Gwanak-gu Ensures Various Forms of Civic Participation Including Open Mayor's Office Gwanakcheong, Mobile Gwanakcheong, Online Gwanakcheong, and "Wishes to the Mayor"
[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Junhee) is making resident communication and cooperation the core values of district administration by listening to residents' voices through various methods such as the nation’s first cafe-style mayor’s office ‘Gwanakcheong’, the ‘Online Gwanakcheong’ open 365 days a year, and ‘Wishes to the Mayor’.
‘Gwanakcheong (聽)’ is an open mayor’s office where any resident can comfortably meet the mayor, as well as a community gathering place where neighbors can chat. Launched as the first pledge fulfillment of the 7th local government term, Gwanakcheong was operated in a limited manner due to COVID-19 but reopened last July, receiving great response from residents.
Despite limited operation, the mayor has conducted a total of 120 meetings so far, receiving 447 civil complaints and meeting about 710 residents to resolve various difficulties and complaints directly.
In particular, there was a case where the mayor promptly visited the site to conduct a detailed safety inspection and completed repairs and reinforcements in response to a complaint about the collapse of a villa retaining wall in a child protection zone to ensure residents’ safety.
Residents who wish to participate in the ‘Date with the Mayor’ held every Thursday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. can meet the mayor by pre-registering online at Online Gwanakcheong or at the open civil service office on the first floor of the district office.
For those who find it difficult to visit in person, the ‘Online Gwanakcheong (聽)’ is also operated for non-face-to-face communication. To encourage more residents to participate and reflect diverse opinions, the mayor’s response criteria have been relaxed and the response period shortened from 30 days to 15 days.
Additionally, the ‘Gwanak-gu Asks!’ corner, a channel for collecting opinions on major district policies, has been activated to encourage resident participation. So far, about 290 various proposals have been received through the Online Gwanakcheong (聽) policy participation corner, and efforts are being made to reflect many opinions in district administration.
As a result of activating non-face-to-face communication, the use of ‘Wishes to the Mayor’ has also increased significantly. This year, 874 civil complaints were processed through ‘Wishes to the Mayor’, a 26% increase from 690 cases last year. By sector, urban transportation accounted for 340 cases, followed by architecture and housing with 140 cases, mainly in areas closely related to residents’ daily lives.
Considering the many daily life-related complaints, the response period has been shortened to 5 days instead of the legal 7-day processing period to provide prompt answers.
In addition, starting with Haengun-dong in November, the ‘Mobile Gwanakcheong (聽)’ was held to listen to residents’ opinions directly on-site and reflect them in policies, marking the full-scale start of resident communication. Visiting two neighborhoods daily across all 21 neighborhoods, 206 resident suggestions were directly heard and promptly responded to after departmental review.
Suggestions directly related to resident safety, such as installing blocking fences to prevent motorcycle entry threatening pedestrian safety on Cheongnim Eoullim-gil, construction site safety management, disinfection and lighting improvements at Byeolbitnaerincheon, were immediately addressed. Promises were made to actively pursue matters requiring coordination with Seoul City, the police agency, and other institutions, such as establishing a park golf course, installing crosswalks, and adding bus stops and routes.
Mayor Park Junhee of Gwanak-gu said, “Since communication and cooperation are the core values of district administration, we will meet residents through various methods embracing both online and on-site channels and listen carefully to even the smallest voices. We will continue to do our best to create a more inclusive and leading Gwanak-gu by meeting more residents directly and working together.”
Gwangjin-gu Holds ‘Online Policy Room Excellent Proposal Award Ceremony and Meeting’
Gwangjin-gu (Mayor Kim Kyungho) held the ‘2022 Second Half Online Policy Room Excellent Proposal Award Ceremony and Meeting’ on the 27th at the Gwangjin-gu mayor’s office.
The ‘Online Policy Room’ is a communication channel on Gwangjin-gu’s website to gather residents’ good ideas and reflect them in policies. Residents can propose various improvements to systems, administrative operations, or ideas for district development to enhance daily convenience through the Online Policy Room.
The excellent proposals for the second half of the year were selected from 33 proposals received between July 1 and November 30. After the first practical review and the second final review, a total of six proposals were selected as excellent, with awards given as follows: Silver Prize (1 person, 500,000 KRW), Bronze Prize (1 person, 300,000 KRW), Encouragement Prize (2 persons, 200,000 KRW), and Effort Prize (2 persons, 100,000 KRW).
After the awards, Mayor Kim Kyungho had a time to listen to the ideas of the excellent proposers and exchange opinions.
Mayor Kim Kyungho said, “We have allocated a total communication budget of 8.6 billion KRW to reflect the parts that residents directly feel in district administration. We will work hard to accomplish the tasks given.”
Selected Proposals Include ‘Listening (Kyungho Listens)’, ‘Improvement of Disaster Safety Texts Related to Wind and Flood Damage’
Choi Hyungmin, who won the Silver Prize, proposed ‘Listening (Kyungho Listens) - Gwangjin-gu Regular Event Proposal’, an idea to hold regular events so that everyday inconveniences can be easily connected to policy proposals. The district decided to actively accept feasible ideas through a ‘Policy Proposal Festival’ where feedback and Q&A with the person in charge are provided.
Kim Soyeon, who proposed ‘Improvement of Disaster Safety Texts Related to Wind and Flood Damage’, won the Bronze Prize. This idea suggested the need for guidance on road closures, inaccessible areas, and severely expected wind and flood damage areas specific to Gwangjin-gu’s heavy rain situations, rather than broadly applied instructions. It received high marks for providing practical help to residents and being immediately applicable.
Other awards included Encouragement Prizes for ‘Proposals for Balanced Urban Development Among Neighborhoods’ and ‘Improvement of Crosswalk Signal System at Exit 4 of Children’s Grand Park Station’, and Effort Prizes for ‘Parking Policy Proposals to Create a Child-Friendly Environment’ and ‘Proposals Related to Elderly Protection Zone Operation’, recognized as excellent policy proposals to improve residents’ inconvenience and quality of life.
Since the 8th local government term, the district has been striving to reflect residents’ ideas in district administration through ‘policy proposals’ by revising the proposal system ordinance to expand resident awards and holding special policy proposal contests to discover new projects.
Selection and awarding of excellent proposals in the Online Policy Room will continue in 2023 as well.
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