All 25 District Public Relations Chiefs Likely to Be Filled by General Civil Servants
Following Gangnam-gu during the 7th and 8th local government terms, Seocho-gu also appointed an external figure as the head of the Public Relations Division through an open recruitment process.
However, as the Seocho-gu Public Relations Officer resigned after more than two years into the 8th local government term, the era of 'zero' open recruitment for heads of public relations divisions across all 25 autonomous districts of Seoul has arrived.
This year marks the 29th anniversary of the implementation of local autonomy, and the importance of public relations in autonomous administration is gradually increasing.
In line with this trend, some autonomous districts such as Gangnam and Seocho-gu have recruited external personnel as heads of their public relations divisions.
However, due to the closed nature of the Seoul autonomous district public service community, it seems difficult for outsiders to establish themselves in these positions.
Most autonomous district officials enter public service at grade 9 and work for about 30 years within one district, making it difficult for outsiders to secure their positions.
During the 7th local government term, the Gangnam-gu Policy Public Relations Director joined the district mayoral election campaign, served as chief secretary, and later took on the role of public relations director in the latter half of the term. After being evaluated as having communication issues with staff, he resigned. Since then, Gangnam-gu has appointed regular civil servants as public relations directors, a practice that continues to this day.
Seocho-gu also recruited Mr. Y during the previous district mayor’s term to serve as the Public Relations Officer, but after about four years, he left last month to move to a private company.
As a result, Seocho-gu went through an open recruitment process once but received no applicants. Subsequently, Chief of the Multi-family Housing Division, Choi Yeryeon, was appointed.
When an outsider works as the head of public relations in an autonomous district, it is difficult to form personal relationships with internal division heads, and their understanding of district affairs may be lacking, making adaptation challenging.
Moreover, regular civil servants have the goal of promotion to grade 4 (director level), but open recruitment positions lack such incentives, leading many to leave after a short period.
For this reason, district mayors often recruit public relations experts such as former journalists but fail to see significant results, and frequently appoint regular civil servants who have previously served as media team leaders.
A district division head said, “It is absolutely not easy for an outsider to come, adapt, and work for a long time in an autonomous district.”
This is interpreted as reflecting the overall exclusionary attitude toward outsiders in the public service community.
In contrast, following Seodaemun-gu, Dongdaemun-gu has an open recruitment media team leader. Compared to division heads, media team leaders can work for relatively longer periods.
Since civil servants who entered at grade 9 and have worked for over 25 years fiercely compete for grade 5 (division head) positions, giving one of these positions to an outsider can be a burden for district mayors.
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