate expires before the usual duration, in case of:
· Death;
· Resignation;
· Incompatibility;
· Change of permanent domicile in another administrative-territorial division;
· Unmotivated absence from more than 3 council meetings;
· The impossibility to exercise one's duties for more than 6 months;
· After the validation of mandates a definitive judicial decision rules that during the election process a fraud or any other event contrary to the Law regarding local elections has occurred;
· Definitive judicial decision sentencing the councilor to loss of liberty;
· Commitment to an institution due to mental debility or alienation or in case of loss of electoral rights.

Local Councillor Function

The Local Council has the following responsibilities and functions:
o Elects from among its councilors the Deputy Mayor or Deputy Mayors and also determines the exact number of the City Council employees.
o Approves the Statute of the city and/or village as well as the Regulations pertaining to the Council's own organization and operation.
o Endorses and approves research studies or economic and social development programs. It can also give its approval to studies that document local zoning practices, urban development, as well as other development programs that bridge the gap between local, national and transnational cooperation and development efforts.
o It approves the local budget, the loans and the ways of spending the local budgetary reserve; it determines the local taxes as well as other particular taxing practices.
o At the mayor's request, it approves the administrative/organizational chart, job descriptions, the number of employees and the regulations regarding the proper functioning within its own institution as well as for other public, service-related institutions.
o Sets guidelines for the public and private spheres of activity for the city.
o Determines whether or not the public facilities are leased, sold and it grants concessions for the local interest public services, within the recommendations of the law.
o Analyzes and approves the urban development plans and decides upon the financial means necessary to accomplish the plans. Moreover, it decides upon the amount that is allocated to the prevention of damages caused by floods, fires, natural disasters and other dangerous meteorological phenomena.
o It decides upon the measures that have to be taken for the maintenance and upgrading of the local infrastructure.
o Approves, within the law's boundaries, the economical and technical documentation of the local interest investments and insures the funding for their accomplishment.
o Insures the financial and material conditions necessary for the good functioning of the public services and institutions (mainly oriented on health, education, youth, sport, fire prevention, public safety and civilian protection). The Local Council also monitors and controls the activity of the aforementioned institutions and services.
o Contributes to the organization of scientific, cultural, artistic, sporting and entertainment activities
o Is the decision-making power concerning public safety issues, analyzes the conduct and the efficiency of the public guardians, police, gendarmerie, fire department and civil protection institutions and it has the power to suggest improvement strategies.
o Has an active role in the protection and restoration of the environment, as a means to improve the quality of life; it contributes to the protection, conservation, and restoration of historical monuments and natural reservations.
o Contributes to social protection and assistance measures; ensures the compliance with the children's rights legislation; endorses the criteria for the social apartments' use; creates and ensures the performance of local interest social assistance institutions
o Establishes and organizes fairs, markets, recreational zones and parks, sporting facilities and insures their good operation.
o Decides on the names of the Streets, markets and other local public interest sites.
o Insures the freedom of commerce and encourages the private initiative, within the law's boundaries.
o The Local Council has other functions as well, all established by law.
(Excerpts from The Public Local Administration Law, no. 215/2001)

Councilor - citizen relationship:

Through the law the councilors are in the service of the local collectivity, thus in the service of the citizens and that is why the citizen-councilor relation must be permanent. In problems of special interest for the community there is the legal possibility to consult the citizens through referendum. But initiating a referendum is practically imposible because of the fact that there are no special regulations regarding the organizing and taking place of the referendum. This law lack can be momentarily supplemented through polls that may create the conditions for citizens to take place in the major decisions taking process.

City Departments and Commissions

Of the Town Hall

The Comission for Local Public Administration, Juridical, Public Order Defense, Respecting of the Rights and Liberties of the Citizens:

The Comission for Education, Health, Culture, Social Protection, Sport and Leisure

The Comission for territory arrangement and town planning, public work realization, environment protection, historical monuments conservation and architecture:

The Comission for social-economical development programs, budget, finances, public and private city domain administration, services and commerce

Way of use for terrain and percentage of different using categories are as following:
Total Surface.......................... 30.868 Ha - 100%
Agriculture surface...................... 11.266 Ha - 36,4%
Of which:
arable........................................... 128 Ha - 0,4%
pastures........................................ 5.872 Ha - 19,0%
hay fields......................................... 5.228 Ha - 16,95%
orchards................................................ 18 Ha - 0,1%
forest fund.............................. 18.883 Ha - 61,2%
other uses................................. 739 Ha - 2,4%

Inside Petrila the surface of the arable terrain is very little, representing only 1.1% of the surface of the agriculture terrain and 0.4% of the total surface.
A surface of 128 Ha arable terrain is represented by the individual gardens around households.

The pastures' surface is of about 52.29% of the surface of the agriculture terrain held by the council or other people, hay fields represent 46.55% of the total agriculture suface of the town of which 40.2% belongs to individual households. The agriculture terrain in this area has very low productive properties.

Source: DEEP