The Finance Committee consists of 10 members of the City Council. Six of these are from the majority party, headed by the Mayor. The other 4 are from the minority parties.
The following parties are represented in the Finance Committee:
The members of the Finance Committee are elected every two years. According to decision number 224652/03-09-2019, Mayor Konstantinos Bakoyiannis of Pavlos shall chair the Finance Committee; according to decision number 218980/01-09-2021, the Mayor has appointed Deputy Mayors Nikolaos Avramidis of Paris and Vasileios Koromantzos of Georgios, as members of the Finance Committee.
From 01-09-2019 to 06-11-2021 the Finance Committee had the following members:
Vasileios Foivos Axiotis (“Athina Psila – Kostas Bakoyiannis”)
Emmanouil Kalampokas (“Athina Psila – Kostas Bakoyiannis”)
Georgios H. Apostolopoulos (“Athina Psila – Kostas Bakoyiannis”)
Melpomeni Daskalaki (“Athina Psila – Kostas Bakoyiannis”)
Nikolaos Avramidis (“Athina Psila – Kostas Bakoyiannis”)
Vasileios Koromantzos (“Athina Psila – Kostas Bakoyiannis”)
Konstantinos Alexiou (“Anichti Poli”)
Georgios Broulias (“Athina eisai Esy”)
Ilias Kasidiaris (“Elliniki Avgi gia tin Athina”)
Stylianos Lambrou (“Laiki Syspirosi Athinas”)
The Finance Committee convenes following an invitation by its Chair, which is posted on the City website. The Chair of the Finance Committee compiles the meeting’s agenda. All meetings are public and minutes are kept at each meeting. The Committee is considered to have a quorum when the members attending are more, in number, than the absent members. The Committee meets in public, and resolutions are passed by an absolute majority of the attending members. In case of equality in votes, the Chair’s vote shall prevail.
Each resolution is given a unique number, and the numbering begins anew at the beginning of each year. Three days after each meeting of the Finance Committee, a table is published, containing the items on the agenda, the number of resolutions and a summary of their contents.
Any party with a legal interest, may request (in writing) ratified copies of specific minutes and resolutions, or receive a full description thereof in the event that it is difficult to issue copies.
Resolutions are published on the City website, while certain resolutions are forwarded to the Legality Auditor.
The Finance Committee has the following competences, according to article 72, law 3852/2010, as amended and valid:
1. The finance committee is a collective body, and is responsible for auditing and monitoring the city’s financial activity. In particular, the committee has the following decision-making, auditing and advisory responsibilities:
a) To compile and propose the draft budget;
b) To check the implementation of the budget and submit a report to the city council every quarter, presenting the status of city revenues and expenses. This report also contains any observations submitted by the minority, and must be published on the city website;
c) To pre-audit the annual report;
d) To approve compensation payable to the mayor, deputy mayors and city council members for travel expenses outside the seat of the municipality. On urgent occasions, the mayor, deputy mayor or member of the city council may travel outside the seat without a prior resolution by the finance committee. In such cases, the committee must decide, without delay, whether such travel was required or not;
e) The committee is responsible for faithful execution of the budget;
f) To decide on the annual hiring schedule for all categories of municipal staff;
g) To propose the long-term plan for management of Municipal properties to the City Council. The committee is also responsible for implementation of the plan;
h) To make justified decisions on amendment of the physical or financial scope of contracts, according to the relevant applicable legislation. In the case of such contracts, the committee is also responsible for approving the acceptance protocol, by justified resolution;
i) To draw up the terms, draft calls for tender, perform and award all types of auctions and tenders, for projects, surveys, procurements and services, as well as to set up special committees consisting of its members or specialized scientists, city employees or civil servants;
j) To draw up the operating regulation;
k) To examine the need to take out loans, set out their terms and submit the relevant proposal to the City Council;
l) To decide on the settlement or abolition of lawsuits worth up to sixty thousand (60,000) euros. When the value is above 60,000 euros, then the committee must propose decision-making by the City Council. It is not permitted to settle or abolish lawsuits with claims concerning salaries, benefits, compensation, attendance expenses, travel expenses and payroll benefits of any kind, with the exception of claims whose legal argument has been resolved by a superior court;
m) To decide on payment of travel expenses and per diems to private individuals sitting on committees or working groups or project management teams, set up by the Executive Committee or the Mayor, for travel in Greece or abroad to provide services relating to their work, according to the provisions of sub-paragraph D.9, law 4336/2015 (A 94);
n) To act as the contracting authority for project, survey, service and procurement contracts, irrespective of the budget, except in cases subject to the Mayor’s authority for direct assignment;
o) To submit proposals on matters of transparency and electronic governance;
p) To submit draft regulatory municipal resolutions to the city council, with respect to the provisions of article 73, par. 1Bv), and monitor their implementation;
q) To decide on the submission of appeals to administrative authorities;
r) To decide on the exercise of all legal aids and remedies, as well as on their waiver;
s) To decide on the appointment of a lawyer and the revocation of their power of attorney, in municipalities where lawyers have not been hired on a monthly basis, or where those that have been hired do not have the right to appear in supreme courts, and to determine their remuneration. It can also outsource legal advice, provided lawyers have not been hired on a monthly basis. The committee may decide, by exception, to assign out-of-court or judicial handling to a lawyer, for cases which are of special importance for the interests of the city and require specialized knowledge or experience. In such cases, the lawyer’s fee is set in accordance with the provisions of article 281 of the Cities and Communities Code (KDK);
t) To decide on:
i. the writing-off of debts and the exemption from surcharges according to article 174 of the Cities and Communities Code;
ii. facilitating debtors for amounts over one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) euros according to article 170 of the Cities and Communities Code;
iii. the direct assignment to legal entities and municipal enterprises according to article 12, of law 4412/2016 (A 147);
iv. the financing of public benefit enterprises according to article 259, par. 1 of the Cities and Communities Code, as well as for the approval of the decision of the board of directors of the public benefit enterprise for collection of reasonable compensation according to paragraph 3 of the same article;
v. the concession of facilities, equipment and means to the public benefit enterprises according to article 259 par. 4 of the Cities and Communities Code;
vi. the approval of budgets, balance sheets, annual action plans and reports of the city’s legal entities and enterprises;
u) To decide on the acceptance of inheritances, bequests and donations.
2. In cases q), r) and s) of the above paragraph, the resolution is passed after seeking the advice of a lawyer; the absence of a lawyer’s opinion shall render the relevant resolution invalid. This shall also apply to City Council resolutions when the sixty thousand (60,000) euro limit of case l) above is exceeded.
3. By special resolution passed by the absolute majority of its members, the Finance Committee may refer specific issues to the City Council for decision-making, if it deems that this is required due to the serious nature of the issue.