Angry Residents of Jung-gu, Seoul Condemn Jung-gu Council... "Take Responsibility for Chaos Including Garbage Crisis"

Over 300 Residents Including Community Autonomy Committee Chairpersons and Professional Group Leaders Gather at District Community Center Auditorium on the 26th to Hold a Rally Condemning Jung-gu Council's Budget Cuts, Denouncing Jung-gu Council

Residents of Jung-gu (Mayor Kim Gil-seong), angered by the reckless budget cuts by the Jung-gu Council, rolled up their sleeves.

About 300 residents, including heads of resident autonomy committees and professional organizations, gathered on the afternoon of the 26th at the main auditorium of the community center to hold a rally condemning the Jung-gu Council's budget cuts. The residents formed a strong consensus that the recent budget cuts by the Jung-gu Council are unacceptable and strongly demanded that the budget be restored to its original state.

"The budget proposal is a result of reflecting residents' opinions, project effectiveness analysis, and financial conditions."

Kim Gil-seong, Mayor of Jung-gu, mentioned how much effort goes into preparing the annual budget in his opening remarks.

Contrary to the Jung-gu Council's claim that all necessary budgets for residents were allocated, he questioned whether the budgets cut by the council?such as the waste import fees, support funds for the sewing industry, emergency repair costs for senior centers and daycare centers, parking lot operation and facility improvement costs, Clean Codi personnel expenses, and welfare center operating costs?are truly unnecessary for the residents.

He also expressed regret over the council cutting essential expenses such as personnel costs, business promotion expenses, operating costs, and utility bills, which are the basics of district administration.

Regarding the council's stance that they would allocate the budget through supplementary budgets, he rebutted that supplementary budgets are meant for unforeseen circumstances.

Furthermore, he stated that the absurd budget cuts are damaging Jung-gu and announced that they would request reconsideration of the taken budget. Residents attending the rally responded loudly in agreement with the request for reconsideration.

Next, the head of the Planning and Budget Division explained the current status of the budget cuts and the resulting problems. He said that with reduced tax revenue and decreased grants from the government and Seoul city, preparing next year's budget was not an easy task, and expressed concern that the 8 billion KRW cut from the carefully prepared budget might disrupt the smooth provision of administrative services.

Among the budgets cut by the Jung-gu Council this time, the 1.5 billion KRW waste import fee is the part most concerning for resident damage. The head of the Cleaning Administration Department asked the council how they would handle the damage to residents if waste cannot be removed due to the absence of import fees, warning that a garbage crisis would occur. He also expressed regret that the Clean Codi’s personnel expenses were cut by half, which would halve quality jobs and threaten the cleanliness of the alleys, which are maintained clean thanks to their efforts.

The head of the Parking Management Division also expressed fear that the cuts to maintenance costs and emergency repair expenses for aging public parking lots might threaten residents' safety. He mentioned that rust water is dripping in parking lots due to leaks, falling steel plates, and pump failures, and if these are not repaired immediately, residents' property could be damaged. With 3,600 people on the waiting list for monthly public parking, securing private affiliated parking lots to resolve this in the short term has become urgent. He lamented that even the budget related to affiliated parking lots was cut, making it difficult to devise measures for residents suffering from parking problems.

Ahead of the long-awaited 30-year resident demand to ease the Namsan height restriction, Jung-gu allocated 30 million KRW to provide a preliminary design service that would allow residents to actually feel the easing of height restrictions, but this was also cut, causing disappointment. The head of the Urban Renewal Division questioned who benefits from depriving residents of the opportunity to receive essential services, regardless of the size of the budget.

Three resident representatives also delivered condemnation speeches.

Hong Soon-ok, president of the Jung-gu Daycare Center Association, stood here expressing the anger of parents with infants and toddlers, criticizing the Jung-gu Council’s baseless opposition to entrusting daycare centers to private institutions with expertise in childcare policy.

She also expressed unbearable anger over the cuts not only to costs related to training childcare staff but also to facility expenses for emergency repairs related to children's safety.

Elizere Kim Gyu-sun also spoke. She said that at a time when K-fashion is gaining attention in the global market, cutting the outsourcing project budget for the Clothing Fashion Support Center is killing competitive emerging designers and small sewing industry merchants.

Kim Kyung-tae, vice chairman of the Resident Autonomy Committee, criticized the Jung-gu Council’s behavior of cutting design budgets instead of actively improving residents’ living environments, as Jung-gu has long been excluded from development and is aging, causing young people to leave.

Finally, the head of the Financial Support Team of the Facilities Management Corporation spoke out. He pointed out the absurd reason the Jung-gu Council cut the corporation’s budget. Despite the corporation’s chairman having informed in advance that he would not attend the budget review due to cancer surgery, the council refused to listen to the corporation’s project budget explanation unless the chairman was present, using this as a pretext to cut the corporation’s budget.

He also expressed concern that the corporation’s agency project budget is an essential monthly expense such as public utility fees, and that quality local jobs for youth and seniors would disappear. He said that the baseless budget cuts have tied the hands and feet of the Facilities Corporation, which plays a major role on the front lines in improving residents’ health and welfare.

Finally, resident representatives from each neighborhood took the stage to read a resolution, unanimously condemning the Jung-gu Council’s reckless budget cuts. They strongly demanded the restoration of essential budgets for residents’ lives and the realization of politics that serve the people.

Kim Gil-seong, Mayor of Jung-gu, urged, “Budget cuts are a disregard for residents and an infringement on their rights and interests,” and called for “restoring abnormal budgets to normal.”

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