Basic Report

The entire revision of the Local Autonomy Act will affect local councils, and it will be meaningful to examine the influence of the revised law because the enforcement period of the revised law is January 13, 2022. The purpose of this study is to present improvement directions and alternatives to local councils effectively respond to the revised laws. Among the revised laws, the significance of independence of personnel rights of local councils is to realize the principle of checks and balances under the system of organization-separated institutions of local governments.
   First of all, in order to strengthen the capacity of local councils, the principle of arms equality must be realized to alleviate the problem of the imbalance between the strong the head of a local government and the weak council in an institutional confrontation structure. In a situation where public consensus on local councils has been low, that is, local councils' capabilities do not meet the expectations of the people, it is inevitable to improve the secretariat of the council to support local council members (individuals) and council (institutions).
   First, the identity of the council's Institution district and the characteristics of the name were examined through the Government Organization Act, and as a result, the independence of the council's institutions was insufficient.
   Next, the structure of the secretariat of the council was analyzed with five principles of formation of the organizational structure: the principle of specialization/division of labor, the principle of coordination and integration, the principle of hierarchical system, the principle of command and unification.
   First, as a result of analyzing the principle of specialization/division of labor, and specifically whether the functional differentiation is properly established, the function and organization to check the executive department were not properly equipped. The reason is that it is virtually difficult to establish an organization in accordance with the Presidential Decree, and the capacity and management authority of the organization were adding to this jurisdiction to the executive director.
   Second, as a result of analyzing the Presidential Decree in the principle of coordination and integration, the chairman of the local council, who is the head of the secretariat of the council, does not have authority over the quota and organization. Therefore, it can be said that there is no authority to coordinate and integrate the organization in the secretariat of the council.
   Third, when analyzed through the principle of hierarchical system whether or not the pyramid-type organizational structure is in the absence of an intermediate management layer, and accordingly, there was a problem that the position was not balanced with the executive branch. The reason is that the Presidential Decree stipulates the form of an assistant agency that is not independent. As a result, there was no middle management group because the subordinate organization could not be established, and accordingly, the position was not balanced with the executive branch.
   Fourth, as a result of the analysis according to the principle of the scope of leadership (the organization should be organized so that managers can control appropriate functions and manpower), changes in workload are expected due to the revision of the Local Autonomy Act.
   Fifth, from the principle of unification of orders, when the head of the agency gives instructions, it must be properly communicated and the desired issue must be handled. The situation in which personnel rights return to the chairperson of the local council is creating various variables. In other words, as the personnel circulation of local councils narrows, it may be possible to consider working with the executive branch, including employees of the executive branch. This is not true of the institutional confrontation structure discussed above, and it may be questionable whether the principle of unification of orders and the instructions of the chairman of the local council will be properly handled.
   Based on this analysis, the revision of the Presidential Decree should be linked to the revision of the Local Autonomy Act, but at present, it does not seem possible due to time limitations. Therefore, measures to ensure that all amendments to the Local Autonomy Act can be reflected as much as possible within the current system will be needed first. In other words, only horizontal supplementation (increase or decrease of The number of people) will be possible rather than vertical supplementation (resolution of position imbalance, etc.) of the organization organization and quota of the council secretariat. In the mid- to long-term, vertical supplementation should also be reviewed based on the revision of the Presidential Decree. If an organization with council support capabilities that can check the executive branch to some extent is equipped, the capabilities of local councils and local council members will be further enhanced to improve democracy, such as residents' demands.