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We welcome the approval of the Local Autonomy Law after 32 years resolving the aspirations of the city council.
Since 1988, nearly 32 years have passed since all local government laws were amended.
The Administrative Security Committee of the National Assembly reviewed the ‘Total Amendment of the Local Autonomy Law’, etc., presented by the government in July and decided as an alternative to the committee, and the Legal and Judicial Committee reviewed it on 8 December and decided as an alternative to the committee.
In this regard, the Chairman of the Seoul City Council, Kim In-ho (Democratic Party, Dongdaemun 3) said: “The approval of the entire amendment to the Local Self-Government Law is of great importance since the long aspirations of the council have been fulfilled. local. In particular, the independence of the rights of the staff of the municipalities and the prevention of the infringement of autonomous legislative rights by administrative legislation will advance the municipalities ”.
“As soon as the 21st National Assembly was formed, it was selected as an accelerated bill, and the decentralized powers really did their best to amend the local autonomy law proposed by the government and to amend the local autonomy law initiated by various members of parliament. Thanks for your hard work. However, regarding the introduction of policy support experts, it is regrettable that it has been revised downwards since the original discussion.
Regarding the amendments approved by the plenary session of the National Assembly, local councils were recently established on the “ independence of human rights ” (Article 103), the prohibition of infringing the self-government legislation by administrative legislation ( Article 28 (2)) and the “ introduction of policy support experts ”. Stipulated in the law to introduce “policy support experts” to local councils step by step for two years in the range of “half the number of members of each local council.”
The detailed operation plan was decided by the executive decree.
In particular, in the case of introducing a range of 1/2 of the total number of experts in policy support, the content that was not in the original draft presented by the government appeared in the deliberation process of the Security Committee amendment. Administrative, and was also adopted within a quarter of the range in 2022 and 2023. It was introduced within the range of half the number of members of parliament per year.
In this process, the views of the Seoul City Council and city councils requesting approval of the original draft submitted by the government were not even mentioned during the parliamentary deliberation process.
The “ Independence of local council staff rights ” has been granted to the chairman of the local council through the granting of staff rights to office workers belonging to the municipal and provincial councils, which have been granted to the head of the local council, to guarantee the rights of local council staff, strengthen autonomy and independence, and strengthen the control and supervision functions of the executive department.
The revised legislation of the local autonomy law initiated by the government stipulates that only municipal and provincial councils have independent personnel rights, but in the deliberation process of the Public Safety Commission, the scope of the introduction of the independence of the Local council staff rights, as requested by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, are set out in the City / Do and Si / Gun / Gu councils. The plan to expand was discussed and the Seoul City Council bill was accepted and decided.
In addition, the prohibition against violating the right to self-government by administrative legislation required by the Seoul Metropolitan Council for a long time was included in the partial amendment of the Local Self-Government Law initiated by Representative Chung Cheong-rae, and the Member of the National Assembly Lee Hae-sik suggested the need to introduce it. It was not allowed to be restricted by the enforcement rules.
In addition, the revised bill was resolved by refining the provisions for the prohibition of concurrent positions for members of the local council, liberalizing the operation of local councils, ordering the establishment of a special ethics committee for local councils and establishing a committee Ethics review advisor.
Seoul Metropolitan Council Chairman Kim In-ho (Democratic Party, Dongdaemun 3) said: “Although it did not reach the level of decentralization at the level of federalism as revealed by President Moon Jae-in, I am very impressed by the resolution of the aspirations of local councils that have been requested by local councils, including the Seoul Metropolitan Assembly. This approval of the Local Autonomy Law is a new beginning for the sacrifice and effort of all the decentralized forces that have strived to achieve decentralization, realize decentralization and establish the status of local councils ”.
“As I watched the deliberation process of the National Assembly and the government, I became aware of deep-seated mistrust and lack of awareness in the local assembly.” It’s done, ”he said.
President Kim In-ho said: “I am not satisfied with the passage of the Local Self-Government Law and among the seven decentralization tasks that the Seoul Metropolitan Council has continuously pursued, the strengthening of self-government rights, the liberalization of the right organizing budgets, introducing staff hearings, forming bargaining organizations, and establishing operating standards. We will try to solve these problems and, in particular, we will rerun to enact the law of the local council ”.
Reporter Park Jong-il [email protected]
