City pays out performance bonuses at monthly meeting, honoring top administrative achievements
Hanam City held its July 2026 monthly meeting Wednesday at the main auditorium of City Hall's annex, with city employees and residents in attendance.
The first monthly meeting since the launch of the ninth elected administration was organized to recognize civil servants who contributed to municipal progress through proactive governance and regulatory reform, and to share outstanding administrative achievements with the public.
Gamil sewage treatment plant scale-up project secures 23.5 billion won in developer contributions
Following a performance bonus review, the city paid out 57.8 million won in bonuses across 24 cases from 19 departments. The top award — 30 million won — went to the sewerage division for securing 23.5 billion won ($15.4 million) in developer contributions from Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) at the end of 2025, resolving a more than seven-year dispute over construction cost increases for the Gamil sewage treatment plant expansion. It is the highest single-case bonus ever paid since Hanam introduced its performance bonus system in 2017. The award is to be distributed among four contributors, including the head of the eco-friendly projects office.
The payout was made possible after the city proactively revised its performance management ordinance in May 2026 to reflect a January 2026 amendment to the Ministry of Interior and Safety's regulations on administrative operations and innovation, which raised the maximum performance bonus to 30 million won.
Last year, the city paid a 10 million won performance bonus — the highest ever awarded by a city or county in Gyeonggi Province — to a civil servant who improved access to the old city center by relocating the planned Station 104 on the subway Line 3 extension to the north side of the Dream rest stop.
Gyeonggi Province revises greenbelt deregulation guidelines, clearing hurdle for Camp Colbern development
The removal of a development obstacle at Camp Colbern was also highlighted as a standout case.
Under Gyeonggi Province's greenbelt deregulation guidelines, the Camp Colbern site had required that 50 percent of units be set aside as public rental housing, making private developer participation financially unviable. After sustained lobbying by Hanam City, the province lowered the public rental housing requirement from 50 percent to 35 percent, improving the project's viability. A project stalled for 20 years is now moving forward — a private developer has been selected and preliminary negotiations completed. The case also won the top prize at Gyeonggi Province's regulatory innovation competition, earning the city a 15 million won award.
Hanam named top performer in 2025 Gyeonggi Province city and county comprehensive evaluation, securing 200 million won prize
As a result of its sustained performance-driven governance, Hanam was named an outstanding institution in the 2025 Gyeonggi Province city and county comprehensive evaluation, securing a 200 million won prize. In line with provincial guidelines, the city plans to allocate 50 percent of the prize toward costs for the 2026 evaluation and distribute the remainder as incentives to staff who contributed to the strong results.
Mayor Lee Hyun-jae said the meeting marked "the first official occasion to fully activate the five core goals for realizing the ninth elected administration's vision of Hanam as the top city in the greater Seoul metropolitan area — one that leads the future and makes tomorrow worth looking forward to." He urged all civil servants to "create change that citizens can feel in their daily lives, grounded in results and collaboration."
Lee added that "an organizational culture where civil servants who work hard and deliver results receive fair rewards will ultimately lead to better administrative services and greater citizen satisfaction," and stressed that "the outstanding cases introduced Wednesday must spread across all departments and translate into administrative innovation that citizens can actually feel."
pjh@heraldcorp.com
