During a National Assembly audit on October 22, concerns were raised about the excessive number of staff in the Gwangju Mayor's Office.
At the audit held at the Gwangju Government Complex, Representative Park Deok-heum of the People Power Party pointed out, "The Blue House has 11 chief-level positions, yet Gwangju has 13. It feels more like a presidential office than a mayor's office."
Park noted, "There are eight chief positions, along with special advisors and assistants, and four deputy mayors at the level of minister. With plans to have up to 26 policy advisors and special assistants, it’s hard to tell if this is the mayor's office or the Blue House."
He further criticized the administration for amending the implementation rules three times within just over 100 days of taking office to expand advisory positions, highlighting that some positions had only one applicant.
Park demanded transparency regarding the additional personnel costs and the salary status for each position.
In response, Mayor Min Hyung-bae explained, "The integrated mayor has many decisions to make alone, and relatively, the support staff is insufficient. While we use the title of chief, they are actually policy advisors."
He added that the law allows for related personnel to make up 3% of the total staff and stated, "We selected professionals through an open recruitment process, and the claim that there was only one applicant is not accurate."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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