If public safety issues concerning the construction of the Taipei Dome complex cannot be resolved, the city’s “i-Voting” system is to be used as a last resort to decide the fate of the beleaguered build-operate-transfer (BOT) project, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
“We will hold public hearings [on the project] first and seek to work out solutions. If that fails, the public’s opinion will be the ultimate solution,” Ko said in response to media queries about the city’s plans to deal with the project.
He said that the city government would focus its efforts on its legal battle with project contractor Farglory Group regarding an arbitration court hearing next week about Farglory’s failure to complete the construction on the date set in the BOT contract.
Ko said that the city would also focus its attention on finding an alternative to resolve its standoff with Farglory.
“Farglory has been reluctant to consider solutions to resolve public safety issues, so I told relevant agencies that if Farglory keeps ignoring us, we should propose our own solutions,” he said, adding that the city would meanwhile arrange meetings and strive to reach an agreement with Farglory.
In response to Ko’s comments, Farglory Group spokesman Jacky Yang (楊舜欽) said that the city should not shift the public’s attention to i-Voting, which he said was “Ko’s political tool to tap into populism.”
Yang said that due to the high level of technicality involved in the project, there could be room for exploitation in the questionnaire’s design, putting the corporation at a disadvantage.
“All matters related to the Dome should proceed in accordance with the contract to safeguard Farglory’s interests,” he said. “Regardless of the outcome of i-Voting, it will ultimately come down to the contract. If the outcome contradicts contractual terms and the city government wants to terminate the contract, then it should ask a third party to appraise the project and buy it back according to the contract.”
When asked about the possibility of interested third parties taking over the Dome complex, Yang said it is not an option for Farglory.
“This has been the city government’s scheme all along,” he said. “It is the only party that has been making contact and arranging related meetings. Why would Farglory want an interested third party when it has not yet completed the construction?”
In other news, Ko yesterday defended the city’s suggestion to the Executive Yuan that residents should be required to work to make up for days off they are given during typhoons.
He said the decision to declare a typhoon day is tricky and amounts to a “gamble” for mayors and county commissioners.
“If you call a typhoon day and the weather turns out to be fine, business owners would complain. If you make people go to work in heavy rain, you would be condemned,” he said.
Ko said that although there is not yet a legal basis for local governments to declare compensatory work days, the nation should put forward a standard operating procedure to improve the mechanism of granting people typhoon days.
So far, 17 cities and counties, including Keelung and New Taipei City, have spoken out against Taipei’s proposal.
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