YONGIN — Yongin is pushing ahead with its first reorganization of the current municipal administration to keep pace with rapid urban growth and rising demand for public services.
The city said on Sept. 29 that it had issued a public notice of the proposed reorganization, which strengthens policy functions in future industries such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors while bolstering administrative capacity in public asset development, external cooperation, and welfare and care services.
The overhaul creates two new divisions and 39 new teams. The water quality analysis team at the sewerage works office, whose functions have shrunk, will be abolished. City Hall will be restructured into two offices, 13 bureaus, 67 divisions and 288 teams, while affiliated agencies, works offices, three district offices and neighborhood offices will also expand.
The number of civil servant positions will rise by 131 to 3,605 from 3,474. The city plans to assign a large share of the added staff to affiliated agencies, works offices, district offices and neighborhood offices to improve frontline responsiveness in areas closest to residents' daily lives.
One of the central changes is the reinforcement of units handling future industries and urban development. The existing Fourth Industrial Revolution convergence division will be reorganized into an AI and smart strategy division, with a new AI strategy team to plan and coordinate artificial intelligence policy across the city. A new advanced industry permit team will support licensing and approvals for high-tech sectors including semiconductors.
The city will also create a public contribution management team and a public architecture planning team to negotiate and manage public contributions arising from large-scale development projects in a systematic way. Other new units include a construction safety team overseeing safety at construction sites, a road facility planning team handling preliminary procedures and planning for road projects, and a road tunnel team dedicated to tunnel safety management.
External cooperation functions will be strengthened as well. A new exchange and cooperation division will be set up under the planning and coordination office, including an external affairs team tasked with policy consultations with the central government and the National Assembly and with responding to major pending issues. The city said the move will improve its ability to handle national projects and local issues.
In Suji District, road-related work will be separated from the existing construction and roads division to form a new roads division, while the existing division will be renamed the construction division. Cheoin District will add a second cadastral team, a second building permit team and a second development activity team to handle demand for development and permits, and Giheung District will add a second road management team.
Welfare and care units will also expand. Welfare administration teams will be newly established at 20 neighborhood offices across Cheoin, Giheung and Suji districts. The move separates general welfare administration from tailored welfare functions and is intended to respond more closely to the specific welfare needs of individual residents.
A care support team will be added to the integrated care division and a health care team to the Cheoin District public health center, strengthening links between care and health management services. A child abuse response team will be set up in the childcare division to reinforce a dedicated response system for such cases. A Sinbong Library team will also begin operating in time for the library's opening in December.
A civil complaint mediation team will be created in the civil affairs and passport division to handle repeated or unusual complaints and to strengthen protection and support for staff who handle them. Some teams will also be renamed to better match the nature of their work, including the livelihood economy policy team and the social solidarity economy team.
The city plans to redeploy organizations and staff from areas where workloads have fallen, such as functions shifted to private contractors, to areas where administrative demand is growing. Officials said the focus is on placing staff where work actually arises rather than simply expanding the organization.
Mayor Lee Sang-il said administrative demand continues to grow as the semiconductor industry and large-scale urban development advance simultaneously in Yongin. As of the end of August, Yongin had 1,112,301 residents, meaning each civil servant serves more than 320 residents under the current staffing level, according to the city.
"This reorganization is about deploying the necessary organizations and staff at the right time where work is actually happening, rather than simply expanding the organization," the mayor said. "We will carry out the core policies of this administration without setbacks and strengthen administrative services that residents can feel."
The city will gather opinions from residents and related agencies during the public notice period before proceeding with steps including a review by its ordinance and rules deliberation committee. The draft ordinance is scheduled to be submitted to the 308th regular session of the city council in November, and the city plans to implement the new structure in January 2027 after council deliberation and approval and revisions to local regulations.
