Seoul Metropolitan Council Legislative Monitor Capacity Building Training

Non-face-to-face Education to Prevent COVID-19 Spread, Seoul Metropolitan Council YouTube Live Broadcast... Introduction of Policy Cases such as 'Enhancement of Hanyangdoseong App Content' and Special Lectures on Opinion Writing

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] The Seoul Metropolitan Council (Chairman Kim In-ho) announced that it held a capacity-building training session on the afternoon of the 16th at 3 p.m. in the Seoul Metropolitan Council’s main conference room for 234 legislative monitors of the second half of the 10th Seoul Metropolitan Council.

Chairman Kim In-ho of the Seoul Metropolitan Council and five outstanding legislative monitors of the second half of the 10th Seoul Metropolitan Council attended the event.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Seoul Metropolitan Council minimized the number of attendees for the training and live-streamed the session on the Seoul Metropolitan Council’s YouTube channel for legislative monitors who could not attend.

During this training, as the activities of the legislative monitors of the second half of the 10th Council, which began in September last year, entered the mid-term, the participants shared their activities and achievements so far and had a communication session to learn about the diverse legislative activities of the Seoul Metropolitan Council.

Following this, to share know-how necessary for proposing policy ideas and improvements to inconveniences, a session was held where proposers of excellent cases that were reflected in policies or utilized in legislative activities directly presented their motivation for the proposal, how they wrote it, and their impressions of the activities.

Legislative monitor Baek Hye-jin’s proposal to “diversify content to increase the utilization of the Seoul Hanyangdoseong app” was reflected in the 2021 business plan, and new content such as the “Four Great Gates History Quiz” is scheduled to be introduced in the second half of this year.

Legislative monitor Baek Hee’s opinion that “the exclusion criteria for New Deal jobs need to be relaxed” was utilized during the 2020 administrative audit and reflected in the 2021 business plan.

Accordingly, although those with a business registration certificate were previously unable to participate in New Deal jobs, the criteria have been relaxed to allow participation if they prove that they were not actually conducting business, such as by filing a suspension report, or in cases of real estate rental businesses that do not employ workers or maintain rental offices.

Additionally, legislative monitor Yang Ah-yeol’s policy proposal to “assign QR codes to manage the numerous street trash bins in Seoul” was used as inquiry material by the relevant standing committee.

Other proposals, such as legislative monitor Kim Ji-yoon’s suggestion to “provide snow removal box location information when sending disaster text messages during heavy snowfall” and legislative monitor Ryu Hee-chun’s idea to “establish a system enabling interactive communication during online education due to COVID-19,” were also reflected in actual policies and introduced as examples of utilizing legislative monitor opinions.

Finally, reflecting the legislative monitors’ request for effective opinion writing training while submitting monthly opinion reports, a special lecture was held by instructor Jang Soon-wook, author of “Write, Erase, Cut, and Change.”

The legislative monitors who attended said, “We felt proud seeing our various ideas become concrete and reflected in city administration, and inconveniences improved. We felt respected as Seoul citizens and were pleased. We will do our best to responsibly work with the Council to create a changing Seoul during the remaining period as legislative monitors.”

Chairman Kim In-ho said, “I have heard that the legislative monitors have pointed out local inconveniences and provided many policy ideas from the citizens’ perspective. Please remember that your active opinions are shaping actual city administration and take pride in that.”

He added, “How you express the same idea in writing is much more important, so I hope today’s training was very helpful. I sincerely thank you all for your great contribution to making Seoul a better and happier city, and I ask for your continued active participation during the remaining period.”

Meanwhile, the Seoul Metropolitan Council has been organizing and operating legislative monitors since 1999, the first among local councils nationwide, to collect on-site citizen opinions and support citizen-centered legislative activities. Legislative monitors play a role in monitoring major policies of Seoul City and the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and providing policy ideas to improve inconveniences in citizens’ daily lives. The second half of the 10th legislative monitors were formed in September 2020, and currently, 234 legislative monitors are actively engaged.