Legal Eye: All work and no play

The Warsaw mayoral election looks to be among the more interesting, particularly as the front-runners are popular politicians from the two largest political parties. But, given the current level of cynicism, the question remains of what difference any of this makes. When it comes to the Warsaw mayoral election, the difference is that the Mayor of Warsaw has a broad range of authority.

Head of all things in and of Warsaw

As with any number of big cities, most people I know have a love/hate relationship with Warsaw. Not only is Warsaw a large financial center, but it is also the capital city of Poland. Warsaw residents enjoy a wide range of benefits, from extensive domestic and foreign investment to a wide array of theaters and arts festivals. However, we must bear the burden of housing both local and national governments, which manifests itself in the various protests that seem to be quite the fashion in recent years.

The functions of the Mayor of Warsaw reflect the city's multiple roles. All Mayors are the head of the municipal authority and the boss of municipal civil servants and public servants. Additionally, Mayors are the head of the births, marriages and deaths registrar's office. This latter function is, however, usually delegated to someone else.

Mayors also serve in an executive role. They are responsible for executing the decisions of the city council, including those with respect to budgets, municipal property and the hiring and firing of municipal officials.

As Warsaw is not only a municipality but also a district authority (powiat) and the Polish capital, the Mayor has a few more duties. As the head of the district authority, the Mayor gets to make decisions in matters as far-ranging as public education, public roads, zoning, work permits for foreigners, drivers' licenses and defense. 

As the head of the Polish capital city, the mayor gets some high-profile duties. These include receiving foreign delegations and ensuring the proper functioning of state-administrative offices, foreign diplomatic posts and consulates, and international organizations.

Limits on campaign creativity

Despite (or perhaps because of) the wide-range of duties of a Mayor, Polish election law contains a number of restrictions on mayoral campaigns. If elected, the Mayor is burdened with a great number of duties, but may not offer much fun to the voters on the campaign trail.

A mayoral campaign may not offer free or subsidized alcoholic beverages to the electorate. A full-priced cash bar would be acceptable. Similarly, you can't use a raffle or drawing as a fund-raising mechanism in a mayoral race, unless the prizes are small items that are typically used for marketing or promotional purposes. I'm sure that some sociologist would have a field day in determining why these and other particular restrictions exist on the mayoral campaign.

Prezydent vs burmistrz 

The differing titles for Polish Mayors do have an explanation. Currently, the Mayor of a city of more than 100,000 residents is called a Prezydent. This term may apply to smaller cities, if they historically used this title for their Mayor. For smaller cities, the proper appellation is Burmistrz, which derives from the same root as the German word burgmeister. For townships, the Mayor is simply called a Wójt.

And with that, I encourage you to vote in the upcoming local elections.

Judith Gliniecki is a managing partner at Rymar and Partners