Mayor’s remarks
I. More than two thousand days: Tainan is a-changing
1. This is the 300th municipal administrative meeting after Tainan was promoted to a municipality. Working closely together over more than two thousand days, Tainan’s citizens, members of the City Council, and colleagues of the City Government have achieved outstanding accomplishments garnered numerous awards for their achievements in attracting industrial investment, promoting environmental protection and green energy, marketing distinctive tourism, and preserving the city’s cultural assets. The efforts and practices of all departments and bureaus over those 2000 days should be widely shared with the public and serve as guidance on city management to future administrations.
2. Tainan is Taiwan’s oldest city and has always been a city of immigrants. These immigrants include people traveling across Taiwan in the past, immigrants from mainland China in the postwar period, immigrants within the island nowadays, and immigrants from Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. Everybody contributes their knowledge and efforts to this city to make Tainan a better city. I especially hope that all residents and civil servants may heed the needs and recommendations of new immigrants with an open heart and tolerant mind, regardless of who came here first.
3. Openness and participation are the core values of modern public governance. Everyone with a passion for participating in public affairs should be considered as a partner of the city government. Based on this concept, I specially urge that partners in different positions should maintain empathy and listen to one another. Whether elected representatives, colleagues of the city government, civilian groups, the media, cooperation units, or enthusiastic citizens, we all would do well to replace censure with more communication and refrain from second-guessing ulterior motives behind policies or expecting others to unconditionally accept one’s own opinions. Seeking consensus and compromise after the conflict is the only way to break a deadlock, and rational and courteous discussions are the only way to promote social progress and keep Tainan City ahead of others.
II. Summer break has come! Students are invited to follow their dreams bravely and learn happily
1. The summer break has started in schools of all levels. Since last week, the Tainan City Police Department (TNPD) also activated the “Youth Operation”. We must emphasize that instead of “disciplining adolescents for parents”, the “Youth Operation” aims to help adolescents be responsible for their physical and mental health and time management and enjoy a healthy, comprehensive, and substantial summer break.
2. Tainan City is a huge museum in itself. Recently, the Cultural Affairs Bureau, the National Museum of Taiwan History, and the Chimei Museum have launched many new exhibitions around different themes. These intellectual and interesting indoor exhibitions can relieve summer heat and shelter people from the rain. Therefore, these exhibitions are one of the best options for summer activities. Young people should go to exhibitions enthusiastically.
3. The Tourism Bureau has recently launched the “Summer High Sea Party” commercial. In the commercial, the songwriter and also singer Queen Wei takes viewers to explore scarcely known secret wonders around Tainan. Within one week after posting on social networking sites, the commercial reached 1.3 million people, creating up to 557,000 views. As these wonders are little known even to local young people, the city government advises visitors to do their homework first, make the best use of public transport like Tainan City Bus, and uphold the “safety first” principle in order to take foreign friends or family to adventure and discover more surprises in Tainan.
III. I am grateful to the Environmental Protection Bureau for winning a “Distinction”, i.e. the first prize, in the special municipality category at the “2016 Air Quality Maintenance or Improvement Performance Evaluation of Special Municipalities and Counties (Cities)” implemented by the Environmental Protection Administration. In fact, Tainan City has won this honor for two consecutive years, and this is something extremely difficult to achieve. Citizens increasingly demand better air quality. However, instead of discussing the gradual improvement of air quality in Tainan, some citizens simply criticized only one specific day with exceptionally lower air quality. Although there is nothing wrong with citizens checking and pushing the government to make progress if the government help citizens understand the gradual improvement of overall air quality over the years, they may ease their worries because the city government did not overlook their concerns about air quality. Thank you, Director-General Lee and colleagues of the Environmental Protection Bureau, for your efforts.
I am also grateful to the assistance of other departments and bureaus. The construction of the surface landscape project of Chinatown Plaza and of Haian Road has started. This 200-million-dollar project may not be special, but it is not easy to go this far. The city government needed to spend NT$2.1billion to expropriate and then demolish the private property on the Chinatown. The demolition of Chinatown is part of the zone expropriation of the Anping Canal Nova Special Area Zone expropriation. Before the approval of the zone expropriation for the Chinatown and Canal Nova Project, the city government must relocate Sinnan Elementary School and Jincheng Junior High School. Before relocating these two schools, we had to resolve the illegal occupation of hawkers in Sakariba and spend NT$700 million to build the new campus for Xinnan Elementary School and Jincheng Junior High School. Each step was extremely tough. After finishing all these, we could start the surface landscape project of Chinatown Plaza and Haian Road. Before implementing surface landscape construction on Haian Road, we also needed to revitalize the underground beneath Haian Road. Fucheng (the old name for Tainan), Lugang, and Manka (the oldest part of Taipei) used to be the top three cities in Taiwan, and the West Central District was the heart of Fucheng. Although there were seven seats in the council for West Central District, now there are only two. This suggests that time has changed. Through construction (art museum, exhibition center, and baseball training center) and demolition (Chinatown, Sakariba, and Hezho Building), the city government has resolved these long-time burdens, hoping to restore the past prosperity of West Central District. I am grateful to Deputy Mayor Wu, Deputy Mayor Chang, Secretary-General Lee, Public Works Bureau, Water Resources Bureau, Bureau of Transportation, Bureau of Urban Development, and Bureau of Land Administration for your cooperation and efforts.
Reports
I. Report on “Results of Inventory on Unused Classrooms in Schools in Tainan City” by Senior Executive Officer Ming-jhen Chen (refer to written sources for details)
Resolution: Approved for reference filing
Mayor’s comments:
(1) I am grateful to Deputy Mayor Wu for leading Senior Executive Officer Chen and the Bureau of Education to form the “School Unused Classroom Inventory Team”. Apart from investigating the 87 elementary and junior high schools in the city, the team has established a standard operating procedure (SOP) for on-site inventory to provide a set of consistent criteria for schools to inventory facilities according to the “Standards for Elementary and Junior High School Facilities” set by the Ministry of Education. The team has also disclosed the results on the website. By the end of June 2017, there were 606 unused classrooms in 43 schools in Tainan City, and 151 unused classrooms will be provided for use by units that need more space.
(2) From the current general inventory, we found that many schools have revitalized the use of unused classrooms according to the “Directions for Campus Space Diversification and Revitalization of Tainan City”. The revitalization included transforming unused classrooms into centers for featuring teaching, early childhood education, senior education, and adult education. In order to meet the “open government” spirit, the Bureau of Education has set up the “Campus Space Revitalization Network” to disclose information on the inventory and revitalization of unused classrooms with absolute transparency for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), social welfare units, youth entrepreneurial and experimental groups, and arts and cultural groups to apply for use. I urge the Bureau of Education and schools to make the best use of this centralized platform and reinforce horizontal communication with the Bureau of Social Affairs, Cultural Affairs Bureau, and all district offices in order to continuously revitalize unused campus space and thereby create more possibilities for public space.
(3) Dr. Sun Sat-sen once said, “Let people exploit their talent, let resources demonstrate their best account, let the utility of material maximize, and let commodities circulate without barriers.” Over the past few years, we have hired employees based on their talent and given them full delegation to exploit their talent; and inventoried unused land and classrooms to ensure the best account of resources. As “let the utility of material maximize and let commodities circulate without barriers” is also the city management spirit of the city government, we hope that this spirit continues.
II. Report on “Status of Preparation for the 2017 IV WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup” by the Bureau of Education (refer to written sources for details)
Resolution: Approved for reference filing
Mayor’s comments:
(1) Tainan is the cradle of Taiwan’s national baseball representatives. By organizing international baseball games, we can promote city diplomacy through baseball and enhance Tainan’s visibility. The biennial WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup will be held in three baseball fields in Tainan from July 28 to August 6. Based on the experience of the 2015 III WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup, we can handle the event with greater ease. Under the direction of Director-General Chen, colleagues of the Department of Sports have performed their assigned duties conscientiously to finish the event preparation. In order to serve the little players and guests from different parts of the world, departments and bureaus should give full cooperation for related duties and publicity work.
(2) The city government has Snoopy as the event mascot again. In the downtown area, Snoopy buses and publicity materials are seen everywhere. The Office of English as the Second Official Language has also launched the Play Ball Baseball English Project for citizens to feel the event passion. Twelve schools will be responsible for the reception work this year. Besides cheering up players, these schools will arrange cultural exchanges and visits for different teams for these worldwide little players and guests to explore the features and feel the hospitality of Tainan. The Bureau of Education and related departments and bureaus should continue with the preparation and related work. During the event period, the TNPD, Bureau of Transportation, Department of Information and International Relations, and related departments and bureaus should carry out their duties conscientiously.