Page 17 of 120
2
# HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
## ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN (in English):-Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen, Council is called to order. I would like to welcome Mrs. Selina CHOW and Dr. Philip Kwok on their first public meeting and hope that they will have many years of rewarding service to the community in this Council.
## MINUTES
The minutes of the meeting held on 11 March 1980 were confirmed.
(Miss Cecilia L. Y. YEUNG arrived at this point.)
## STATEMENT BY CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN (in English):-To change without reason may be an idle exercise. But to change in order to serve better the common good seems to be the clear duty of a public authority drawing its resources from the people. Otherwise, it would be just another case of the futility of power without a beneficial public purpose.
The same test should apply evidently to this Council too. It has evolved purposefully since its reconstitution seven years ago. Its working arrangements were reformed, its financial base reshaped and its basic services improved while numerous projects were initiated and countless activities innovated. All was done within measure of its resources and none beyond its means.
All the time, the administration was strengthened and old working habits now out of character discarded without disruption of service to the community. Progressive financial management held the line in inflationary times without sacrificing approved measures for community betterment. Indeed, longtime residents say that in matters within the Council's powers more progress was made in the last seven years to improve local living conditions all round than ever before in their recollection. There is still much to do nevertheless.
The Council has to catch up quickly on decades of underdevelopment when the authorities did not set their sights high enough though times were fair and the going was easy. There is now a firm commitment to many hundreds of improvement schemes and thousands of activities but costs run away at an inflationary gallop while revenue only creeps forward at a snail's pace. So, let it be said again, the future bears close watching if the momentum of progress is not to falter. Moreover, the Council must have the courage and foresight to put into effect new measures for the public good.
## HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Of course, it would be retrogressive to retrench services essential to protect public health or to cut programmes aimed at the development of community pride and spirit or even to hold up the many more construction projects soon to be put in hand. All the greater then is the need to continue rationalizing the financial structure. A healthy financial condition is vital for progress. But it does not happen in a trice.
To get the most for the people out of the scarce resources the Council has at its command, it must necessarily adapt its policies to the realities of existing working conditions while changing them for the better. To do so properly the working echelon has to be realigned periodically. Responsibilities have to be grouped anew from time to time. They should accord with recent experiences and so prepare the position for a new thrust in promising directions looming ahead.
The joint responsibility remains as always. All authority is vested collectively in this Council whether exercised in open meetings or in the private sessions of the Standing Committee of the Whole Council. There is in practice wide delegation of powers to the select committees and the sub-committees. Executive authority is actually decentralized through the committee network to be implemented ultimately by the directorate and the staff as it should be.
Functional select committees do the actual work set out in their respective terms of reference and according to the policy manual. There are also interlocking situations because all projects and programmes have staff, money and often construction implications. They are closely monitored by co-ordinating committees in their turn.
Cutting across it all is the right of every member to be informed on all activities. There are no secrets. There is only honesty of purpose. And, everything that is done is disclosed truthfully to the public as a matter of routine. Minutes of meetings are issued to all members without exception. There is furthermore the opportunity to discuss all that goes on when the Standing Committee meets fortnightly and there is the right to refer any matter in a select committee to the whole Council.
Thus, total involvement is the order of the day. Indeed, there is also full accountability on the part of the department to the committees while the discretion to intervene lies personally with every member throughout the ordinary proceedings if he attends the regular meetings duly convened well in advance.
In sum, the Council's new work-style since reconstitution in 1973 means:
1. Complete access to information.
2. Equal opportunity to participate.
3. Collegial responsibility.
4. Collective decision and direct action.
Page 17 of 12