12
Wednesday, February 9, 1972
Another question he would like to ask, Mr. Lo said, was "to whom
is the Director of Urban Services answerable?"
"I realize that in the initial and during the transitional stage,
the Council must work with the present staff in the Urban Services Department,"
he said.
"But the White Paper must make it plain that within a specified
period of time, it is the intention of the Government to transfer the staff
in the Urban Services Department to be a part and parcel of the Council's
own staff."
Mr. Lo said he supported the motion with the following qualifications:-
* That legislation should be drawn up to make the Urban
Council into a statutory Local Government with well-defined ecopes and functions and that it should be represented on various public bodies and committees where it had an interest.
* That detailed financial arrangements should be worked out in advance between the Central Government and the Council on the sharing of rates and the annual grants for capital works.
* That during the initial and transitional stage, the Director
of Urban Services Department should be made answerable to the Council, until such a time when the transfer of staff from the Department to the Council has been completed. For this reason, he should remain as a member of the Council, though not necessarily its Chairman.
* That the new Chairman, or one of its Council members,
should be appointed to sit on the Legislative Council.
That the composition of the Council should, for the time being, consist of equal number of appointed and elected members. But the ultimate aim is to have all elected members sitting on the Council. This could be achieved by replacing two appointed members at a time.
Mr. Lo felt that locally born people should have a say in the management
of local affairs. A truly representative body would provide a platform for their
political aspirations and instil some sense of belonging and community spirit
into them.
"The area
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