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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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Mr. Chairman, there are more than 800,000 people moving in Mong Kok District every day. If there is still no improvement to the environmental hygiene of the district, how would the public have any good opinion of the Council? I hope the Department can fulfil its commitment of sweeping streets four times a day as stated in its Performance Pledge.
With these remarks, Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
MR. PAUL YOUNG TZE-KONG (in English):—Mr. Chairman, almost eight years have passed since I was appointed as a member of this Council after serving the Southern District Board since its inception. During the past two decades, it has indeed been an honour to be invited by the Government and non-Government organisations to serve the community and the public. The scope of exposure was indeed wide, covering management and industrial training, health and welfare, especially youth and aged, culture, recreation and so forth. My days with Urban Council, though adding to the heavy workload of my family business, lecturing at Lingnan College and other community bodies have been eventful and colourful. I wish to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to those colleagues, staff and members of the public who have supported me in one way or another. The valuable experiences and relationships will be an important page in the history of my life.
Unlike most of its counterparts around the world, the Urban Council is unique in that, in practice, the posting of its senior employees of its executive arm, the USD, are largely dictated by the Central Government Civil Service Branch, although they are remunerated by the Urban Council. This arrangement could often put the senior employee in a dilemma as to which of the two bosses' wishes they should first answer. Perhaps this also answers the difficulties Councillors face in having the initiative and ideas accepted and translated into action by its executive arm, the USD.
The Council's services are, by nature, labour-intensive. For the current financial year, the forecast of personal emolument of the staff is almost 55% of its revenue. Persistent high inflation and public expectation will tend to increase this item of expenditure. The Council and the Department will have to make great efforts to coordinate and control the growth and quality of this force. Perhaps, re-engineering and streamlining some of the process and working procedure within the whole organisation will also help. Greater investment in the training of its personnel and application of modern office technology to complement the workforce are necessary and may I add here, greater attention and opportunity of communicating with the public should also be exploited.
By April, the Council will be a fully appointed body. Traditional administrative practice of the Council and the Department will have to adapt to the deliberation of the new composition of elected members. Members should be proactive in finding formal and informal channels to keep themselves informed of various decisions made by Select Committees and working parties under the Standing Committees of the whole Council. Decisions made are binding on all members of the Council. This is even more pertinent in view of the recent and unfortunate imposition and extension of the power of the Commissioner for Administration Complaints covering the two municipal councils' policy area. Though this was much advocated by the administration, I failed to see the necessity and usefulness of this, especially for the Council's next term.
I will not be present here in the next term to witness the completion of the works by the present Council. Works never end, the knowledge and skills I have acquired will put me in good stead in my future service to the community. I hope one does not need to be elected to do that!
In ending, I wish to share with all of you here, an important motto of the Rotary International, that is, "Service Above Self", and the four-way test of what we say, think and do. First, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concerned? Third, will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial to all concerned?
With the above words, and all the best to the Council's future, I support the motion.
MR. JASON YUEN KING-YUK (in English):-Mr. Chairman, as Chairman of the Museum Select Committee, I originally intended to give a brief report of the significant progress of museum project development over the past year, but since you have earlier on already included that part in your report, and there shall also be another opportunity for me to report the same tomorrow to the Press as the 'Year End Report of the Museums Select Committee', I would not like to repeat all these but to choose a separate thematic subject to speak, which is an architectural observation, called: 'Municipal facilities and the users'.
My subject of speech is valid to our current capital works programme under planning or under construction, which is not at all related to the election situation already commenced outside this chamber, as I prefer to keep my business as usual here today, which is my duty at this time of the year, and to accept whatever outcome after the month of March.
Sir, we are all tax-payers and are therefore genuine rightful users of all the municipal venues and facilities. Today, I repeat, I would like to briefly speak on the subject of 'Municipal facilities and the users.'
According to the figures published in the 5-yearly Urban Council Capital Works Programme from 1994/95 to 1998/99, the average annual expenditure for building parks, gardens, swimming pools, indoor games halls, and UC Complex including markets, etc., amounted to about $870 million, but how much consideration in the design and construction of these venues and facilities has been given to the users? How frequent has users' opinion poll been held after the venues and facilities have been put in use for some time?
We have heard about the extremely irritating indoor noise problem in some of our swimming pools and indoor games halls for years, but no rectification works seemed to have been taken. I have personally experienced an embarrassing situation recently when I had to perform my duty to officiate a Basketball Tournament Launching Ceremony on behalf of the Council in the Chai Wan Indoor Games Hall, but it was found that the echoing noise was so bad that none of the audience could hear a word.
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