Conventional Visits and Pre-Arranged "Meetings"
In Contrast to Other Local Leaders Reaching Out to the Vulnerable
Calls for "Policy-Centered, Substantive Communication"
On the 5th, Jeong Gi Myung, mayor of Yeosu, visited Yeulmaru and held a meeting with figures from the cultural and artistic community to discuss ways to enhance Yeosu's cultural brand. Provided by Yeosu City
Jeong Gi Myung, mayor of Yeosu in South Jeolla Province, has resumed his previously suspended "on-site communication" activities. On June 5, as part of the "The Mayor Goes! Yeosu Tongtong" program, he visited Yeulmaru and held a meeting with figures from the cultural and artistic community to discuss ways to enhance Yeosu's cultural brand.
According to the city, this program has been implemented since August 2022, with a total of 32 sessions held, engaging with over 2,200 people and receiving 47 civil complaints. However, simply listing these numbers raises questions about whether Mayor Jeong's "communication-oriented administration" is actually producing tangible results.
The title "The Mayor Goes! Yeosu Tongtong" appears to be an attempt to approach citizens in a friendly manner. However, the Yeulmaru visit mainly consisted of a meeting with cultural figures, making it ambiguous to call this a "visit to the frontlines of citizens' lives" in a strict sense. While cultural policy is important, it is questionable whether this site is directly connected to pressing issues faced by parcel delivery workers, people with disabilities, or traditional market merchants.
Elsewhere in the country, other local government leaders are taking a more direct and in-depth approach to engaging with citizens' everyday lives. Kang Gi Jung, mayor of Gwangju, personally visited jjokbangchon (shantytowns) and gosiwon (small, inexpensive housing units) to inspect the living conditions of vulnerable residents. Shin Sang Jin, mayor of Seongnam in Gyeonggi Province, launched a system to immediately reflect improvements in youth policy through meetings with young job seekers.
In contrast, there are internal criticisms that Yeosu's "touchpoints with citizens' lives" mainly consist of conventional visits or "safe meetings" pre-arranged by administrative departments.
Mayor Jeong stated that a total of 47 civil complaints have been received so far, of which 27 have been resolved. However, the specific details of these resolutions have not been disclosed. There is no objective indicator to verify whether the administrative term "case closed" actually led to policy improvements or alleviated citizens' inconveniences.
The bigger issue is that, among the remaining 20 cases, 9 were effectively rejected due to "legal infeasibility" or "violation of guidelines." If these cases had been properly reviewed in advance, citizens' expectations might not have been unnecessarily raised, and the distrust that "the mayor visited the site, but the problem was not solved" could have been avoided.
Mayor Jeong has stated, "I will continue communication-oriented administration for the remainder of my term." However, "term" and "policy" are different. Communication that exists only within a term inevitably ends up as a one-off event. For true communication-oriented administration, it is necessary to institutionalize communication with citizens within the administrative structure or to establish a system designed so that "anyone, not just the mayor," can continue these efforts.
While a mayor may leave office at any time, the lives of citizens go on. This is why there are calls for communication centered on policy, which structures problems at the site and leads them to administrative continuity, rather than showy on-site visits.
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