Will Personnel Exchanges Between Seoul City and City Council Be Blocked?

Seoul Metropolitan Council Secretary-General Recruitment Underway, Increasing Chances of Selecting Candidates from Non-Seoul Institutions Amid Growing Difficulties in Personnel Exchanges, Including the Failure of Grade 5 Exchange in August

The personnel exchange between Seoul City and the Seoul Metropolitan Council is gradually coming to a halt.

Previously, personnel exchanges were active as 1st to 2nd grade executives from Seoul City were appointed as the Secretariat Chief of the Metropolitan Council.

However, since the previous chairman's term, an external figure not from Seoul City was appointed as the 1st grade Secretariat Chief of the Metropolitan Council. This time as well, the Seoul Metropolitan Council is independently selecting candidates for the Secretariat Chief without requesting personnel from Seoul City while conducting an open recruitment.

Recently, the council selected four candidates through document screening from the open recruitment for the Secretariat Chief, then narrowed them down to two candidates through interviews.

The council plans to hold a personnel committee for these two candidates and then submit a candidate to the chairman. Around mid-October, the new Secretariat Chief of the Metropolitan Council, whose term will begin on November 10, will be selected.

As personnel exchange is blocked starting from the Secretariat Chief of the Metropolitan Council, it seems that personnel exchanges between Seoul City and the council will become increasingly difficult. Additionally, personnel exchanges between Seoul City and the council were also halted in August this year when the exchange of four 5th grade officials was canceled. At that time, Seoul City postponed the exchange after hearing employees' opinions that "the 5th grade promotees in the council were promoted too early compared to the city, and if they moved to the city, it could cause discord among employees."

This blockage in personnel exchange between Seoul City and the council appears to reflect the council's trend toward asserting its own personnel authority.

As about 30 years have passed since the introduction of local autonomy, metropolitan and basic councils are showing movements to exercise personnel authority independently.

A Seoul Metropolitan Council official lamented, "Currently, most of the 5th grade and above are from Seoul City, but since promotion positions such as 4th grade are limited, they have to go to the city but cannot return, which is frustrating."

The Seoul Metropolitan Council has several 4th grade section chiefs under the 1st grade Secretariat Chief, but there is no 3rd grade position, so even the section chiefs feel frustrated as there is no hope for promotion.

Public officials are expected to face difficulties as their work capabilities cannot be fully demonstrated if personnel exchanges and promotions are blocked.

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