Yongsan-gu Selects Outstanding Public Officials for Proactive Administration in First Half of 2024
Five Selected Including Excellence in ‘Private Drainage Facility Maintenance within Road Zones’
Separate Selection of Teams with Excellent Interdepartmental Collaboration Emphasizes Breaking Down Administrative Silos
Yongsan-gu, Seoul (District Mayor Park Hee-young) has selected five exemplary public officials who achieved tangible results through proactive work efforts in the first half of this year.
The honorees are ▲(Grand Prize) Yoon Bo-mi, Officer of the Welfare Policy Division ▲(Excellence) Kim Young-wook, Officer of the Flood Control Division ▲(Encouragement) Choi Hye-jin, Officer of the Urban Planning Division ▲(Outstanding Team) Kang Min-hyeop, Officer of the Road Division (main contributor) and Song Kyung-sun, Planning Team Leader of the Planning and Budget Office (co-contributor).
The outstanding proactive public officials were selected through a public verification of 18 cases recommended by residents and departments. Eight excellent cases were initially chosen through a preliminary review by the proactive administration-related departments. The final five were selected after deliberation by the Proactive Administration Committee, composed of external experts such as patent attorneys and professors, as well as internal members including the deputy district mayor.
Grand Prize: ‘Revitalization of Veterans Affairs Projects and Active Response to Imposition of Compensation Fees on City-Owned Properties’
Yoon Bo-mi of the Welfare Policy Division was honored with the grand prize for her efforts to activate the Veterans Hall, completed in 2022, and to enhance welfare for national veterans.
Officer Yoon increased the number of cultural and sports programs at the Veterans Hall from two to seven to attract more visitors. She implemented various projects to honor national veterans who sacrificed and dedicated themselves to the country, including raising the payment amount of veterans’ honor allowances, launching new funeral service projects, and establishing welfare allowances for spouses of war veterans.
She was also highly praised for successfully reducing compensation fees on city-owned properties by 55 million KRW. She actively argued that buildings owned by the district occupying city-owned land were inherited according to the 1988 revision of the Local Autonomy Act and Seoul’s own plans, contributing to budget savings.
Excellence: ‘Maintenance and Management of Private Drainage Facilities within Road Areas’
Private sewage systems located within road areas but outside private property boundaries must be maintained by individual building owners. In reality, when private sewage systems malfunction or are damaged, immediate repairs are often not carried out, raising concerns about safety accidents such as road subsidence and sinkholes.
In response, Kim Young-wook of the Flood Control Division thoroughly reviewed relevant regulations including the Sewerage Act and actively interpreted the discretionary clause allowing the management authority to maintain the facilities. The district initiated a project to directly carry out repair works, promptly resolving residents’ inconveniences and proactively preventing safety accidents.
This project, where the district directly undertakes complex and costly repairs, has received high satisfaction from residents.
Encouragement: ‘Resolution of Collective Complaints over Closure of Onnuri Church Access Road’
Onnuri Church had been leasing land owned by Shindonga Construction for years. The construction company installed fences and barriers on the land and used it as a private parking lot, leading to collective complaints from the church. The conflict arose after a rent dispute during the 2022 lease renewal process caused the contract to fall through. The church raised concerns about inconvenience to congregants’ passage and difficulties for emergency vehicles such as ambulances and fire trucks, demanding a solution.
Choi Hye-jin of the Urban Planning Division empathized with both the church’s inconvenience and the construction company’s right to protect private property. She led multiple negotiations involving the district, the church, the construction company, and the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission. By the end of April this year, they agreed to designate a 6-meter-wide shared pedestrian and vehicle passageway?2 meters for the church side and 4 meters for the construction company?resolving the conflict after four years.
This arrangement secured mobility convenience for vulnerable groups including disabled congregants. The district expects the shared passageway to serve as a connecting route between Yongsan Park and the Han River, contributing to regional development.
Outstanding Team: ‘Expansion of Road under Wonhyo Bridge and Creation of Pedestrian Path’
A case of interdepartmental collaboration was selected as an outstanding team. During the Wonhyo Bridge improvement project by the Korea National Railway Corporation (hereafter “the Corporation”), residents raised collective complaints requesting expansion of the road underneath and the creation of a pedestrian path.
Wonhyo Bridge, adjacent to Namyeong Station, was installed in 1936 and connects Seoul Station and Yongsan Station. The area around Hangang-daero 77-gil under the bridge is a traffic bottleneck prone to congestion.
The Corporation demanded the district bear 100% of the construction costs based on the Railroad Crossing Improvement Act. However, through coordination meetings led by the Planning and Budget Office and involving the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, a cost-sharing agreement was reached with Yongsan-gu covering 55% and the Corporation 45%. Upon the Road Division’s review request, a revised construction method was completed, resulting in a cost saving of 7.6 billion KRW and a construction period reduction of five months.
Proactive public officials receive the highest grade of performance bonuses, along with rewards such as paid leave, priority selection for overseas training, and preferential assignment to recreational facilities. The prize money was paid this month, and on the 1st of next month, the district mayor’s certificate and plaque will be awarded.
Park Hee-young, Mayor of Yongsan-gu, stated, “We will strengthen support for employees to carry out proactive administration that residents can feel and empathize with. We will also strive to discover cases of interdepartmental collaboration to contribute to creating an administration without barriers.”
Meanwhile, since 2020, the district has been selecting outstanding proactive administration cases and exemplary public officials once each in the first and second halves of the year to foster a culture of proactive administration within the organization and to give preferential treatment to proactive officials. Last year, it won the Prime Minister’s Award (Grand Prize) at the ‘Proactive Administration Best Practices Competition’ hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.
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