Five municipal councillors in Silistra have applied to join two additional standing committees of the city council. Their sudden interest in committee membership comes as proposed changes to the council’s rules are being circulated for public consultation, including a provision that would link councillors’ pay to the number of committees they serve on.
Under the proposed new rule, councillors would receive a monthly payment for attending council and committee meetings equivalent to 50% of the average gross salary in the municipal administration if they serve on one standing committee, 60% if they serve on two, and 70% if they serve on three.
The proposed changes follow an investigation by “Za Istinata”, which found that Silistra’s councillors had accumulated nearly 180 absences from standing committee meetings during the second half of 2025, while continuing to receive their full allowances.
The standing committee for “Regional and International Cooperation, Programmes and Projects” had the poorest attendance. Repeated absences often left it without a quorum, preventing meetings from going ahead.
Now it is precisely this committee that has attracted most of the new interest. Four of the five councillors who have submitted applications want to join it.
If they become members of three committees, the councillors would qualify under the proposed rules for the highest available payment – 70% of the municipal administration’s average gross monthly salary.
Silistra’s council rules require every councillor to serve on at least one standing committee, but no more than three. Until now, committee membership has not been linked to remuneration, and a number of councillors had even requested to withdraw from committees and remain on just one.
This created an unequal situation for councillors who served on three committees, as everyone received the same full allowance regardless of how many committees they actually attended.
The proposed change is intended to make remuneration more closely reflect the amount of work carried out by councillors.
A public register of absences
Another major change prompted by reports published by “Za Istinata” concerns councillors’ attendance.
The proposed amendments would introduce a public register of absences from council and committee meetings, allowing citizens to see which councillors are missing meetings and why.
The new provision states: “A public Register of Absences of Municipal Councillors from meetings of the Municipal Council and its standing committees shall be created and published on the website of the Municipal Council.”
The model is based on a similar practice used by the Veliko Tarnovo municipal council.
If implemented in the same way, the Silistra council website would publish details of each councillor’s absence from individual council and committee meetings, the reason given and the percentage deducted from their remuneration.
Under Silistra’s existing rules, deductions can amount to as much as 100% of a councillor’s remuneration if they fail to attend either a council meeting or a committee meeting.
Such deductions, however, have not been applied so far.
