Daejeon City Aligns Terms of Public Institution Heads with Mayor's Term

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Daejeon City is pushing forward with a plan to align the terms of public institution heads under its jurisdiction with the mayor’s term. The core idea is to eliminate the uncomfortable coexistence between newly elected mayors and public institution heads appointed by previous mayors by codifying this in an ordinance.

The city is currently working on enacting an ordinance that reduces the usual three-year term of public institution heads to two years and stipulates that even if the term is not completed, the term of the public institution head will automatically end when the mayor’s four-year term concludes.

Once this content is codified through the ordinance, future public institution heads must step down regardless of their term when a new mayor, different from the appointing authority (the previous mayor), takes office. The city anticipates this will serve as a mechanism to resolve the repetitive and wasteful personnel conflicts over tenure issues that have occurred whenever the mayor changes.

However, aligning the terms of the mayor and public institution heads will be limited to investment and foundation institutions under the city. The adjustment of terms for heads of public corporations and public enterprises is currently under discussion in the National Assembly.

Local public institutions are divided into public corporations and public enterprises established under the “Local Public Enterprises Act” and investment and foundation institutions established based on the “Act on the Operation of Investment and Foundation Institutions of Local Governments,” with the ordinance applying only to the latter.

Currently, 14 investment and foundation institutions operate in Daejeon, and excluding two institutions where the mayor concurrently serves as chairman, it is expected that 12 institutions will be subject to the ordinance.

The city plans to review any legal conflicts regarding the ordinance’s content, announce the legislative proposal next month, and have the ordinance fully implemented starting next year.

Earlier, Mayor Lee Jang-woo of Daejeon emphasized from the beginning of his term that the terms of the mayor and public institution heads under the city should be the same. In particular, Mayor Lee also conveyed the message that “institution heads involved in elections should decide their own tenure.”

Considering that public institution heads should share the mayor’s administrative philosophy, Mayor Lee’s logic is that when a new mayor takes office, new personnel should fill those positions.

In the same context, Mayor Lee stresses that once the ordinance is enacted and implemented, public institution heads appointed by himself during his term will also have their tenure aligned with that of the current mayor in the future.

Meanwhile, ahead of Daejeon, Daegu City last month became the first in the nation to propose the “Special Ordinance on the Terms of Political and Policy Aides, Heads, and Executives of Investment and Foundation Institutions of Daegu City (hereinafter, the Term Alignment Ordinance),” which passed the Daegu City Council plenary session.

The Term Alignment Ordinance centers on ending the terms of political officials and heads and executives of subordinate institutions regardless of the remaining term when a new mayor is elected. This is largely in line with the ordinance Daejeon intends to enact.

Daegu City’s Term Alignment Ordinance is scheduled to be promulgated and take effect immediately on the 29th, marking the first case nationwide.