Slovenia

The municipal council (obcinski svet) is the municipality’s deliberative body and is composed of members elected by direct universal suffrage for a four year-term. Deputy-mayors are appointed by and from within council members, upon the mayor’s proposal. The council is responsible for making the municipality’s main decisions, such as adopting local land and development plans and the municipal budget as well as deciding on the acquisition or selling of municipal property.
 
The mayor (zupan) is the municipality’s executive body and is elected by direct universal suffrage for a mandate of four years. He/she represents the municipality and is at the head of the local administration.

Competences

. Public safety and protection
. Housing
. Land development
. Urban planning
. Trade and industry
. Environment
. Road networks
. Transport
. Pre-school and primary education
. Social security
. Water treatment and waste collection

Note

All Slovenian municipalities are divided into local, village or neighbourhood communities (krajevne, vaške or četrtne skupnosti), which each have a council whose members are elected by direct universal suffrage. These councils have the power to enact municipal council decisions.

The capital city of Slovenia, Ljubljana, and ten other municipalities have the status of urban municipality (mestna obcina).  A municipality can acquire the status of urban municipality if it has a minimum of 20,000 inhabitants and 15,000 jobs, of which at least half must be in the tertiary or quaternary sectors. Urban municipalities have more competences than the other municipalities, including urban transport, hospitals, public services, culture, radio, television and press, and sports and recreation.