I AM A WIZARD. IT IS IMPORTANT YOU ALSO BELIEVE THAT
A nocturnal interview with just-elected Kovel Mayor Serhiy Kosharuk, a non-typical person because he is honest but… successful!
Oleksandr Zheleznyak, USAID LED Project
Young, active, knowing, quick-witted, athletic, good-looking, and stylish, the newly-fledged mayor resembles a new hundred-dollar bill: crisp.
In the present-day realities, Serhiy Kosharuk as a recent candidate and now the mayor does not seem to comply with standards. For example, what would an average candidate for any office promise an average Ukrainian voter? I will not steal, or my team will not steal. Kosharuk offers something different: we need to do it so that any abuse will become impossible – whoever takes the mayor’s office. Feel the difference, as they say in commercials! In the former case, elect me lest worse befall you all. In the latter case, let’s create conditions that are qualitatively different, improve the system, and eliminate arbitrariness.
Why Kosharuk?
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Serhiy Kosharuk
(From the Electoral Program) |
When we learned that the chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee for economic development, formed in Kovel with assistance from our project, had won the mayoral election, the idea leaped by itself: wait for official voting results, and then go to Kovel to interview the new mayor – after all, it was by no means an ordinary event in the project’s life! The more so that Kosharuk’s electoral program began with the following words: “We will create in the city clearly defined conditions for investors, which will result in investments into the city’s economy.”
I came to Kovel with Ihor Parasyuk, LED Advisor. Obviously, he took active part in our conversation with the mayor.
Just say NO to the Party
“When I won, for many it was a shock or a cold shower,” Serhiy begins. “Many did not believe that you could win elections without a “roof”. You can! Independence – from financial and staffing obligations – is my force.”
Serhiy Kosharuk was a self-nominee.
“I ran as a nonpartisan. Before I had even thought about running for the mayor’s office, I had joined Nasha Ukraina [“Our Ukraine” party, whereof honorary chairman is President Viktor Yushchenko]. But I had been read out of the party because I had nominated myself."
“In November, certain influential circles – financiers, business people controlling flows of funds – offered me, ‘Serhiy, let’s make you the mayor.’ I declined. Had I agreed, I wouldn’t have been independent today.”
There is a risk that a majority in the City Rada will be against the mayor and try to remove him.
“I’ll carry on to the end following my principles; declare war on double standards; as much as possible involve the community, also through the media. I told the Rada members: we all are Kovel citizens. Let’s respect Kovel, the seven-century-old city. Let’s respect those who lived here before us and who’ll live here after us. Let’s work for them.”
The mayor as an idea man
“Why did I venture to become the mayor? Because I want to create tools that will restrict undesirable impact on the community by anybody working in administrative authority. We need to do it so that whoever comes, even if he wants, for example, to get a kickback, or solve some issue bypassing an auction, et cetera, he will be unable to do that."
“First, I think we have to put the land issues in elementary order, like it is written in the Economic Development Strategic Plan but faster. This is today the position of the mayor. The more so that part of the work is already in progress: the cadastre of all land plots is being compiled."
“Another element to prevent abuse is to establish Ukraine’s first information and service center.” (Serhiy means a real one-stop shop or even better: you come with a parcel of required documents, submit it, and receive a slip with date and time when they will give you a permit, a certificate, an abstract, etc.)"
“I think the center should not be directly subordinated to the City Rada. Cofounders will include the City Rada, business associations, and NGO’s."
“One more tool is a city charter (Kovel does not have one yet). In the charter we have to set forth rights of Kovel citizens in a way that will enable them to influence municipal officers."
“Next. A local area network for City Rada executive bodies, which is also provided for by the Strategic Plan.”
“That will be useful”, my colleague Parasyuk says. “If you launch an LAN, the next step can be implementation of workflow automation within the City Rada. Then anybody can see who hung up certain documents. And if an officer has hung up a document, you can presume he’s biding his time until somebody comes and asks to move the case on.”
“In addition to the Municipal Office of Economic Development, envisaged by the Strategic Plan, we should also establish a Local Development Agency as an NGO,” adds Serhiy. “And also a Public Council: because the City Rada is overpoliticized, and the Public Council will be composed of experts from various spheres."
Thus far, these are the priority steps as I see it.”
Serhiy? Mr. Kosharuk? Mr. Mayor?
How old are you?
“I’ll be 33 this year.”
And how long will it take Serhiy to become Mr. Kosharuk and then Mr. Mayor – first for your friends and later for yourself?
“Many people ask me if the fame will not change me. So I say that in the first place I remain the same Serhiy I’ve always been. I won’t be inaccessible, cock the nose and demand being called Mr. Kosharuk. I remain the same. I go the streets and greet all I’ve used to greet. I play soccer with friends, although now I come to workouts not as often as before. And I’ll keep on being like that. I might disappoint some people, especially among the older generations, who used to go for a position for all their lives and now cannot imagine that a person remains like all the rest. But in the office, perhaps, I’ll be Mr. Kosharuk.”
Confidence in victory is nearly the victory
When you just nominated yourself for the mayor’s office, did you realize that you could win?
“I knew I would win. People were even amazed, and called me self-assured. When we first gathered in our headquarters with my team, I warned all upfront: we throw away from our lexicon such words as ‘probably,’ ‘may be,’ ‘if we fail,’ etc.
“A week after I had registered as a candidate, that is, some month and a half before voting, I already started transferring my businesses to other people. They say, wait, what if you don’t win? And I say, I know I’ll win."
This confidence did not appear from nothing. First, there had been two months’ deliberation. I had talked with a lot of people, and there had been a general feeling – not only with me but also with others – that I would be the mayor. People said, oh, you do this and that, and you do it well; you would make a good mayor.
“I hoped I would be able to learn public administration first, but the decisive factor was apprehension of a threat to the city. Because among the candidates already nominated I didn’t see anyone about whom I could say: it would be good if he were the mayor, because he would work for the city! Would do as written in the law of God, as people agree to have everything right and just. I hate when they write one thing and do other. Since the situation in the country now is moving in the right direction, I decided to support it. Otherwise I would have stayed put. I’d have remained privately involved in community affairs, enjoyed playing with my children, attended the farm, and rejoiced in dealing with land."
“I analyzed the situation with the party lists and saw that voters would vote for parties, not for people. Then these parties would pump out money from such towns as ours. And therefore, there should be a mayor that would as much as possible prevent the city from turning a hostage of parties’ interests."
“Everybody says that the politics is filth. But I will do it the way that the politics will not be filthy. I have proven it by the elections. All my opponents came, shook my hand, and said, ’You have won fairly.’ Nearly all.”
It should be noted that Serhiy Kosharuk won the voting with a narrow margin of just more than 300 votes. This year’s electoral epic has shown us that even when the margin is wider, losers commonly demand recalculation of ballots, take legal actions, and yell about total falsification of the voting results. In Kovel, everything ended with a handshake with the winner.
Not a rainmaker but a wizard
The young would-be candidate did not have sufficient financial resources for a strong campaign. He gathered his closest friends and asked them what they would think if he nominated himself, and whether they would support him if his own resources turned insufficient. The friends promised their support.
Then he went to his parents for blessing, and got it.
“Immediately I felt so confident that some people called me overassured. But I said: look, this is the survey results, this is my education – the only candidate with three higher educations, this is my experience, and these are my deeds. But the main thing is that I’m clean, I haven’t fouled my hands, I don’t have questionable relations."
“I tell people: I’m a wizard, I can do for you anything you wish, but there is one condition: you have to believe that I’m a wizard. Those who stood next to me during the electoral campaign did believe."
“I calculated that I needed an amount of money I didn’t have. I thought: it’s bad to go asking. To count on the friends that were with me – we could hardly raise such an amount. And yet I had several unpaid credits. So where could I take money? But I knew I was a wizard, so I’d find somewhere."
“A friend of mine, with whom I talk once a year, phones me. Back in ninety six or eight, when he came to Kovel he always raised a glass to me as the future mayor. And now he phones me: how are you doing, Serhiy? I say, such and such, I have such intents. I laugh: it was you who said that all the time [that I’d be mayor]."
“Gosh! Really? Any problem? What about money?"
“I say, well, the situation is like that."
“Just don’t take from anybody! Have you?"
“Only from friends."
“‘Then from nobody else! Calculate how much you need.’
“He gave me money. Said, don’t think when to return, whatever happens. He doesn’t live in Kovel now, has no special interest here, but cares about the city. Funny, the last hryvnya of the amount he gave me I spent on the election night.”
Like any wizard, Serhiy has his magic number. No surprise, it is 13. The headquarters was opened on Jan. 31 in presence of 13 people. Twice he drew question paper No. 13 at the final exams. Serhiy’s second child was born on Jan. 13. He was No. 13 on both school and university lists, and played No. 13 in basketball. His first and last name in Ukrainian (Сергій Кошарук) has 13 letters, as have the Ukrainian words for mayor (міський голова) for that matter. Apropos, 13 candidates were running for this office. Finally, 13 artists are recorded on the compact disk whose release was organized by Serhiy.
Electoral technologies
Everybody knows the main weapons in the arsenal of typical Ukrainian candidate: a barrel with white paint for himself or herself and a barrel with black paint, modified with mud and heavy metal additives, for his or her rivals and predecessors. Serhiy Kosharuk turned out to be a maverick in this too.
“I decided that I would not duplicate the popular technologies, that is, would not look for faults in competitors, use technical candidates, cover everything around with my posters, et cetera. I did have agitators, but only those who liked me personally, who accepted me as a personality, and thus were able to convey this feeling onward. And we also agreed that we would not plant my flyers and drop them into mailboxes – only from hand to hand. There might be volunteers who did those tricks, but not my agitators.”
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The then Kovel Mayor, Yaroslav Shevchuk (on the right), and Serhiy Kosharuk, appointed by the Mayor to serve as the chairman of the economic development Strategic Planning Committee, at a meeting of the Committee in the City Hall on Oct. 4, 2005. They will become rivals in four months. |
What relationships do you have with the previous mayor, Yaroslav Shevchuk?
“Note that I was the only candidate for the mayor’s office in Kovel who built his campaign exclusively on the positive. I even tried to avoid such words as ‘bureaucrats’ and ‘corruption’. Abuse, rather than corruption. Officers, rather than bureaucrats. And probably I was the only one to support Mr. Shevchuk, who was heavily criticized from all directions. I said that not everything was bad, and there were good things done. Sometimes I was even taken as his technical candidate, and from time to time it was rumored that I had already withdrawn. So when I spoke in public I emphasized that I knew what I had got down to, that I didn’t look for a breeze, and that when I take up anything, I see it through.”
Kosharuk’s team used the city’s flag and coat of arms on every agitation material.
“We picked up the colors that are most popular now: cherry and maroon. These are just the city’s colors. And the youth looks nice against the maroon background.”
Serhiy created and presented a web site for the city (http://kovel.in.ua), inviting the intelligentsia to the presentation.
“Yes, it was part of the electoral campaign, a promo, but we didn’t agitate, ‘Vote for Kosharuk!’ We spoke about the city’s history. We had uploaded to the site a lot of information on historical events. The message was as follows: ‘Those who know well their history can hope for a future.”
Serhiy claims he was the only mayoral candidate who organized a meeting with electors that was open to the public. Moreover, he released a CD and organized its presentation.
“I needed a song about Kovel – one that had been already written and regarded as the city’s anthem. But we failed to find its record. So I thought: oh, we have to record it. I fixed the matter up with musicians. But just one song? I suggested the idea to Kovel artists – some of them had a master, for some we recorded it for my own account – and in two weeks we had a disk: 17 tracks, 13 artists.”
It was an old and recurrent dream of Serhiy to get Kovel musicians together, but he only succeeded in the course of the elections.
“Our Kovel musicians used to gather only for memorial concerts. Always busy. And here – a disk presentation. I invited all: musicians, ‘next to musicians,’ musicians’ friends, etc. We gathered seventy. I rented a nightclub and brought ‘live’ instruments, such as guitars, drums, a saxophone, et cetera. We made the disk presentation, then standup meal, and then asked the musicians to play – a sort of jam session. Wow, what an atmosphere was there!
Kovel will have a very educated mayor
The Kovel Mayor has graduated from three higher educational institutions, where he majored in technics, economics and law.
In 1990, after high school, he went to the Ukrainian State University of Food Technologies in Kyiv, from which he graduated in 1995. He returned to Kovel with Kyiv-born wife, although she kept an apartment in the Ukrainian capital.
In 2002, he was admitted to the Law Department of the Volyn State University, and simultaneously to a special program of economic education.
“When I was entering the Volyn University I learned that there was a special one-year program within the entrepreneur retraining framework. The program was implemented by the Ternopil Academy of National Economy. It was free! And I was submitting documents for paid training at the university. So I thought I’d take a chance – if only the exam periods would not coincide! In this way, in 2003 I got the higher economic education. My degree work was titled ‘Organization of Public Catering Facilities in Market Conditions: an Example of the Nyam-Nyam No-Alcohol Café in Kovel.”
In 2005, Serhiy graduated from the Law Department. His degree work was “Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Ensuring Public Order.”
“This was a painful problem in Kovel. I brought a lot of ideas, made a few attempts, but it didn’t come off, because I had to involve the police, the mayor, and the Raion Administration. I approached them but they didn’t support me. Now, from the position of the mayor, I can do something.”
Businessman, employer, farmer, and children’s best friend
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The “Business Empire” of Serhiy Kosharuck
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Businessman Serhiy Kosharuk originated in a small round-the-clock shop, Yavir, which still exists.
“But from that shop we organized home delivery. Yet that was the time when there was nearly nothing: no pizzeria, no taxi. And we did so well that it still works and brings profit.”
"How did you come to the decision to engage in private business?”
“After study in Kyiv I dreamed of building a brewery. But it didn’t come off: the water was bad, and I was young and green. In addition, I didn’t have money: when I was returning from the Chukot [Chukchi Peninsula], where I had been with a building party, I was asked to bring a motorcycle to Kovel. Well, I bought it with my own money, but it was stolen in Kyiv. In fact I lost everything I had earned on the Chukot. I came to Kovel and sold my Jawa bike. So I had $400. Then a friend suggested that we would open a shop in the center of the city. It was in 1996. It cost me approximately $300. This February 7 was the tenth anniversary of the Yavir opening.
“Then my partner left for Kyiv, and left me with all this. On paper, the shop brought profits, but actually I got minuses. It continued quite long that I was paying him more than I was earning myself.
In 2001, Serhiy Kosharuk, realized his idea of creating a children café, Nyam-Nyam.
Why a café just for children?
“Because it was difficult. But in the first place, because I love children.”
While studying in Kyiv, Serhiy worked in a restaurant as assistant chef. It was already then that he began contemplating the opening of a restaurant or café for children.
“By the time, all those Snowflakes, Buratinos, and Fairy Tales [typical names of children cafés in Ukraine] had closed or turned into joints, where a grandpa drops in to buy a shot for himself and an ice cream for his grandson. And now, in 2001, such an experiment: a no-alcohol café!”
Although this sector of public catering was far from being crowded, the community was mentally unripe for that.
“And so it started: everybody wants to come and ‘get a refresh.’ They bring it themselves. How is it possible – no alcohol? Some big shot or other says, ‘I can! Otherwise I’ll close you tomorrow.’ I answer, close, but you cannot drink here – the rules are the same for all. We placed the rules on the wall: no alcohol, no smoking, rude and vulgar behavior is prohibited. The rest – do as you please. Why, there are a lot of bars around – go and drink; and here come with children to eat ice cream. It took us a while to accustom people, but we did it. Three months passed, and everything calmed down, nobody closed us. All had said that a no-alcohol facility would not stand, would not pay back. But the contrary emerged: the experiment was so successful that it was followed by other similar facilities. But I’m not afraid of competition: children will suffice for all. I would be happy if such cafés were at every turn.”
Businessman Serhiy Kosharuk has created over 50 jobs.
“I’m proud of that, because I know that this means 50 families. And my approach is different from that of other employers. I hate when people say, ‘I work for a master.’ A slave has a master. When I hire a person I tell him that we are partners in business, just our duties and rights are different. But we have a contract, an agreement, and each of us performs his part of the contract. In this way we help each other earn.”
“Once I actively engaged in farming, buried there golden coins, like Buratino [the main character of ‘The Golden Key’ fairy tale by Aleksey Tolstoy]. I wanted everything to be done right, nice. I went for pedigree wheat, and grew potatoes, and applied fertilizers in compliance with the technology. But once it might happen that there was a dry year, another time the prices for potatoes would drop so much that you pay more to dig it out than you earn by selling it. That is, the farming did not bring any special income. In fact it’s now a hobby rather than business.”
Development strategy
What needs to be changed in the city, city management, and city residents?
“Everything is interrelated. We need to create a civil society in the city. In the city management, we need to implement the tools I had mentioned, that is, ensure conditions that make abuse impossible. As for the Kovel residents, nothing needs to be changed. We just need to remind them of their history. If they rest on the history, they will become unique people. This history carries a lot of the positive! When a person gets to know the history, he or she cares and acts just perfectly. We have to awaken this in the Kovel residents. We have to start with the history. And today it’s one of the forces I’m going to rely on as the mayor.”
Today, from the mayor’s point of view, do you think something ought to be changed in the Strategic Plan?
“It will be updated. First, there are things in progress about which we didn’t know when we were working on the plan. Second, the plan itself needs a more active discussion within the community.”
Was serving on the Strategic Planning Committee useful for you?
“Probably, I would have never ventured to contend for the mayor’s office had I not presided at the committee meetings before. I became better aware of problems in the city and how to solve them. I learned about problems in other cities. I saw what was done wrong, and what I’d like to change. Therefore this is out of question: serving on the committee added to my assurance.”
So can we conclude that the plan you’ve developed will be supported by the new mayor?
“Certainly, because I founded my electoral program on it. Now I have pleasure in recalling that the Electors’ Committee, which monitored programs of mayoral candidates in Kovel, recognized my program as the most adequate. I changed its wording several times, trying to make it as specific as possible and avoid generalities, such as ‘there will be created,’ ‘it will be ensured,’ ‘a level,’ et cetera. But now I know pretty well what to do. Just look at what is written in other programs: ‘Improve the quality of some thing or other.’ But how on the earth, in which way will it be done?”
Soccer, books, music, and the Chukot
It’s hard to imagine how he manages to keep on that way with such a tied-up life, but Serhiy somehow finds time to regularly play soccer and basketball. For a long time, Serhiy has headed up a sports team. The team unites people of different ages: there are boys aged 21 and two retirement-age gentlemen. They meet twice a week; on Sundays, they go to a swimming pool.
“Just before the electoral campaign, Kovel held its first open professional mini-soccer tournament. We are not a professional team – we play just for fun, to stretch our legs, to communicate. But we decided to apply. And so our team appears among professionals. We lost the first game 2-14. Well, you must have the guts to take the field and lose when you are running for the mayor’s office. We played eight matches, adding to our performance by the game. Finally, we started winning. On the last day, we made a sensation by defeating quite a strong team. Before that day, we were leading in matches but lost, and we drew with the team that placed third.”
Do you have any spare time left for books?
“I mainly read books in philosophy and psychology.”
And do you have any time to listen to some music?
“Not only to listen but also to play and sing. I play guitar a little bit. And when I play I also sing. In all teams I’ve formed, every other person sings, or dances, or plays an instrument.”
Okay, but what kind of music you are fond of?
“Lately, I like to listen to classical, symphonic music. And I made it a rule, when I do something, do it to music. For example, when I write a project, or elaborate an idea, I turn on music. I favor Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.”
What is the most important, the most valuable in your life?
“If the matter is values, I can cite several. The Creator, the force that guides the universe. The family: my wife and children. My work and friends.”
Has there been anything in your life to leave an indelible impression?
“There’ve been several such things. I call them steps – the steps that strengthened me and reinforced my principles. First, it is my stay in Artek [renowned international children camp in Crimea]. I was there a ‘white crow.’ They said I was too correct. But I advocated my positions.
“Second, it is the Chukot. It was a vital exam. When I returned from the Chukot, I was ready to take up anything. I worked there for 40 days, but each of these days strengthened me further. Because I always stuck to my principles, what in fact I still do: the justice exists – just fight for it. Now it resembles one political slogan [of the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc],” Serhiy added laughing. “Sometimes I had to risk my life to defend my principles, but thank God, I always turned out the winner.”
What did you do on the Chukot as a matter of fact?
“We built heating systems.”
And what were the functions of Serhiy Kosharuk?”
“I was the organizer and cook, digger and driver. There were few of us, so everybody had to do everything.”
What has been the biggest success in your life?
“For the time being, it is the well-done electoral campaign, which has wound up in the victory. The fact that today I am the Kovel Mayor proves that the things I’ve mentioned are real. I mean, you can do right and achieve the result. Because people often think that, to succeed, you need to fudge on the rules, play foul. And I am happy to illustrate to all those who have doubted that that you can act honestly and sincerely and achieve success. Just believe that.”
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The new Kovel Mayor does not have an own car. An oddball, however, as they say on the Chukot.
