Hanam-si Enhances Public Officials' Competence and Implements Responsible Administration... Providing High-Quality Service

Learning Chung Ju-yung's Spirit of Challenge and Benchmarking Advanced French Cultural Tourism Administration
"Clean Talk Show" and Healing Workshop to Improve Organizational Culture: Less Stress, More Proactive Administration
Implementing the Policy Real-Name System and Civil Complaint Task Force to Strengthen Responsible Administration

Hanam City, Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Lee Hyun-jae) is striving to enhance civil servant capabilities, improve organizational culture, and implement responsible administration to provide high-quality administrative services that surpass those of Seoul Gangnam.

Hanam city officials are taking a commemorative photo after visiting HD Hyundai Heavy Industries located in Ulsan Metropolitan City from June 14 to 18, 2024, to learn about the 'Frontier Leadership' of the late Chung Ju-yung, Honorary Chairman of Hyundai Group. Provided by Hanam City

According to Hanam City on the 31st, last year the city visited HD Hyundai Heavy Industries located in Ulsan Metropolitan City to learn the 'Frontier Leadership' of the late Chung Ju-yung, Honorary Chairman of Hyundai Group, and benchmarked excellent administrative services from advanced countries such as France, making efforts to improve administrative services.

In addition, to encourage proactive administration, the city provides appropriate rewards and implements various care programs for public officials to reduce job stress, showcasing high-quality administrative services.

Mayor Lee Hyun-jae of Hanam City supported the city's public officials, who are promoting large-scale development projects such as Camp Colbern, K-Star World, and Gyosan self-sufficient land, to learn the creative pioneering spirit of the late Chairman Chung Ju-yung, who built the world's top shipbuilding nation. In June last year, 210 public officials at grade 6 or higher participated in a visit to HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan.

The Hanam City delegation visited the Asan Memorial Exhibition Hall and the VIP Hanok, which cover about 1,900㎡ (approximately 580 pyeong), where they were shown the Turtle Ship depicted on the 500-won bill to explain the history and excellence of Korean shipbuilding technology. They also listened to anecdotes such as Chairman Chung's success in borrowing a $100 million loan from a British bank, learning about his life and philosophy of indomitable willpower that produced various achievements with the motto "If you try, you can do it."

Furthermore, Hanam City actively operates overseas benchmarking to learn from the world's leading advanced urban policies and apply them to city administration, creating distinctive projects such as the 'Walking School Bus' and 'Hanam-style School Zone.'

Notably, the benchmarking delegation led by Park Seung-seok, then team leader of the Brand Marketing Team and now team leader of the K-Star World Team, selected southern France, a representative global cultural tourism city, as the benchmarking destination. They discovered various implications for establishing a brand identity (BI) that could help Hanam City emerge as a 'K-Culture Hub City.'

Specifically, they experienced programs using VR (virtual reality) devices inside the historic buildings of Avignon, famous for the 'Avignon Festival' and home to the Papal Palace, gaining ideas for planning historical tourism content that combines advanced technology to bring vividness to the experience.

Additionally, in Cannes, the host city of the Cannes Film Festival, one of the world's top three film festivals, they derived insights on organizing festival spaces by zones so that the entire city, not just theaters, becomes a festival space, and on producing and distributing free magazines containing festival and tourism information to enhance convenience for tourists.

Mayor Lee Hyun-jae judged that to improve the quality of administrative services, it is essential to first create an 'organizational culture that enjoys working,' focusing on expanding communication and creating an environment where the organizational culture can be actively improved.

Hanam city officials are experiencing programs that allow them to explore life in the Middle Ages using VR (virtual reality) devices inside the historic buildings of Avignon, where the Holy See, famous for the "Avignon Papacy," is located. Provided by Hanam City

In August 2024, to foster a clean organizational culture, Hanam City conducted integrity education in the form of a 'Clean Talk Show,' where free conversations were held in a pleasant atmosphere. During the talk show, Mayor Lee communicated with employees about 'ways to overcome generational gaps within the organization' and 'methods to handle malicious civil complaints,' announcing a policy to reform unreasonable organizational culture and respond promptly to prevent employees from suffering from malicious complaints.

Alongside this, a healing workshop was held on Nami Island from October 30 to November 1, 2024, to provide mental healing and recharging opportunities for civil complaint staff exhausted from handling various complaints.

Moreover, viewing that proper rewards should be given to encourage proactive administration, the city led the revision of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's guidelines on the release of greenbelt (GB) areas, laying the groundwork for the promotion of the K-Star World development project. A total of 59 officials, including those from the Urban Strategy Division, received the '2024 First Half Performance Award.'

Hanam City has also devoted full efforts to strengthening responsible administration by adopting 'empathetic administration,' which involves creating policies together with citizens, and 'trust administration,' which transparently informs citizens about policies, as core values.

First, in the 8th elected administration, to enhance policy transparency and accountability, the city revitalized the policy real-name system by selecting new key projects subject to the system in 2022 and publishing them on the website, recording and managing the real names of participants and the progress of projects.

In the first half of 2024, a total of 10 new projects were selected, including five projects worth over 1 billion KRW such as the (tentative name) Wirye District Child Welfare Facility Construction Project, and five major service contracts worth over 50 million KRW including the (tentative name) Hanam City Children's Hall Construction Project design service. In the second half, five additional new projects were selected, including the (tentative name) Misa 5th Middle School establishment public facility installation project (over 1 billion KRW) to alleviate overcrowded classes in Misa Riverside City, and four major service contracts worth over 50 million KRW such as the Hanam Iseongsanseong Cultural Festival event agency service.

Additionally, to resolve 'ping-pong complaints,' which were passed back and forth between departments due to unclear work boundaries or unclear responsible departments, the city received favorable reviews for operating a complaint handling task force composed mainly of 26 team leaders from all departments, including the Integrity Investigation Team Leader, Autonomous Administration Team Leader, and team leaders from welfare, culture and health, job economy, urban housing, transportation construction, and safety environment sectors.

The task force determines the responsible department through interdepartmental coordination and consultation and supports complaint handling. In 2024, it effectively handled complaints such as the 'Review of building entrance and exit connections at the Jojong Stadium intersection,' thereby strengthening responsible administration.