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82
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
From my observation, criticisms of inadequate communication and poor relationship between District Boards and the Urban Council result from one's attitude towards people rather than the incident itself. Generally speaking, with very frequent interpersonal contact, it is absolutely difficult for us to be always on harmonious terms with the others, let alone in political occasions. In District Board meetings, sometimes different opinions of the attendants on a certain issue would give rise to heated debates. At present, when Hong Kong has not come to maturity in terms of political consciousness, it is no surprise that sentiments produced by a heated debate would be brought outside the meetings. Furthermore, the Urban Councillors' dual role as ex-officio District Board members make them different from the ordinary District Board members in the first place. And, besides officials from the Urban Services Department, there are also District Board members in Urban Councillor hats in the meetings, so it is natural that the spearhead will be pointed at these 'extraordinary' members when the District Board members are not satisfied with municipal facilities and services of the districts, priority in the usage of municipal venues or insist on the districts' interests. It is true that a few Urban Councillors were showing less concern about the work of District Boards due to a lack of understanding of the respective districts (I would like to make a little explanation here. Mr. TONG has just mentioned my name. I am not trying to sing a different tune, but in fact, appointed Urban Councillors are required to sit in the ten urban District Boards in accordance with their seniority, so sometimes they are sent to a district which they are not familiar with.) while a few are showing excessive 'concern', thus resulting in an over-interruption of their work. When District Board members talk about the grievances resulting from the dual role of the Councillors and human factors, it would become 'a poor relationship', 'inadequate communication' and 'inadequate reflection' between the two parties. In fact, there is no 'communication' problem between District Boards and the Urban Council. Like other government departments, the Urban Services Department also sends senior staff members to attend all the meetings of District Boards and their subordinating committees. Even area committee meetings are attended by staff members of quite a high rank. They fulfill the task of communicating with and reflecting the views of both District Boards and the grass-root level. With this, together with the coordination of the District Management Committee, there is already sufficient communication and linkage between the two parties.
To reduce the hindrance of matters due to human factors as well as the meaningless attack on Urban Councillors due to their attendance of District Board meetings, and since I believe that as compared with Urban Councillors, it is more worthwhile and contributive for members of some government advisory committees, like the Hong Kong Housing Authority and Transport Advisory Committee, to become ex-officio members of certain districts. They, however, do not become ex-officio District Board members spontaneously, so why should the Urban Councillors enjoy this kind of special treatment? In this way, I support the Green Paper in abolishing the ex-officio seats of the Urban Councillors in District Boards.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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83
Apart from supporting the abolition of the Councillors' ex-officio seats in District Boards, I believe that there is absolutely no need to make any changes to the structure, number of Councillors and work arrangement of the Urban Council.
Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
MR. CHOW WAI-KEUNG (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, I stand to support your motion. Also, I would like to say a few words in support of your motion. First, I have been serving in the Central and Western District Board since it was first set up and began to have directly elected membership. It has been five years and I have the impression that the C & W District Board is practical and realistic, being able to distinguish between public and private interests, and value overall interests more than personal advantages. This has been the attitude of DB members over the years. Their duty is to monitor the work of government departments, especially in the district. There are two ways of doing it. One is aimed at the executive departments. Thus, the government department officials attending the C & W District Board meetings are rather scared. The C & W District Board is famous for its way of pursuing matters to the end. In the process of monitoring, members very often put forward demands. If the demands are in line with existing policies but the department concerned has not been implementing them, that department will come under great pressure from the DB. The second way is aimed at policies which are not formulated by staff of executive departments. Thus, queries should be directed at the body responsible for formulating the policies, as for example, the Urban Council. In this connection, members have their usual way of pursuing matters to the end.
In the past few years, besides effectively forcing government departments to carry out their work in the district in accordance with set policies, the C & W District Board has put forward many views, some of which have been accepted by the government. For example, according to former housing policies, those who become homeless as a result of natural disasters will not be rehoused in the vicinity of the urban area. As a consequence of a natural disaster in the C & W District, the policy department (i.e., the department responsible for formulating housing policies), under pressure by the District Board, finally agreed to amending the policies to the effect that victims of natural disasters other than fire will be rehoused in the vicinity of the urban area. The second example concerns the Urban Council. While Urban Council facilities are usually for Urban Council purposes, the District Board has moved to change this normal practice for, once, on request by the District Board and approval by the Urban Council, a portion of the UC Western Complex has been allocated to some other government department(s) as social welfare facilities. These changes in policies were effected because the District Board can function efficiently within the realm of its terms of reference.
From the above examples, we see that the C & W District Board is sagacious, practical and realistic, and can differentiate between public and private
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Page 46 of 185
Page 45 of 185
82
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
From my observation, criticisms of inadequate communication and poor relationship between District Boards and the Urban Council result from one's attitude towards people rather than the incident itself. Generally speaking, with very frequent interpersonal contact, it is absolutely difficult for us to be always on harmonious terms with the others, let alone in political occasions. In District Board meetings, sometimes different opinions of the attendants on a certain issue would give rise to heated debates. At present, when Hong Kong has not come to maturity in terms of political consciousness, it is no surprise that sentiments produced by a heated debate would be brought outside the meetings. Furthermore, the Urban Councillors' dual role as ex-officio District Board members make them different from the ordinary District Board members in the first place. And, besides officials from the Urban Services Department, there are also District Board members in Urban Councillor hats in the meetings, so it is natural that the spearhead will be pointed at these 'extraordinary' members when the District Board members are not satisfied with municipal facilities and services of the districts, priority in the usage of municipal venues of insist on the districts' interests. It is true that a few Urban Councillors were showing less concern about the work of District Boards due to a lack of understanding of the respective districts (I would like to make a little explanation here. Mr. TONG has just mentioned my name. I am not trying to sing a different tune, but in fact, appointed Urban Councillors are required to sit in the ten urban District Boards in accordance with their seniority, so sometimes they are sent to a district which they are not familiar with.) while a few are showing excessive 'concern', thus resulting in an overinterruption of their work. When District Board members talk about the grievances resulting from the dual role of the Councillors and human factors, it would become 'a poor relationship', 'inadequate communication' and 'inadequate reflection' between the two parties. In fact, there is no 'communication' problem between District Boards and the Urban Council. Like other government department, the Urban Services Department also send senior staff members to attend all the meetings of District Boards and their subordinating committees. Even area committee meetings are attended by staff members of quite a high rank. They fulfill the task of communicating with and reflecting the views of both District Boards and the grass-root level. With this, together with the coordination of the District Management Committee, there is already sufficient communication and linkage between the two parties.
To reduce the hindrance of matters due to human factors as well as the meaningless attack on Urban Councillors due to their attendance of District Board meetings, and since I believe that as compared with Urban Councillors, it is more worthwhile and contributive for members of some government advisory committees, like the Hong Kong Housing Authority and Transport Advisory Committee, to become ex-officio members of certain districts. They, however, do not become ex-officio District Board members spontaneously, so why should the Urban Councillors enjoy this kind of special treatment? In this way, I support the Green Paper in abolishing the ex-officio seats of the Urban Councillors in District Boards.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Page 45 of 185
83
Apart from supporting the abolition of the Councillors' ex-officio seats in District Boards, I believe that there is absolutely no need to make any changes to the structure, number of Councillors and work arrangement of the Urban Council.
Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
MR. CHOW WAI-KEUNG (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, I stand to support your motion. Also I would like to say a few words in support of your motion. First, I have been serving in the Central and Western District Board since it was first set up and began to have directly elected membership. It has been five years and I have the impression that the C & W District Board is practical and realistic, being able to distinguish between public and private interests, and value overall interests more than personal advantages. This has been the attitude of DB members over the years. Their duty is to monitor the work of government departments, especially in the district. There are two ways of doing it. One is aimed at the executive departments. Thus the government department officials attending the C & W District Board meetings are rather scared. The C & W District Board is famous for its way of pursuing matters to the end. In the process of monitoring, members very often put forward demands. If the demands are in line with existing policies but the department concerned has not been implementing them, that department will come under great gressure from the DB. The second way is aimed at policies which are not formulated by staff of executive departments. Thus queries should be directed at the body responsible for formulating the policies, as for example, the Urban Council. In this connexion, members have their usual way of pursuing matters to the end.
In the past few years, besides effectively forcing government departments to carry out their work in the district in accordance with set policies, the C & W District Board has put forward many views, some of which have been accepted by the government. For example, according to former housing policies, those who become homeless as a result of natural disasters will not be rehoused in the vicinity of the urban area. As a consequence of a natural disaster in the C & W District, the policy department (i.e. the department responsible for formulating housing policies), under pressure by the District Board, finally agreed to amending the policies to the effect that victims of natural disasters other than fire will be rehoused in vicinity of the urban area. The second example concerns the Urban Council. While Urban Council facilities are usually for Urban Council purposes, the District Board has moved to change this normal practice for, once, on request by the District Board and approval by the Urban Council, a portion of the UC Western Complex has been allocated to some other government department(s) as social welfare facilities. These changes in policies were effected because the District Board can function efficiently within the realm of its terms of reference.
From the above examples, we see that the C & W District Board is sagacious, practical and realistic, and can differentiate between public and private
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