Suncheon City, Notable for Enacting Direct Democracy Ordinances with Citizens

Two Ordinances Including the Activation of Civic Participation Proposed and Created Directly by Citizens Passed the Council

[Suncheon=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] Suncheon City, Jeollanam-do (Mayor Heo Seok) announced on the 7th that the ordinance enacted to enhance citizen sovereignty and expand citizen participation in city administration, aiming to become a leading city of direct democracy during the 7th local government term, is attracting attention.

At the 2nd plenary session of the 255th Suncheon City Council extraordinary meeting, two ordinances to lead a direct democracy city were passed.

The ordinances passed at this council are the "Ordinance to Activate Citizen Participation for Democratic City Administration" and the "Ordinance to Activate the Open Use of Public Facility Shared Spaces."

First, the "Suncheon City Ordinance to Activate Citizen Participation for Democratic City Administration" established the basis for guaranteeing citizens' participation in various committees, publicizing meetings, requesting policy proposals and policy discussions, building and operating a "Direct Democracy Digital Platform" as an online window for citizen participation in city administration, education for democratic citizens, and providing mileage and incentives to citizens participating in city administration.

To enact the ordinance, the city publicly recruited a citizen participation group of 36 members from various social strata in March and conducted preliminary education.

Over the following four months, through nine workshops, citizens themselves collected and analyzed data, engaged in discussions and deliberations to refine ideas and add alternatives, and created the ordinance through a direct democracy process.

The "Suncheon City Ordinance to Activate the Opening of Public Facility Shared Spaces," aimed at returning the increasing public facilities and spaces to the citizens, was also passed together.

This ordinance establishes definitions of shared spaces for activation of open use, the mayor’s obligation to open shared spaces, scope of opening, user qualifications, approval procedures, and other regulations to create a comprehensive usage environment, as well as the basis for building and operating an online shared space reservation platform.

Considering that many public facilities have been installed and operated by the administration with somewhat passive attitudes toward user convenience and openness, the city conducted citizen demand surveys on shared spaces and promoted a pilot project of spatial democracy where citizens directly design public facility spaces, operate programs, and participate in facility management to increase user satisfaction. Through this ordinance, the city plans to fully introduce spatial democracy into public facilities.

A city official said, "Just as I am the master of my life, the citizens are the masters of Suncheon city administration," adding, "From now on, we will do our best to become a leading city of direct democracy by promoting policies that allow all citizens to propose their ideas about city administration anytime and anywhere, and freely use public facilities."

Meanwhile, in January, the city established the "Citizen Sovereignty Officer" as a department directly under the mayor for the first time nationwide, and in May, enacted the "Ordinance on the Establishment and Operation of the Suncheon City Citizen Sovereignty Committee" to activate citizen sovereignty and operate city administration through direct democracy.

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