Independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday introduced a group of people who will choose the head of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection if he is elected, as he welcomed recommendations and applications for the job.
Top city officials are usually handpicked by the mayor, but to put his idea of “open government” into practice, Ko announced earlier that he would ask a panel composed of environmental experts and activists to choose the most suitable person to lead the department.
The panel includes Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU) founder Shih Hsin-min (施信民), TEPU vice chairman Liu Chih-chien (劉志堅), former New Taipei City Environmental Protection Bureau director Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基), attorney Thomas Chan (詹順貴), National Taiwan University professor Wu Kun-yu (吳焜裕), Homemakers’ Union founding chairwoman Chen Hsiu-hui (陳秀惠), board member Chen Man-li (陳曼麗), as well as a former Taipei environmental department director and vice director who wished to remain anonymous because they both are affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
“The panel that will choose the environmental department head is only the first; other panels are on the way,” Ko told a news conference at his campaign headquarters. “Setting up these panels and publicly calling for recommendations and applications for the jobs are to prevent accusations of the mayor selecting officials from his circle of friends.”
After the panel has chosen the candidates, Ko said he would ask 400,000 Taipei residents to vote online to select the best officials. He did not elaborate on how he decided on how the vote would proceed.
Ko said that since most public servants only act according to their supervisors’ instructions, he would only hold top officials responsible for administrative errors, instead of asking lower-ranking civil employees to shoulder the responsibility.
“There will be no more Yu Wen (余文) when I am elected mayor,” Ko added, referring to a secretary when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was the mayor of Taipei.
Yu was imprisoned when Ma was accused of embezzling public funds, as Ma said he had authorized Yu to handle all money affairs.
Commenting on Ko’s idea on appointing city officials, the Democratic Progressive Party said in a statement yesterday that it fully respects Ko and would not intervene in his choice of officials.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS