Mayor making headlines with unconventional steps

By Kim Rahn

Only several weeks into his new job, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon is making headlines almost every day by adopting offbeat measures regarding city organization and other sensitive affairs.

A series of steps taken by the liberal-minded mayor mostly reflect his vision for welfare, but some of them are likely to conflict with the conservative Lee Myung-bak administration’s efficiency-oriented policies.

Park is encouraging city workers to take a day off on a weekday sandwiched between a national holiday and a weekend.

“As far as the leave doesn’t obstruct civil or city affairs, public servants at the city government will be encouraged to take such a ‘sandwiched day’ off, so that they can have more time with family and refresh themselves,” a city official said Tuesday.

Park himself is known to be a workaholic. But he said in a press meeting last Thursday, “We should work hard when we work and we should relax when it’s time to relax. It isn’t conducive to efficiency to work on a weekday between a holiday and a weekend, so I think having a day-off on such a day is reasonable. Full rest can also lead to creative ideas.”

Park also plans to gradually turn the working status of about 2,800 employees at city organizations from non-regular to regular — one of his campaign pledges.

For this, the city government will soon launch a study on the exact number of such workers and the necessary additional budget. It will finalize the plan when the study result comes out around next July.

What makes all the difference is money. As the monthly salary gap between regular workers and non-regular employees in the city government is about 300,000 won, an additional 10 billion won ($8.9 million) will be needed.

Another obstacle is the law, as a local authority wanting to increase manpower cannot do so on its own but has to get approval from the Ministry of Public Administration and Safety.

In a plan to create jobs for the unemployed poor and young businesspeople, Park aims to create 300 billion won in social investment funds in the next three years, 100 billion won each year. He plans to attract donations from private companies.

An ordinance must be set up first to implement the plan, and the city needs to establish a third corporation, as public organizations can’t raise funds on their own under the law.

“We are coming up with details on how to organize the corporation. Considering all these processes, we may be able to amass the funds in the first half of next year,” an official said.

The plan, however, has drawn a backlash from companies, which claim the “donation” would be a quasi-tax.

Anti-FTA?

On Monday, the mayor demanded the central government review the investor-state dispute (ISD) clause in the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement.

In a letter he submitted to the government, Park said under the clause, the central or local governments are likely to be vulnerable to lawsuits by American companies. “This can lead to a huge financial burden to the city government and citizens. So, the central government should discuss the issue together with local governments,” he said.

Park also said the tariff cut on automobiles in the FTA will reduce Seoul City’s tax revenue by about 26 billion won per year. The pact will also allow America’s big retailers to advance into the Korean market and threaten the livelihood of mom-and-pop shop owners, he claimed.