Who is the most important person in a restaurant? Ask most restaurant owners and they will say it's the customer.
Sergiy Gusovsky, a Kyiv-based restaurateur, is
no exception. He also believes the same attitude applies to city governance.
“Local government should serve its citizens,”
says Gusovsky, who is running for Kyiv mayor on the Samopomich Party list, led
by Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy.
Gusovsky, 48, who co-founded his first
restaurant of Italian cuisine in 1995, is not a newcomer to Ukrainian politics.
In 2014, he joined the Kyiv branch of the Samopomich Party with four other
deputies who made it to the 120-seat Kyiv City Council.
His small group is often referred to as a
promising one. Volodymyr Panchenko, the expert of the International Center for
Policy Studies, says they have “really bright minds.”
If elected, Gusovsky would become the first
mayor since Ukraine’s independence who has lived in the capital his entire
life. His namesake grandfather was a director of Arsenal, Kyiv-based arms
factory.
In 2001 Gusovsky opened his own restaurant
chain, which now includes six affluent Kyiv venues. The successful business
allowed Gusovsky have a “rather hedonist way of life” as he admits,
with traveling the world, wining and dining and practicing extreme and
expensive heli-skiing.
But the 2013-14 EuroMaidan Revolution became a
turning point.
“It was a dilemma then – either to leave the
country or resist,” Gusovsky tells in the interview with the Kyiv Post. “But
Kyiv is a place where I was born; I didn’t want to go anywhere.”
Gusovsky says he decided to enter politics as
“there’s no other way now” to bring changes in the country. Even
before that decision he has been following the innovations of Sadovy.
“Sadovy’s work shows how one’s will turns into
real result,” he says. “There are lots of things we can learn from Lviv,
especially in information technology sphere.”
Gusovsky calls himself a “political
volunteer,” who will also benefit by making a city a more comfortable place to
live in.
“People elected to the city council should
show themselves as good managers, if they are not performing – they should be
replaced,” he says. “That’s why it’s good when we have elections
rather often.”
A combined livability ranking by the Economist
intelligence unit and Mercer shows Kyiv as one of the most uncomfortable cities
to live in, with 124th place out of 140 cities worldwide.
Gusovsky says the lack of clear strategy for
the city is a problem.
“There’s a 2025 city development strategy, but
who actually uses it? However, it’s a city’s Constitution,” he says.
Zero tolerance to corruption and receiving a
regular feedback from citizens – those are Gusovsky’s main ideas for the city’s
effective development.
He also believes Kyiv leaders, including the
current mayor, retired world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, are not open
enough to the public. Klitschko is the front-runner for re-election.
If elected, Gusovsky pledges to host press
conferences every week in order to know city’s challenges and needs. He also plans to make all the city officials
accountable for their work by passing open polygraph tests. “Last year all our five members in the Kyiv
City Council took a polygraph test and presented its results to the public,” he
recalls.
Gusovsky, who is supported by some 4.5 percent
of voters according to recent polls, says he funds his campaign himself and
donors. “We ensure our living ourselves, that’s our motto. Even though our
party is often said to be linked with some oligarchs,” he says.
Gusovsky calls one of the greatest results of
his 18 months on the Kyiv City Council is the creation of an open database of
municipal property that is accessible online. He believes the same should be
done with the city budget.
Taras Berezovets, head of a political
consulting firm Berta Communications, says Gusovsky has a strong team of
experts and is one of the best prepared
candidates.
“He has good chances to make it to the
second round – especially if the voter turnout would be high, including
middle-class people – the main Samopomich supporters,” Berezovets
explains.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected].
