Changwon City Council Member Gu Jeomdeuk Calls Changwon Cultural Foundation Union's 'Staff Disparagement' Claim a 'Self-serving Interpretation'

Ku Jeomdeuk, a member of the Changwon City Council (representing Palyong and Uichang-dong) from the People Power Party, refuted a statement issued by the Changwon Cultural Foundation labor union during her personal remarks at the 4th plenary session of the 137th extraordinary meeting on the 11th, saying, "I am disappointed by their self-serving interpretation."

Previously, on the 9th, Councilor Ku raised issues regarding the operation of the Changwon Cultural Foundation and Changwon Sports Park during a municipal administration inquiry, stating, "The foundation and the public corporation were established for professionalism and efficiency, but citizens do not feel the effects. Meanwhile, the size of these public enterprises has become like dinosaurs, and their appetite for taxes is like a hippo eating up public funds."

Gudumdeuk Gu, Changwon City Councilor, Gyeongnam.
Photo by Changwon Special City Council

Regarding the Changwon Cultural Foundation, she pointed out that over the past five years, personnel expenses have exceeded 40% of the total budget, which is higher than the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's guideline. She also noted that despite not achieving significantly more innovative results or having a higher workload than civil servants, the salaries are much higher. She argued that the increase in personnel expenses should be curbed and their proportion reduced.

She also criticized the promotion of employees by combining insufficient minimum years of service with civil servant and previous career experience, and pointed out that despite closures, performance cancellations, and audience-free events due to the large-scale spread of COVID-19, each employee received more than 8.7 million won in overtime pay over two years.

The next day, the union released a statement saying, "Councilor Ku portrayed the Changwon Cultural Foundation as an incompetent group and slandered its employees as thieves who illicitly took their salaries."

The union argued, "Metropolitan and basic cultural foundations have different budget scales, so comparing the proportion of personnel expenses to the total budget is not possible," and added, "Even compared to other local governments of similar size, the overall budget of the Changwon Cultural Foundation is lower."

They further explained, "According to the 2022-2026 Changwon Cultural Foundation mid- to long-term development plan, a comparative analysis with special cities such as Suwon, Yongin, and Goyang shows that while Changwon City's cultural and tourism budget is higher than other local governments, the proportion allocated to the Changwon Cultural Foundation is significantly lower. As of 2020, Changwon City's cultural and tourism budget was 243.016 billion won, with the foundation's budget at 17.692 billion won, making the foundation's share 7.28%. In contrast, Suwon's share is 15.59%, Yongin's is 24.68%, and Goyang's is 26.61%."

The union stated, "Councilor Ku distorted the foundation as a noble group composed of high-income earners," and demanded, "Such misguided judgments and remarks have angered and hurt the foundation's workers. We demand an apology and a responsible attitude as a public official."

Table of Labor Cost Ratio Compared to Total Budget of Cultural Foundation. [Data Provided by Changwon Special City Council]

In her personal remarks, Councilor Ku said, "The administrative inquiry that day was about the operation of the cultural foundation and the leisure sports park," and explained, "The expression 'tax-eating hippo' was a symbolic way to refer to the fact that the deficits of the leisure sports park, amounting to billions of won every year, are covered by taxes."

She added, "The leisure sports park has tried to implement a wage peak system for senior employees instead of hiring new staff and has appointed a new, highly-paid director, but there have been no results. That is why I argued that we should rather promote capable and motivated internal staff."

She continued, "Regarding the cultural foundation, my point was that we should minimize the rise in personnel expenses and expand project areas to increase citizen satisfaction as beneficiaries."

She explained, "I confirmed with data that some people were passed over for promotion despite having sufficient experience, while others were promoted despite lacking experience. My question was to check whether the continuous increase in personnel expenses was due to the proliferation of high-ranking positions."

She further pointed out, "If the cultural foundation were operating normally, overtime work would occur due to night and holiday performances, and extended work would be needed for preparation. However, this would not have been the case during the severe COVID-19 period."

She emphasized, "It is only natural for the council, which has oversight and monitoring functions, to question why overtime work was carried out at normal levels when even gatherings of two or three people were discouraged. If the suspicion was unfounded, the foundation should have responded actively with written materials or explanations during the inquiry."

She also criticized, "Since the absolute size of each institution's organizational budget is different, to efficiently assess organizational budget management, the proportion of personnel expenses to the total budget should be used as a relative standard. The fact that the Changwon Cultural Foundation has a significantly higher proportion of personnel expenses compared to metropolitan cultural foundations, despite its smaller operating budget, is evidence of organizational inefficiency."

She presented personnel expense data from the cultural foundations of Goyang, Yongin, and Suwon during the COVID-19 outbreak and pointed out, "In 2020, when COVID-19 occurred, these three foundations made efforts to drastically cut their overall budgets and reduce personnel expenses, but Changwon's actually increased."

Regarding the union's claim, based on the 2020-2026 Changwon Cultural Foundation mid- to long-term development plan, that the proportion of the foundation's cultural and tourism budget is low, she said, "This deviates from the main point of the administrative inquiry, which was about the actual use of the foundation's internal budget."

She drew a line regarding the claim that she distorted the entire foundation as a noble group of high-income earners, saying, "I pointed out that some foundation employees receive high salaries relative to their performance, not that the entire staff's salaries are problematic."

Councilor Ku stated, "Before discussing the amount of budget support from the city, we must consider the efficient execution of the budget," and added, "I will continue to communicate and do my best to fulfill my duties for citizens' cultural enjoyment rights, hoping that public enterprises will strive and innovate to better meet citizens' expectations and be more beloved."