Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that the Taipei City Government would have a clearer roadmap for a possible legal battle with Taipei Dome contractor Farglory Group over the potential dissolution of the build-operate-transfer contract.
Several Taipei city councilors pressed Ko during a question-and-answer session at the Taipei City Council to discuss what his administration’s next step would be in trying to resolve the debacle.
Independent Taipei City Councilor Lin Ruey-tu (林瑞圖) said that he had been negotiating with Farglory on behalf of two businessmen to resolve the standoff.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Farglory had agreed to making several concessions in the hope that the construction, suspended since May last year, could be resumed, Lin said.
These include reducing the number of seats in the stadium from 40,000 to 30,000 and complying with a review of seven safety requirements the city has outlined, on the condition that an independent third party sign off on the city’s verdict on whether it has met four of the requirements.
With Farglory having backed down from its earlier stance, Ko should make clear his position on whether the contract is to be dissolved, as he threatened to do last month should Farglory fail to make necessary improvements to the Dome site by Aug. 23, Lin said.
He also pressed Ko to say whether he is confident about winning a lawsuit that Farglory is sure to file against the city if the contract is terminated.
Ko declined to respond except to say that the city’s attorneys were researching the case and that details regarding the potential lawsuit would be released on Wednesday.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Wang Hsin-yi (王欣儀) asked Ko to sign an affidavit stating that he would shoulder all possible monetary compensation the city could face, estimated at tens of billions of New Taiwan dollars, if the contract is dissolved.
Ko declined.
“Political manipulation is not the way to solve these types of problems. Everything should proceed by law… I am only doing my job as a mayor,” Ko said.
In other council news, Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City Councilor Liu Yao-jen (劉耀仁) questioned Ko about welfare subsidies that pro-unification Concentric Patriotism Association executive director Chang Xiuye (張秀葉) receives from the Taipei Department of Social Welfare.
Chang, a Chinese who moved to Taiwan after marrying a Taiwanese man, receives NT$13,215 a month.
Citing results of an investigation, Liu said that Chang’s registered home address is the address of the association, and that both her parents still live in China, which violates the regulations governing the subsidies.
The regulations stipulate that the personal property, real-estate holdings and savings of an applicant’s parents be taken into consideration, Liu said.
It is unfair that some Taiwanese have been denied subsidies, while Chang has been given them for years, Liu said.
Ko told Liu that he agreed that it was unreasonable for Chang to receives such subsidies.
Department of Social Welfare Commissioner Hsu Li-min (許立民) told the city council that the money that Chang has been given would be recalled if the ongoing probe finds that she had provided false information when applying for the subsidies.
Families with a monthly per capita income of less than NT$15,162 are eligible for the subsidies.
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