Confusing Routes for Civil Petitioners, Administrative Inefficiency from Dispersed Departments
Goyang City Council Cuts Entire Budget, Relocation Plan Scrapped
Baekseok Annex, Equipped with Transport, Parking, and Space, Remains Unused
City Continues to Spend 940 Million Won Annually on Office Lease
The plan to relocate departments to the Baekseok Annex, which Goyang Special City in Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Lee Donghwan) had promoted to improve administrative efficiency and reduce inconvenience for citizens, was completely scrapped following a budget cut by the city council in March. As a result, inconveniences for civil petitioners continue to persist.
Goyang is a large city with a population of 1.08 million and is one of the five special cities in Korea with populations exceeding one million. However, the main city hall building, constructed in 1983, is outdated, with limited space and deteriorated facilities. Currently, city hall departments are scattered across 14 buildings, including the main building, annex, Annexes 1, 2, and 3, Baekseok Annex, and eight leased offices. This forces citizens to move between multiple buildings to find the relevant department, causing significant inconvenience. Additionally, there are ongoing issues with insufficient parking space.
In particular, the Social Welfare Bureau, which executes an annual budget of 550 to 600 billion won and handles civil petitions from vulnerable groups such as people with disabilities, the elderly, and children, is divided into nine spaces across five departments, including the director's office. This makes it difficult for citizens to locate the correct department. Furthermore, departments responsible for realizing a self-sufficient city are also dispersed, with four divisions located in different spaces, raising concerns about delays in urgent collaboration. As a result, security guards responsible for city hall security are also burdened with guiding people between buildings, adding to their workload.
To address these issues, Goyang City planned to consolidate a total of 30 departments?including seven bureaus and three offices, such as the Social Welfare Bureau?into the Baekseok Annex (1020 Jungang-ro, Ilsandong-gu). The city intended to invest a total of 6.5 billion won to reduce the physical distance between related departments, improve administrative efficiency, and alleviate inconvenience for citizens. However, during the first supplementary budget review in March, the city council cut the entire 6.5 billion won budget for the project.
The Baekseok Annex has a total floor area of 66,189 square meters, offers 541 parking spaces, and is conveniently located near Baekseok Station on Subway Line 3, providing excellent accessibility for citizens. In addition, it features a central heating and cooling system and high-efficiency LED lighting, which was expected to reduce maintenance costs compared to existing leased offices.
However, due to the budget cut by the city council, it is expected that the Baekseok Annex will remain unused for an extended period. The city also stated that it will likely have to extend the lease contracts for the offices expiring in December, which will inevitably require an additional expenditure of several hundred million won.
Currently, the city spends 940 million won annually on rent for leased offices. The city had also anticipated saving approximately 400 million won in office management costs, such as maintenance and utility expenses (based on 2024 expenditures), through the relocation, but this has not materialized.
A Goyang City official stated, "It is very unfortunate that the project has been disrupted due to the lack of budget allocation, but we are reviewing various administrative alternatives to minimize inconvenience for citizens," adding, "Since the special committee also pointed out the prolonged underutilization of the Baekseok office building as a major issue, we will work closely with the city council to seek efficient, citizen-centered solutions for city hall operations."
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