Seoul Metropolitan Council Special Session Discusses Public Utility Fees and Price Increases

Seoul Metropolitan Council to hold the 316th extraordinary session for 19 days from February 20 to March 10

Will receive reports on major tasks for 2023 from the Mayor and Superintendent of Education and propose alternatives regarding Seoul city administration and educational administration

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] The Seoul Metropolitan Council (Chairman Kim Hyun-ki) will hold the 316th extraordinary session for 19 days from Monday, February 20 to March 10, 2023.

They will receive reports on major tasks for 2023 from the Mayor and Superintendent of Education and propose alternatives regarding Seoul city administration and educational administration.

During this extraordinary session, 149 agenda items are scheduled to be reviewed and resolved.

Chairman Kim Hyun-ki (People Power Party, Gangnam 3rd electoral district) emphasized once again in his opening remarks that when reviewing the Seoul city administration and education administration budgets, they must adhere to the ‘3-불 (3-Non) Principles’ announced in the New Year’s address earlier this year, stating, “Policies and budgets that are unnecessary in purpose, unclear in execution objectives, or have opaque effects must never be overlooked.”

He continued, “Last year, the council members made great efforts to review the budget based on the 3-불 (3-Non) Principles, and the executing agency’s officials also shared this understanding?I deeply appreciate this. Even if the policy projects had clear objectives and were approved by the council during budget review, the results do not always clearly manifest. Therefore, consistent will and meticulous attention must accompany the execution process.”

He further emphasized, “The policy projects included in the budget are products of collective intelligence, and it is absolutely unacceptable for these projects to fail to achieve their intended goals due to outdated practices or negligence that must be eliminated.”

The three key topics to be addressed in the 316th extraordinary session were identified as ‘Public utility fee increases and inflation,’ ‘Halloween disaster memorial space,’ and ‘Protection of socially vulnerable groups such as shantytown residents and victims of jeonse fraud.’

Regarding the public utility fee increases, he pointed out, “Although clear factors for long-term increases have been identified, past policy decisions were delayed or avoided due to social and political reasons, and we are now witnessing these delays returning as greater burdens. Maximum self-help efforts must be undertaken, and while the public sector should provide substantial assistance to the more vulnerable groups affected by inflation, expanding support to the middle class would reduce aid to the vulnerable and constitute an unnecessary populist measure.”

On the request for a Halloween disaster memorial space, he urged Seoul City Hall and the bereaved families to empathize with each other and find a prompt solution, emphasizing the need for more fundamental support and countermeasures for shantytown residents who lost their homes due to fire in the harsh winter and citizens suffering from jeonse fraud.

Regarding Seoul’s housing supply, he urged, “While the first-generation new towns in the metropolitan area are seeing significant relaxation of reconstruction promotion, including the enactment of special laws, we must examine whether the more deteriorated reconstruction and redevelopment areas in Seoul are being relatively neglected, and urgent proactive measures are needed to prevent ‘Seoul reverse discrimination’ in the central government’s major policy implementations.”

On COVID-19, he proposed the production of a ‘white paper’ at the Seoul City Hall and the Education Office level to review exemplary and insufficient cases, and to carefully reflect on whether there were citizen inconveniences and administrative burdens caused by ‘excessive quarantine.’

Regarding Seoul education, he stated, “Urgent improvements are required in the curriculum and system to enhance the quality and competitiveness of education provided by Seoul education, and trust and fairness in evaluators’ assessment methods must be further strengthened.”

Finally, Chairman Kim said, “All members of Seoul City, Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, and Seoul Metropolitan Council share the same heart in cultivating the happiness of Seoul citizens and opening a better tomorrow for Seoul,” and urged, “As realizers of the public interest, I hope everyone will do their best to prepare well and open 2023.”

This regular session will begin with an opening ceremony on February 20, proceed with city administration questions and agenda reviews through committee activities, and conclude on March 10.

Opening Remarks

Chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Council

Dear ten million Seoul citizens! Honorable council members, Mayor, Superintendent of Education, and attending officials! The 11th Seoul Metropolitan Council will open the 316th extraordinary session for 19 days starting today, listening to reports on the 2023 work plans of Seoul City Hall and the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and proposing alternatives. First, our council expresses deep condolences and encouragement to the people of Turkey and Syria who suffered greatly from the large-scale earthquake on February 6, and we pray for swift recovery and reconstruction. In my New Year’s address and other remarks, I announced the ‘3-불 (3-Non) Principles’ regarding Seoul city administration and educational administration. These principles state that ‘policies and budgets that are unnecessary in purpose,’ ‘policies and budgets with unclear objectives,’ and ‘policies and budgets with opaque effects’ must never be overlooked. Last year, council members also made great efforts during budget review based on these principles, and the executing agency’s officials shared this understanding. Thank you. Even if the policy projects had clear objectives and were approved by the council during budget review, the results do not always clearly manifest. Therefore, consistent will and meticulous attention are required during execution.

An old poet once said, ‘Let the clear flow of intellect not lose its way in the sandy plains of hardened habits.’ Each policy project included in the budget is a product of our collective intelligence. It is absolutely unacceptable for these projects to fail to achieve their intended goals due to outdated practices or negligence that must be eliminated. I hope this extraordinary session will be one where the executing agencies are perfectly prepared and the deliberative body, the council, encourages and corrects from the citizens’ perspective. Currently, Seoul faces three major issues: ‘public utility fee increases and inflation,’ ‘Halloween disaster memorial space,’ and ‘protection of socially vulnerable groups such as shantytown residents and victims of jeonse fraud.’ Although clear factors for long-term increases have been identified, past policy decisions were delayed or avoided due to social and political reasons, and we are now witnessing these delays returning as greater burdens. As providers of public goods, we must first undertake maximum self-help efforts. Then, we must timely reflect the increase factors and sincerely seek citizens’ understanding. Deep reflection is required. The public sector must provide substantial assistance to the more vulnerable groups affected by inflation. Expanding support to include the middle class will further reduce aid to the vulnerable.

Furthermore, increasing the money supply causes inflation, making life difficult for both the middle and lower classes. Our Seoul city must now firmly sever ties with such populist measures. At this moment, requests for a memorial space for the victims of the Halloween disaster are being raised. Seoul City Hall and the bereaved families should empathize with each other and seek a prompt solution. Our council will also watch this closely. More fundamental support and countermeasures must be actively prepared for shantytown residents who lost their homes due to fire in the harsh winter and citizens suffering from jeonse fraud. The first-generation new towns in the metropolitan area are seeing significant relaxation of reconstruction promotion, including the enactment of special laws. On the other hand, we must examine whether the more deteriorated, long-standing reconstruction and redevelopment areas in Seoul are being relatively neglected, and proactive measures are required to prevent ‘Seoul reverse discrimination’ in the central government’s major policy implementations. Regarding COVID-19, I propose preparing a white paper at the city hall and education office levels. We should organize exemplary cases to inherit and share, and identify errors and shortcomings to serve as warnings. In this process, we must also carefully reflect on citizen inconveniences and administrative burdens caused by ‘excessive quarantine.’

Recently, the release of the conversational AI ‘ChatGPT’ is rapidly changing the world. I asked ‘ChatGPT’ what the urgent improvement tasks for Seoul education are. Within just about 10 seconds, it mentioned the premise that ‘opinions may vary,’ and listed four necessary improvement areas: first, educational fairness; second, improvement of education quality; third, educational competitiveness; and fourth, financial distribution, providing reasons for each. This AI learned from tens or hundreds of millions of public and individual creative works related to Seoul education and presented its views. It is time for us to also consider the problems of Seoul education as indicated by big data. Urgent improvements in curriculum and system are required to enhance the quality and competitiveness of education provided by Seoul education. Regarding educational outcomes, there is widespread criticism that trust in evaluators’ assessment methods is very low and that education may reinforce social unfairness rather than strengthen fairness. This reality, raised diversely by education consumers in information forums such as SNS, must be noted.

Honorable council members and attending officials! We all share the same heart in cultivating the happiness of Seoul citizens and opening a better tomorrow for Seoul. Let us all, as realizers of the public interest, do our best to prepare for 2023. Thank you.

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