Practical Resident-Government Governance Structure to Consult on and Practice Green Policy
Cases of Cheongju Good Governance (2009 ~ Present) ICLEI Korea Office Case Study Series No.9
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In 2011, Cheongju City Hall set up the Council of Green Cheongju to create a green city sustainable in all aspects such as the economy, society, and environment; the council is a cooperative enforcement system of resident-government governance and an enforcement organization of the city’s Green Capital Basic Plan. The council conducts an annual status review and assessment of 80 policy tasks in the Green Capital Basic Plan, including and selected those targeted for resident-government cooperation projects and detailed projects were pursued. This resulted in significant outcomes such as policy discussion about the restoration of the ecological Musimcheon Stream, boosting of public transportation and a few area issues with the potential for conflict. In 2012, Cheongju launched the Green Cheongju Network to Save the Earth with the participation of 436 groups and organizations in its jurisdiction as a practical cooperation system for resident-government cooperation
Population 847,706 (July 2017) Area 940.31 square kilometers Annual budget KRW 2,071 trillion (2017)
projects. Participating groups implemented joint events and encouraged public participation and the spread of the Green Life Practice Movement. The CO₂ Reducing Green Village Project began on a pilot basis in 2010 and has since become a highlight of the Green Cheongju Network since 2012. The project is Cheongju’s representative movement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions(GHG), a campaign that resulted in the reduction of 2,500t of emissions in 2011.
Case Study Background, Progress, and Status Background Like other cities with autonomous governments leading urban policy and development in the 1990s, Cheongju suffered conflict and confrontation between its administration and residents or interest groups. This led to the growth of resident social groups and regularization of the Agenda 21 movement in the city. Against this background, the Green Cheongju Agenda 21 Promotion Council was established in December 1996 to set an institutional foundation for resident-government policy talks and cooperation projects. The council was renamed Cheongju City Sustainable Development Practice Council in 2003. The city’s cooperation department was also made an integrative department. The Make Livable Cheongju Consultative Body was established in 2009 and two city governances have since been operated. Even under this structure, the roles of these organizations for practical governance were not enough. To overcome this through integration of existing governance and further realize good governance
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History of the Council of Green Cheongju Jun. 22, 2010 Review conducted of municipal administration's goal of Cheongju’s fifth government elected by popular vote; title of Green Capital Cheongju decided on Nov. 8, 2010 Existing governance representatives / Cheongju mayor held talks Dec. 20, 2010 Formed Green Capital Policy Planning Group Mar. 2011 to Sep. 2011 Set up Green Capital Basic Plan Aug. 11, 2011 Formed Integrated Governance Establishment Preparation Committee Oct. 2011 Advance notice on legislation of basic bylaw for green city later reviewed and modified by Cheongju City Council Nov. 11, 2011 First and second meetings on promotion of establishment of the Council of Green Cheongju Dec. 6, 2011 General meeting for green capital, governance of communication and cooperation of the Council of Green Cheongju established
and Green Capital Cheongju, which was a goal of the municipal administration elected in the fifth popular vote, the city government and resident society in 2010 decided to form and operate the Green Capital Policy Planning Group (from December 2010 to September 2011) as a residentgovernment governance organization to discuss the basic ideas and plans and construction of the green capital system.
Progress and Status The Green Capital Policy Planning Group devised the Green Capital Basic Plan that includes about 80 policy tasks in six areas. To transform Cheongju into a sustainable green city in all aspects including economy, society, and economics, the Council of Green Cheongju was established in December 2011 as a resident-government cooperation promotional system and organization to implement the plan. The Council of Green Cheongju is a new governance organization that integrated and succeeded the now-defunct Cheongju City Sustainable Development Council and Make Livable Cheongju Council and is based on the Cheongju City Green City Basic By-law enacted in December 2011. Since the policy negotiation function is stronger than the existing governance organization, the council has advanced Cheongju one step further toward a good governance system that allows daily policy consultation and cooperation among residents, government, industry, and education. Urgent tasks were coping with climate change and broadly developing resident practice projects for realizing a green Cheongju, things that were as difficult as the stable and sustainable policy consultative function in the course of establishing the Council of Green Cheongju. This was because the sustainability can be assured only with the participation of many Cheongju residents, not when the discussion and project are done only by governance organization participants or groups. For this purpose, on the occasion of Environment Day on June 2012, the city launched the Green Cheongju Network to Save Earth as a practical collaboration system for resident-government cooperation projects, with 436 large and small groups and organizations joining. The network has since built 34 programs in seven areas of Together Green World and promoted the conclusion of an agreement on promising to practice at least one program with every participating group. Thus residents could start a practice closely related to daily life at work and school. Moreover, activities of participating groups were made to be shared through the Together Green World Contest’ in 2012 and the Makea Green City National Contest in 2013. In July 2014, Cheongju and Cheongwon Countiesy were merged into the integrated city of Accomplishments and Ripple Effects (2013) The Council of Green Cheongju General Meeting
Dec. 21, 2011 Cheongju City Council decides on Green City Basic Ordinance
Auditor
Co-chairman
Adviser Guiding/Consulting Member
Feb. 27, 2012 Foundation of the Council of Green Cheongju marked
Standing Committee Section Committee Policy Research Group Industrial Economy Committee Conflict Mediation Group
Social Welfare Committee
Executive Committee
Cultural Education Committee Urban Ttransportation Committee
Project Promotion Organization (Green Leader Council)
Administration
Environmental Safety Committee Agricultural Farming Village Committee
Green Cheongju Network
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Cheongju, and the term of the sixth popularly elected municipal administration began. Accordingly, the relevant department was changed from the Green Capital Promotion Group to the Coexistence Development Manager Office directly under the mayor. The group, which was the deputy mayor, was dismissed. With these changes, the Council of Green Cheongju was expanded and reorganized and its second term began. The number of council members increased from 150 to 200 and the structure was changed to a standing committee and six section committees (previously just the standing committee). The Policy Research Group and Conflict Mediation Group were also created, leading the reinforcement of the functions of policy discussion and pending issues including the suggestion of policy tasks and mediation of conflicting issues.
Content of Activities The Council of Green Cheogju : Structure, Role, and Activities The Council of Green Cheongju has three co-chairmen: the Cheongju mayor, city council chairman and resident representative (standing chairman). As of December 2015, the council had the general meeting as its highest legislative organization, a standing committee with a maximum 40 members, six committees with about 20 members, the Policy Research Group researching civics and council policies, the Conflict Mediation Group to mediate conflicts and build a conflict management system, and an executive committee and administration. Since the appointment of about 110 members at the time of establishment, about 200 appointed members remained active as of December 2015. Every committee has managers of two or more related departments participating and related standing committee members of the Cheongju City Council. As people from the larger society, academia, and industry participants, each committee has independent governance and integrates its role as a legislative organization. An elected chairman and general member hold meetings and operated each committee. The administration supports practical projects only. A committee chairman and general member are appointed within the limit of possibility from resident society representatives, directors or managers to strengthen coherence with resident society. In principle, committee meetings are held monthly for general policy discussion, but meetings can be held from time to time on other issues. Also, each committee holds the Green Cheongju Forum at least once a year and sets mid- to long-term agendas for transformation into a sustainable green city. While the section committee is an independent governance and lower legislative organization, the standing committee functions as a legal committee that acts as an upper legislative organization. To prevent perfunctory meeting procedures, all three co-chairmen, city council standing committee chairman and city director, six committee chairs and the elected standing committee member are expected to attend. The meeting is held every quarter. In the executive committee, six committees and the general members of the two groups, executive committee chair, administration head and the head of the relevant municipal department participate. The executive committee mediates the legislative and executive organizations, adjusts the agenda between committees and lays the agenda. The Council standing chair, head of the Policy Research Group and executive committee chair also hold monthly policy consultations with the mayor. Through the consultation procedures mentioned above, policies and agendas discussed between the municipal government and council are made into reports and source books to be submitted to the city and resident society. The related departments in the municipal government and resident society review and revise them to form demonstration projects and policy tasks. Main Projects of the Council of Green Cheongju Project Objectives ■ Succeed existing areas of activities like sustainable city development and the campaign Make a Livable City; reinforce resident harmonizing activities along with integrated city of Cheongju
■ Establish Cheongju’s Green City Basic Plan, suggest policy tasks and develop resident practices ■ Find and promote urban-rural coexistence projects and city administration-related projects along with integrated Cheongju ■ Seek ways to achieve sustainable economy and to build foundation of green economy ■ Reinforce function to consult policy toward administration issues and mediate conflicts over contentious issues Content of Main Projects
■ Projects to build system of ecological environment circulation ■ Policy consultation and conflict mediation on administration issues ■ Welfare culture projects that ensure quality of life ■ Build and review sustainable green city strategy ■ Cooperate for practicing methods of Cheongju’s coexistence development and achieve ■ Practice movement for green resident education and life ■ Project to make safe city residential reconciliation ■ Projects for symbolization of green Cheongju and globalization ■ Projects to build sustainable economy and foundation for green economy ■ Projects to reinforce urban-rural coexistence collaboration and agricultural foundation ■ Operation, solidarity, exchange, and PR of Council ■ Projects to support urban restoration and village construction
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Green Cheongju Network : Contents of Activities As of 2015, the Green Cheongju Network consisted of about 590 groups attracting resident participation and spread of the so-called green life practice movement through joint events like Environment Day, Energy Day and World Car-free Day. These activities encourage Cheongju residents to voluntary practice habits in daily life, work, and school, and cooperative efforts go into resource circulation, energy conservation, the creation of a comfortable environment and development of the urban community. To encourage and promote voluntary practices by participating groups, the network holds the annual Together Green World Contest and awards and provides incentives to outstanding case studies. Award-winning teams are recommended as teams of merit in the following year’s Environment Day, and incentives to send them overseas under the Make Green City campaign are promoted. In 2013, the third Green City National Convention held a national contest for the Make a Green City campaign that featured an exchange of excellent case studies both in and out of Cheongju.
The Council of Green Cheongju's Accomplishments
Musimcheon Stream’s 100 Days of Experiment (2013)
Results & Accomplishments About 80 policy tasks in six areas are suggested in the Green Capital Basic Plan of Cheongju. Each council committee has implemented progress reviews and assessments annually. Among tasks promotable as resident-government collaboration projects, the council in 2012 promoted four general and six detailed projects as department collaboration ventures with the municipal government (the Green Transportation Vitalization Project and Cheongju Area Biodiversity Basic Investigation Project were added in 2013). As a result, the council presented impressive results in policy consultation in the restoration of the ecological Musimcheon Stream and vitalization of public transportation, as well as in a few issues with potential conflict. For example, the discussion to restore the stream, which began in 2012, resulted in a 2013 agreement to close 1.2 km of a partial road section over the stream and made the so-called 100 Days of the Musimcheon Stream Experiment possible. Cheongju’s system for volume-rate food waste disposal resulted in extensive residential agreements through continued discussions for a year. This project provided an opportunity to establish the Resource Circulation Forum, a municipal organization for discussing policy toward resource circulation. On the construction of a rainwater under current facility that had caused resistance from residents, a meeting was organized by the municipal government and residents to reach a compromise. Another meeting to prevent the illegal operation of subcontracted taxis also led to municipal action later. In addition, projects promoted by the Green Cheongju Network have seen good results. The Reducing CO₂ Green Village Campaign, which began as a pilot project in 2010 and has become a major project of the network since 2012, has led to the promotion of detailed projects like the conclusion of a green village agreement with participating apartment complexes, production and distribution of practice manuals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, holding educational tours, joint campaigns and activity-reporting conferences and designation of excellent villages. As a result, the participation of 17 apartment complexes led to the reduction of 4,381t of CO₂ emissions in 2010 and 2,500t in 2011. 2012 saw 26 apartment complexes participating and the year after saw 27, and five green schools joining. This project is thus Cheongju’s leading representative movement for greenhouse gas reduction. Thanks to these accomplishments, Cheongju City Hall and the Council of Green Cheongju in 2013 jointly received apresidential award at the 15th Sustainable Development Contest held by the Ministry of Environment and National Sustainable Development Council. This honor confirmed the excellence of both the governance system involving residents, government, industry and academia and construction of a policy consultative function.
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Received Presidential Award at 15th Sustainable Development Contest (2013)
Accomplishments and Ripple Effects(2013) ● Full-scale
promotion of projects, spread of resident awareness for green city, contribution to
vitalize resident participation
Project Aspects
● Find
agenda and discuss policy toward Cheongju administration and social issues, and reinforce
mediating functions Implement ●
resident-participating Green Practice Program closely related to everyday life
including other green village campaigns
Organizational Aspects
● Stabilization of an organizational management system of the Council of Green Cheongju ● Secure driving force of seven committes
● Raise
Governance aspects
possibility of policy consultation, conflict mediation, and preparation of alternatives about Cheongju civics or issues ● Reinforce solidarity and collaboration with resident social groups those for environment by proceeding with joint projects ● Reinforce justifiability of collaboration activities among residents, government, industry, and academia and strengthen status as a governing organization ● Expand participation of other residents
Lessons Learned and Benchmarking Tips Form Foundational Direction for Green City and Consultative Body for Resident-Government Collaboration The success of Cheongju’s green city policy was thanks in part to the setting of a foundational direction as ”Green Cheongju” and forming an exclusive enforcement group and forum as a resident-government consultative body. Properly adjusting the roles of residents and government in this process was not easy, but each body made concessions and built trust in each other.
Build Trust between Residents and Government and Expand Understanding of Governance The most important task while forming and operatingthe Council of Green Cheongju was to overcome the limits of the existing governance organization. In other words, each participating entity had to from partnerships and practice good governance with effectiveness, participation, and transparency, while going through a stable and sustainable decision-making process to achieve joint objectives. For this purpose, building trust between residents and government was the top priority because while resident society questioned the municipal government’s will and responsibility, city personnel misunderstood the governance system and held biased views. Several contacts and discussions among related entities ensured to improve the situation. In detail, the standing committee chair and each committee leader had numerous discussion opportunities with the mayor, municipal director, and each department chief. Supplementary education on governance was provided in executive and general meetings. A few talks with the city council were also held for better understanding.
Expand Participation and Improve Transparency in Project Implementation The Council of Green Cheongju invited related groups and organizations for every project. Every participating group joined the decisionmaking process from the stage of project planning, prosecuted after constructing project conducting group and network per project. For instance, seven groups take part in the project conducting group for urban agriculture and 13 resident groups and social enterprises in the Chungbuk Local Food Network. Such efforts to enhance participation and transparency resulted in the effects of securing extensive power in project implementation, know-how in conducting projects of internal stability, reinforcement of resident and awareness, and enhanced solidarity and collaboration with resident social organizations.
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Tasks in the Future Continue Conducting Experiments on Good Governance Good governance can be defined as an organizational system that changes based on the continuous efforts of participating entities and a passion for partnership actualization, extensive participation, sufficient communication, active cooperation, drawing of social agreements, vitalization of resident participation and village community by life zone unit, and expansion of resident-government collaboration. In this sense, the experiment of the Council of Green Cheongju’s good governance is ongoing. The council lacks the participation of industry and labor, and the environmental agenda is of great importance. The Cheongju city government has inadequate experience and awareness in governance. Critics also say the agenda discussed by residents and government isare not fully reflected in city administration. Support for full-time workers in the administration is also insufficient due to heavy budgeting for projects. For these reasons, experiments in the Council of Green Cheongju’s good governance should continue, and by so doing, good governance can be the foundation for the sustainable future of Cheongju and its transformation into a green society.
Budget & Finances As of 2013, the Council of Green Cheongju had a budget mainly funded by a subsidy from the relevant ministry department and related department of cooperation projects. The Green Capital Promotion Group (with a director-level chief) functions as competent ministry department under the direct control of the deputy mayor as a cooperative working-level unit and secures major budget. As of 2012, budget and management costs for the council’s main projects were compiled by the group, and partial funds for Department cooperation projects came from the Environmental Department, Economic Department and Sanitation Department (now the Resource Policy Department). In 2012, about 506 million won of budget and a saved special fund of 20 million won were secured thanks to corporate support. In 2013, Cheongju City Hall supported about 820 million won including budget from the group, budget of the policy task research project of the budget planning department, and revised the supplementary budget. With the beginning of the integrated city of Cheongju in July 2014, the relevant department of the Green Cheongju City Council was the Coexistence Development Manager's Office, and the council budget of 2015 was similar to that of 2013.
References The Council of Green Cheongju (2013). Two-year Experiment to Transform into Good Governance Restructured into the Council of Green Cheongju. Built and Operated Green Cheongju Network (Document submitted to Sustainability Development Subject Contest in 2013) Written by Park Jongeul, Administrative Director, the Council of Green Cheongju (greencj21@ hanmail.net) & Han Soonkeum, Professional Officer, ICLEI Korea Office (soonkeum.han@iclei.org) Edited by Choi Youngmi, Program Manager and Kim Jihee, Program Officer, General Support Department (English Version) Edited by Ko Hyejin, Program Officer, Policy & Knowledge Management Team.
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ICLEI Korea Office Case Study Series No. 9 •Published date : Sep. 1, 2017 •Publisher : Park Yeon-hee •Writer : Park Jongeul and Han Soon-Geum •English editor: Ko Hyejin •Published by ICLEI Korea Office