Editorial "Voice of Citizens as Starting Point of Administration"...Pyeongtaek Expanding Civic Services Functions

The area that commands the most attention in all local governments and public institutions is civic services. To this end, courtesy training for civic service employees, including service improvements and solutions to citizen complaints, are being conducted. The main emphasis is on building trust with citizens through an empathetic approach. Of course, various countermeasures against malicious complaints that cause serious difficulties in response are not omitted.

Along with courtesy training in civic services administration aimed at moving citizens, continuous monitoring of complaints is used to check the courtesy of responding civil servants. Nevertheless, complaints about civic services continue to persist. Therefore, deliberation on how to provide courteous, swift, and responsible civic service response continues.

In response, Pyeongtaek City has taken bold action. It is pursuing an organizational restructuring that significantly strengthens civic service functions. Mayor Choi Won-yong announced that civic service functions will be substantially enhanced to resolve citizens' complaints more swiftly and responsibly. The city decided to expand and reorganize the civic service functions that belonged to the Administrative and Self-Governance Bureau and establish a new 'Civic Service Bureau.' Under the Civic Service Bureau, it announced the placement of the 'One-Stop Civic Services Division,' 'Civic Services Division,' 'Building Permit Division,' and 'Housing Division.' (Related article: Suwon Ilbo, 11th, 'Pyeongtaek Establishes Civic Service Bureau to Prioritize Citizen Needs') On the 8th, the city also gave legislative notice to a 'Partial Amendment to Pyeongtaek City Administrative Organization and Staffing Ordinance' containing this content.

Mayor Choi Won-yong has consistently emphasized that he will make citizens' voices the starting point of administration. In his inaugural address, describing himself as a field-oriented administrator, he stated, "A citizen's life exists within a single line of a complaint, and the essence of problems becomes visible when we go to the field." Mayor Choi's view that civic complaints should be valued like gold and that answers must be found in the field is entirely correct. All public servants should keep in mind and inscribe in their hearts his statement that "the reason for the existence of government offices is citizens."

The newly established One-Stop Civic Services Division in this organizational restructuring is the primary department of the Civic Service Bureau. As Mayor Choi's signature policy initiative, it will handle complaints from reception through resolution all at once. From the citizens' perspective, complaints can be processed more conveniently. Until now, citizens with complex complaints had to suffer the inconvenience of searching for this department and that official.

In particular, the Building Permit Division and Housing Division, which have handled work closely related to citizens' lives such as building permits, forest and farmland conversion, management of multi-unit housing, housing welfare, general residential construction, and advertisements, will now belong to the Civic Service Bureau. This is expected to reduce the inconvenience of citizens having to visit multiple departments and enable smoother processing of complaints.

"Civic complaints are not simply administrative tasks to be processed but the starting point of city governance where citizens' voices can be heard most closely," according to Mayor Choi Won-yong's 'citizen-centered civic services.' We hope that this approach will be established in Pyeongtaek and spread to all local governments, agencies, public enterprises, and further to private companies throughout the country.