Busan launches campaign pledge advisory panel amid personnel controversies, internal rifts

Busan Metropolitan City will formally launch its Campaign Pledge Advisory and Evaluation Panel at City Hall Thursday afternoon, marking the start of efforts to draw up a concrete action plan for the 9th elected term. The panel was commissioned to share the city's urban vision and administrative direction for the term and to review and advise on 123 draft action plans across policy areas.

The panel will assess, from an objective standpoint, whether the pledge action plans are aligned with the 9th-term urban vision of "Busan — Maritime Capital at the Center of a Great Future Transformation." It will examine whether the intent and policy direction of each pledge matches that vision, and will look comprehensively at public impact, project necessity and feasibility, funding and implementation frameworks, and achievability within the mayoral term. The panel will also check for overlap among pledges and set priorities.

The 9th-term city administration will be driven by four urban goals: becoming a maritime capital connecting the world, building an innovation-driven economy open to the future, achieving balanced growth where every neighborhood is livable, and creating a citizen-centered city where everyone enjoys good health. The plan calls for the panel to review and refine 123 core pledges compiled by the transition committee, known as the "Busan Ready to Run Again Committee," before a citizen jury panel grants final approval.

Mayor Jeon said Thursday he was asking the panel for thorough advice and scrutiny "so that the 9th-term pledges can serve as a blueprint for making Busan a maritime capital, and so that their results translate into policies that genuinely improve the lives of citizens." He added, "Promises to citizens must be kept not with words, but with competence and results."

Despite that vision, skepticism has emerged over whether the city can secure the practical momentum needed to deliver on its pledges. Jeon drew criticism over an "outside appointment" after nominating as president of Busan Transportation Corporation a candidate from the greater Seoul area who had resigned midterm — with six months remaining — from the presidency of Seoul Metro following allegations of hiring irregularities and a dismissal recommendation by the Board of Audit and Inspection. A separate "parachute hire" controversy arose when Jeon nominated a former aide to a Democratic Party lawmaker as chairman of the Busan Facilities Corporation.

Internal conflicts have compounded the uncertainty. Park Sang-jun, the Gangseo-gu district mayor and a fellow Democratic Party member, has staged a one-person protest in front of City Hall demanding the complete scrapping of a waste treatment facility project in Saengok, while Gijang-gun Mayor U Seong-bin has formally opposed the planned relocation of Poongsan Corporation's Busan plant to Jangan-eup in Gijang-gun. The combination of personnel controversies and intra-party clashes has put a question mark over Jeon's ability to drive his pledges forward in the early months of his term.