Qualification requirements for municipal service positions: Conceptual issues of formation

In connection with the constitutional recognition of local self-government as one of the components of a unified system of public authority in the Russian Federation, there is a problem of revising the levels and delimitation of powers between the federation and its subjects in the field of regulation of the municipal service. This problem is especially acute in the field of forming qualification requirements for municipal service positions. This issue directly affects the constitutional principle of equal access to municipal service, as well as the principle of the unity of the legal status of citizens throughout the Russian Federation. According to the authors, the overly broad powers granted in this matter to the constituent entities of the Russian Federation do not correspond to either these principles or the public nature of the municipal service. The article justifies the need to federalize the basic qualification requirements for municipal service positions, primarily for the education and seniority necessary to fill the position. At the same time, the authors note the problem associated with the availability of qualified personnel in various municipalities, up to a tangible “personnel hunger” in some of them. This problem should be solved on the basis of differentiation of qualification requirements for the level of education and by length of service for filling positions in the municipal service can be based on a combination of three criteria: the type of municipal formation (while maintaining a two-level division of municipalities); population size, as well as the population density of the serviced territories (the latter criterion can be applied not only for the municipality as a whole, but also for the territorial units included in their composition). Moreover, such differentiation should be laid down at the federal level.