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.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS