Gimhae City Council promotes an ordinance linking the term of office of the mayor and heads of investment-funded organizations

Gimhae City Council is promoting a 'term-linked system' in which the mayor and heads of investment-funded organizations serve the same term in order to prevent personnel conflicts between heads of local governments and heads of affiliated organizations after local elections.

According to the Gimhae City Council on the 7th, the 'Ordinance Bill on the Term of Office of Heads of Gimhae City's Investment-Contributed Institutions', proposed by Representative Joo Jeong-young of the Democratic Party of Korea, will be submitted to the agenda of the 2nd plenary session of the 282nd City Council's 1st regular meeting on the 11th.

The key to this ordinance is to match the term of office of heads of city-funded institutions with the term of office of the mayor.

It was designed to prevent repeated personnel conflicts and wasteful debates in affiliated organizations whenever the mayor is replaced.

The term of office for the head of an investment-funded institution shall be two years, but he or she may only be reappointed two times in one year, and if a new mayor is elected, the term will end on the day before the start of the term of the new mayor, regardless of the remaining term.

When the transition committee recognizes the need and makes a request, an exception is made that allows the term to be temporarily extended until the new mayor appoints a new head of the institution.

As it is not retroactively applied, the current term of office of the head of the institution is guaranteed.

Those subject to this ordinance are Gimhae City Welfare Foundation, Gimhae Life Industry Promotion Agency, Gimhae FC, Gimhae Culture and Tourism Foundation, and Gimhae Talent Development Foundation.

Gimhae City Development Corporation, which is subject to the Local Public Enterprises Act, and Gimhae Research Institute, which is subject to the Research Institute Act, are excluded.

Currently, the city council consists of 15 Democratic Party members and 10 People Power Party members, so passing the bill through the plenary session is not expected to be difficult.

Rep. Joo said, "Every time the mayor changes, various conflicts such as inconsistency in municipal administration philosophy, personnel stagnation, and voluntary resignation are repeated nationwide due to issues with the remaining terms of office for heads of organizations appointed by the former mayor. Even after the enforcement of the ordinance, if each agency does not revise its articles of incorporation in time, the effectiveness of the system may decline. As such, we will carefully check the subsequent implementation status at the council level."

Previously, the Gyeongnam Provincial Council was the first in the province to pass the 'Special Ordinance on the Term of Office of Heads and Executives of Gyeongsangnam-do Investment-Contributed Institutions' in April 2023, linking the terms of office of heads of local governments and heads of affiliated organizations.

Among basic local governments in the province, Changwon City is the only one that has enacted and is enforcing related ordinances in July 2024.