A wójt is the highest administrative officer of a Polish '' rural gmina'', i.e., of a commune (''

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...

'') comprising only villages. (The head of a town or city is called, respectively, the ''burmistrz'' or "president".)

History and etymology

The word ''wójt'' derives from the Latin ''

advocatus An , sometimes simply advocate, (German, ), or (French, ), was a type of medieval office holder, particularly important in the Holy Roman Empire, who was delegated some of the powers and functions of a major feudal lord, or for an institutio ...

'', via the German 'Vogt'. and Czech 'fojt' In medieval

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, a wójt (''advocatus'' in documents written in Latin) was a hereditary (later elected) head of a town (under the overlordship of the town's owner – the king, church, or noble) or other area of settlement, which was established on or transferred to the

Magdeburg rights Magdeburg rights (, , ; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within cities and villages gr ...

, as well as the head of the local

court A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...

(in Latin ''capitaneus''). It this respect, a wójt was the head of the territory called "" (Polish: ''wójtostwo''; Lithuanian: ''vajtija'', ''vaitystė''; Latin: ''advocatia''). In

private town Private towns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were privately owned towns within the lands owned by magnates, bishops, knights and princes, among others. Amongst the most well-known former private magnate towns are Białystok, Zamość, R ...

s, wójts were appointed by the owner or were elected by the community. From this title derive surnames such as Wójtowicz/ Voytovych, Starovoyt, Starovoytov, Voytenko, Voitiuk, and Voytov. (These are not to be confused with surnames derived from "Wojtek", which is a

diminutive A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle s ...

of " Wojciech").

Wójt in modern times

In modern Poland the elected position of wójt of a (in an the equivalent positions are '' burmistrz'' and ) is an element of the

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

of the lowest level, and it is defined by the Polish law about gmina self-government.Dz.U. 2020 poz. 713, Obwieszczenie Marszałka Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 6 kwietnia 2020 r. w sprawie ogłoszenia jednolitego tekstu ustawy o samorządzie gminnym
/ref> The position of wójt is not the same as the position of the chairman of the gmina council (''przewodniczący rady gminy''). Wójt is the executive function of gmina (the title for the executive position is "burmistrz" if the administration is located in a gmina town and "town president" in towns with population over 100,000) (Article 26). These positions (and of their deputies) can be held only by Polish citizens and cannot be shared with the same position in another gmina or with a number of other administrative positions.

Relations of wójt and gmina council

The gmina council (''rada gminy'') controls the activities of wójt, determines the remuneration of wójt, directions of his activities, accepts his report on his activities, handles complaints about wójt, and may consider termination of wójt's tenure. A wójt suggests the candidate for the position of gmina treasurer, for rada to accept. Wójt performs major actions (major purchases, credits, handling rada bonds, etc.) related to the community property according to the principles set by rada. Wójt has rights to call for a session of rada. Wójt or his representative has an obligation to reasonably promptly address questions and requests formally submitted by rada members. Wójt cannot assign any contractual work to a rada member of his gmina.

Anti-corruption regulation

Neither wójt nor wójt's deputies nor persons cohabiting with wójt or wójt's deputies (the same as for other rada administration) can be part of management or own over 10% of shares of commercial businesses based in the gmina and have to submit declarations of their property. These declarations are public, with the exception of some specifics (addresses, etc.) They cannot accept any property gifts (including acquiring undervalued property) for 3 years after the termination of their functions.

Activities

Major categories of wójt's activities include: * preparing draft resolutions of the gmina council and of development programs * suggesting the ways of implementation of council resolutions * management of gmina property and budget * hiring and dismissing heads of gmina organizational units Wójt manages running affairs of the gmina and represents the gmina on the outside and performs these duties with the help of the gmina office (urząd gminy), which wójt heads. In these affairs wójt reports exclusively to the gmina council. Wójt has to inform the residents of gmina on draft budget and its uses and social and economic policies of gmina (Article 61).

References