Heo Seok, Mayor of Suncheon, Receives 'Best Award' at Governance Local Politics Awards

‘Suncheon-style Plaza Debate’ Achieves Third Award at National Policy Conference

[Suncheon=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] On the 17th, Heo Seok, mayor of Suncheon, announced that he won the Grand Prize for Local Government Heads in the 2022 Governance Local Politics Awards Contest through the ‘Suncheon-style Plaza Debate’ held the previous day.

With this, Suncheon City has achieved the remarkable feat of winning three awards, including ▲ Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s Excellent Institution for Public Participation, ▲ the President’s Award at the Good Local Autonomy Policy Contest hosted by the Korea Association of Mayors, Governors, and District Heads, and this ▲ Grand Prize at the Governance Local Politics Awards, all through the operation of Suncheon-style direct democracy city administration.

The Suncheon-style Plaza Debate is a core administrative operation method of the 7th elected term of Suncheon City, where officials visit sites of various issues to directly listen to citizens’ voices and gather wisdom together with citizens to find solutions.

Mayor Heo Seok has conducted a total of 119 debates, large and small, including plaza debates centered on the field and citizens, heartfelt talks, starry night talks, and on-site answer debates, anywhere there were issues?whether plazas, villages, alleys, markets, or tents?over the past four years.

In particular, this evaluation highly praised the fact that solutions were found through plaza debates and public deliberation committees that gathered wisdom with citizens regarding major and long-standing city issues such as the selection of the new city hall construction site, the waste disposal facility, and follow-up measures after the suspension of the Suncheon Bay Sky Cube operation.

Also, as the first in the nation, the city implemented a non-face-to-face communication channel called ‘Hangtong(??)’ during the COVID-19 situation, resolving 215 suggestions and complaints, and led to good evaluations by establishing and operating ‘Suncheon e-Democracy Garden,’ an online public forum, among various new communication methods.

Mayor Heo Seok of Suncheon said, “The journey of the 7th elected term over the past four years may have seemed somewhat slow and busy, but at every step, we have always been with the 290,000 citizens, striving to carry out city administration that satisfies the citizens.” He added, “Going forward, I want to create Suncheon as a leading city of direct democracy that listens to the voices of the citizens, the owners of the city administration, and blossoms through their voices.”

Meanwhile, the Governance Local Politics Awards are hosted by the Governance Center and organized annually by the Governance Local Politics Awards Contest Organizing Committee, supported by the Presidential Committee on Autonomy and Decentralization, among others, and this year marked the 4th event.

This contest conducted a policy contest in eight areas such as expanding residents’ convenience and improving administrative efficiency, targeting 17 metropolitan local governments, 226 basic local governments’ heads, and local council members since last month, selecting final winners through first-round document evaluation, second-round interviews, and third-round on-site inspections.

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