Seo Dae-seok, Mayor of Gwangju Seo-gu, Directly Addresses Controversy Over Health Center Director Appointment

Seeking Employee Understanding Through Internal Broadcast

Unusual Explanation by Head Before Personnel Changes

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Seo Daeseok, Mayor of Seo-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, provided a detailed explanation to the staff regarding the controversial appointment of the Seo-gu Public Health Center director and asked for their understanding of the unavoidable situation.

It is an unusual situation for the head of an institution to seek understanding from employees before announcing personnel changes.

On the 21st at around 5 p.m., Mayor Seo stated through an internal broadcast, “I ask for the staff’s understanding regarding the appointment of the Seo-gu Public Health Center director,” adding, “This is a choice made due to unavoidable circumstances caused by COVID-19.”

He said, “I express my gratitude and endless thanks to the public health center staff who are fighting the war against COVID-19 directly despite the vacancy of the director position,” and “We have been making continuous efforts to appoint a director.”

He continued, “We conducted five recruitment rounds, but there were no applicants, and we could not leave the key leadership position at the frontline of the seemingly endless COVID-19 crisis vacant for long,” adding, “Therefore, I reluctantly plan to ask one qualified person within our office to overcome this crisis.”

He then said, “This is truly a desperate measure. Even now, if there is a better alternative, I would prefer to follow a secondary option instead of the person causing concern among the staff,” asking for the understanding of public officials.

Mayor Seo Daeseok also addressed concerns about preventing recurrence of power abuse and secondary damage.

Mayor Seo said, “There is a request to separate the victim and the perpetrator, which is absolutely right,” emphasizing, “Those who wish to transfer departments can express their opinions during this personnel change, and we will do our best to accommodate their wishes.”

He added, “Regarding concerns that these individuals might suffer disadvantages in performance evaluations, senior officials and the personnel team will take responsibility to ensure no unfair harm occurs,” and “We will obtain a pledge from the public health center director candidate to prevent recurrence of incidents from two years ago and a commitment to accept any responsibility should such incidents recur.”

Furthermore, he said, “I understand that the person involved has also been making continuous efforts to reflect on and correct their faults over the past two years,” and promised, “Going forward, I will personally oversee matters related to power abuse, sexual harassment, and sexual violence on a regular basis.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.