The Long-distance Running Mayor

On December 11 last year Novi Sad had a peaceful switch of local government: the social-reformist government gave place to the new city government in the City House which is now led by the representatives of the coalition Zajedno. The first post-communist mayor of Novi Sad is Mihajlo Svilar, the president of the City Board of SPO and the director of the company "AMB Grafika".

Vreme: Mr. Svilar, what are your first impressions on the situation in Novi Sad? What did you come upon in the city’s vault and the vital city services?

Svilar: The transfer of power went with no major difficulties, and the recent mayor and his associates were correct. Of course, we went right to the point and surveyed the monetary input and output and it could be said the situation is not catastrophic, there was no robbery or big outflow of money. The problem is elsewhere: Novi Sad has been, as we have always claimed, systematically skinned. Wherever I touched, whichever part of inflow I queried - electric power distribution, post office service, sales taxes and others - it came out that only 13% to 15% of the money was left for Novi Sad. That gives no conditions for development or investments. To illustrate the point: Novi Sad invests seven million dinars in its water supply and only eight hundred dinars returns to Novi Sad. The citizens of Novi Sad are civilized and orderly payers, they pay thirty million dinars monthly for electricity, and only five million is left to the city. That is a disaster, and one of our priorities is how to deal with that problem. However, in respect to the current monetary inflow, I did not find the situation serious, although there were indications of the enormous monetary outflow during the last few months of the previous government.

The current city authorities must, by their very nature, contact and cooperate with the higher lever authorities. Were there contacts of that kind and what is your evaluation of that cooperation?

At the moment, there’s no cooperation of that kind at all, there is no elementary decency on their side. A week after I took the office, I invited the leaders of the city police to a meeting, as well as various district and republic departments. They did not react to the invitation. Although it has been almost a month since I took the office, I had no contacts with the higher level authorities.

Are you going to replace those who, intentionally or otherwise, did not do their job properly since you took the office of the mayor?

I am in favor of gradual changes. Novi Sad is a serious city and I am not for hasty conclusions and taking a snap decisions. However, if any disorderly operations of the public services occur, we are going to take appropriate actions. For the time being, there will be no great changes, but in a month or two there will surely be big restructuring of those services. We inherited very isolated and bureaucratic system of operations, and we will change it radically.

Many consider that Novi Sad, in respect to its size and precedence, has a disastrous information system. You had a chance to assure yourself of that. Is there any cooperation with the RTS program "Novosadske razglednice" or the city column in the Dnevnik daily?

Their attitude toward us is no different than the attitude of the government media toward the non-socialist governments in other Serbian cities. The situation is even worse here: Novi Sad has no local TV, no radio and no local newspaper. That is why we plan to initiate Novosadski informativni centar (The Novi Sad Informative Center, NIC), consisting of local TV, radio, and a daily newspaper. If we are not assigned a frequency, we will consider the cable network. We will form the shareholding association with minority capital from the city. As for the official media, we have no contacts with them and they either ignore us or attack us. I could even say that I cynically enjoy the way they operate, because with such an approach they really act to the benefit of our cause. The citizens have well understood the kind of the media they are and that is why they voted the way they did. In that sense it is almost better for us that they are as they are. Still, it should be clear to those people that it is high time to consider what will become of them in a year’s time, when we start realizing the project.

You are the president of the City Board of SPO and, since recently, the mayor. Could it happen that there would be a collision? Is there space for fear that you will not be the mayor of all citizens of Novi Sad?

These days we are restructuring our minds in that respect, and I believe that my party will cause no problems in that respect and that the people have realized that I, as a mayor along with other people that hold certain offices in the city, must be the city management that will operate to the benefit of Novi Sad as a service to the citizens, not as a service to any political party.

There were objections, mostly from the ruling party and the regime media, that as the mayor you saw off the students who had started their march to Belgrade. What are your comments on that?

The students are fantastic. I am still fascinated with their ideas, style and the entire protest. I will not bother to comment those objections and I support the students in everything they do.

Before we started this conversation, a young man approached you wishing a merry Christmas and gave suggestions for your work. Is this going to be possible in a year or two, or you are also going to become "bureaucratized" and withdraw into your own political "ivory tower"?

One of our main principles, which we already put into function, is the absolute openness of the operation of the city management. My first impression is that the journalists are the ones that are not used to this manner and find it difficult to follow... The public, with its critical approach, is the best character of our work. For me, this will not represent a problem. I insist that the city management be constantly present in the media, not in an affirmative sense, but as the object of well supported criticism. You will see that this approach will be preserved in the future. The citizens approach me because I am sincere in communication, and I am sure that I will not become conceited over time...