Seoul Metropolitan Council Establishes Personnel Officer Position... Promotion of Level 2 and 3 Positions Planned

Proposal for Organizational Restructuring Submitted to Seoul City Along with Recommendation to Establish Director-Level (Grade 2 and 3) Positions

The first case of establishing an integrated personnel management system including personnel management, training, and public service ethics

Specializing legislative functions by field and strengthening citizen participation such as resident ordinances and system improvements

Focusing on enhancing organizational and personnel efficiency through interdepartmental function coordination and reorganization

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] The Seoul Metropolitan Council (Chairman Kim Hyun-ki, Gangnam 3 People Power Party) carried out a reorganization of the council secretariat on January 16, including the establishment of a new ‘Personnel Officer’ at the ‘division level,’ the first among local councils.

This is a measure to successfully settle the independence of personnel authority in local councils and to keep pace with the current government’s realization of the local era.

First, a ‘Personnel Officer’ will be newly established to build an integrated personnel management system for the council secretariat staff. In addition to the existing ‘Personnel Team,’ two new teams will be created: the ‘Human Resource Development Team,’ responsible for employee training and welfare, and the ‘Public Service Ethics Establishment Team,’ aimed at establishing public service discipline and enhancing council integrity, forming a total of three teams.

Following the independence of local council personnel authority (January 13, 2022), many local council secretariats have installed and operated personnel teams, but establishing a personnel department as a formal position at the grade 4 level is the first case among the 17 metropolitan and provincial councils nationwide. As of January 2023, the Seoul Metropolitan Council Secretariat has a staff of 429.

Additionally, the ‘Legislative Officer’ will be completely reorganized into a ‘Legislative Affairs Officer,’ benchmarking the National Assembly Secretariat’s Legislative Office model. The existing ‘Legislative Support Teams 1 and 2’ will be reorganized into the ‘Administrative Legislative Team’ and the ‘Technical Legislative Team’ respectively to strengthen expertise by field, and a new ‘Resident Participation Legislative Team’ will be established to enhance citizen participation functions such as resident ordinance proposals and identifying improvement points.

Furthermore, the ‘Citizen Rights Officer’ position will be abolished, and the civil complaint management function will be transferred to the Policy Support Officer, improving organizational and personnel efficiency through interdepartmental function adjustments and consolidations. This strengthens core functions such as personnel and legislative affairs without increasing the organization or staff count, in line with the new government’s personnel operation plan.

The Seoul Metropolitan Council submitted this reorganization plan to Seoul City in December last year, also proposing the establishment of director-level (local government grade 2 and 3) positions. This aims to decentralize the command system overly concentrated on a single secretariat chief and to resolve rank gaps to establish a continuous career development path, which is one of the long-standing tasks of local councils.

Currently, the Seoul Metropolitan Council Secretariat lacks director-level positions (grades 2 and 3), so one secretariat chief (grade 1) solely commands 19 section chiefs (grade 4). This is about four times the command range compared to the Seoul Metropolitan Government executive agency (headquarters) and about six times that of central government ministries. Because the career development path, including promotion opportunities to grade 3 or higher, is cut off, there are concerns about low morale among lower-level employees and the loss of talented personnel.

Chairman Kim Hyun-ki said, “With this reorganization, the Seoul Metropolitan Council has established an integrated personnel management system covering personnel management, training and welfare, and public service ethics,” adding, “This is the first case among the 17 metropolitan and provincial councils nationwide, and the Seoul Metropolitan Council will continue to take the lead in successfully settling the independence of personnel authority in local councils.”