Nobody Lives in 5,400 pyong Land But Mr. and Mrs. Mayor

The official residence for Pusan City mayor has a floor space of 1,326 m2 in 17,968 m2 site. The official resident for Cheju governor has a floor space 1.751 m2 in 15,025 m2 site.

There are some criticisms that many local governments have still kept the huge official residence like the palace of Chin Emperor, spending the maintenance cost of hundreds of million won.

Of course, every local governor does not live in the luxurious official house. Some governors refused to move into the official house to make it the useful space for the local residents.

▼ Luxurious Residence

The size of the official residence site of 16 cities and provinces totals 77,745 m2, and the total size of floor size amounts to 9,180 m2.

The Pusan City mayor`s residence has the greatest size. Located in Namcheon-Dong, Sooyoung-Gu, this official house was built in Feb. 1985 with the construction cost of 4.1 billion won. Mr. and Mrs. Mayor live in the first floor of this house with two stories above ground and one beneath ground level. And four security policemen and one housekeeper reside in it together.

▼ Changing To Child Care Center

As he took up the office in 1996, Sim Wan-Gu, mayor of Ulsan Metropolitan City, changed the official residence to the child care center and is living in a rented apartment located in Dal-Dong, Nam-Gu. The child care center is currently taking care of 64 children. And there are always many applicants exceeding its capacity because it has a cozy and comfortable environment and as well charges the very low fee, about 70 percent of general child care centers.

Choi Gi-Sun, mayor of Incheon City, also moved into an apartment in Dongchoon-Dong, Yeonsu-Gu. Instead, the Songhak-Dong official residence has been utilized as a history museum.

Daegu City Mayor Moon Hee-Gap and Kwangju City Mayor Ko Jae-Yoo have lived in apartments of 60-70 pyong. They expressed that there have been no problem in executing their duties as mayors.

Youngam-Gun of Jeonnam Province changed the governor`s official residence to the `local culture history museum`. Bonghwa-Gun of Kyungbuk Province renovated into the dormitory for high school students. There are many cases that the official residence changed its function for local residents.

▼ Spend Hundreds of Million Won For Maintenance

Many point out that it is unnecessary to maintain the gigantic official houses spending unbelievably large amount of maintenance cost, because only mayor or governor couples mostly live in the house. It is a reasonable criticism because a huge amount of cost has been spent to hire the security personnel, housekeepers, and secretaries, and to manage the facilities amounting from 10 million won to 30 million won.

Kang Jeong-Hoo manman@donga.com