Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday announced a major reshuffle of department chiefs as he prepares for the start of his second term on Tuesday next week.
A resignation ceremony was held at Taipei City Hall yesterday morning, with all department heads in attendance and Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基) representing them to hand in the resignation name list to Ko.
Two of the three deputy mayors — Charles Lin (林欽榮) and Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) — are among those who are leaving their posts.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
After thanking the department heads, Ko said that when he assumed the post four years ago, he promised that city government workers would not have to serve any political party or ideology, nor the mayor; they only have to serve the public.
He is happy that his administrative team was not involved in graft scandals, which is a big change compared with previous administrations, because civil servants can finally perform their duties according to the law, make the most of their professional skills and be innovative, Ko said.
Stressing the importance of an open government and public participation, Ko said: “Openness and transparency are political ideals that this city government have gradually realized.”
He thanked the department heads for their efforts and said he hoped that they would bring the new political culture to their new positions.
Civil servants ranked grade 10 and above in the city government have all been promoted through a selection mechanism that includes voting by peers, so they no longer needed to “pull strings” to earn credit and could focus on their performance, Ko said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
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