According to a recent newspaper poll, Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu’s job approval rating is ranked third among Taiwan’s 23 municipal cities and counties. He is also ranked number one for making the most improvement. Mayor Hu stated on the 18th that he has always focused on what the people really want. Although this year’s third place is better than last year’s sixth place, it is still not number 1 or number 2. This means that there is still room for improvement. He modestly added that the rise in approval rating is a confirmation by the people of City’s effort. As a team, he hopes that Taichung City government can better serve the people. Granted that the poll numbers are a good indicator, the attitude is of most importance. If the City puts the people first, it surely will win people’s approval. 

Mayor Hu mentioned the newspaper poll during today’s administrator’s meeting. He cited letters from residents as examples, asserting that when the City really understands and caters to people’s needs, they will respond positively. He said that someone wrote in to request a digital copy of the hiking trails in Dakeng. 3 days after the request was received, Bureau of Transportation responded that the request had been forward to Information Bureau’s Tourism Section. After it received the request, Information Bureau responded immediately with a letter which opened with “We apologize for the wait”, explaining the file size is too big at the moment, and is technically being handled by appropriate department. It also attached a paper copy of the trail as reference. Days later, the same person received a follow-up phone call from Information Bureau. Mayor Hu read from this person’s letter, “As expected, the team you lead is truly exceptional. Thank you for all the hard work.”

Mayor Hu noted that Transportation Bureau not only forwarded the request to Information Bureau, they also assured the person that the matter was being handled by proper department. It further explained step by step how a request such as this is processed, letting the person know his request wasn’t being ignored. This kind of response is worth emulating.

He cited another example where a person wrote in to complain about smashed car window which resulted in stolen personal belongings. He said that Police Bureau only responded with a generic letter without further explaining how the case would be handled. For example, if a police officer on patrol discovered a car that had been broken into, he would find the owner of the car from the computer system and remind him to remove any personal belongings from the car. Without attaching recent statistics showing a drop in crime rate, the person would only feel more frustrated and upset with the Police Bureau’s response, without really understanding what the government would really do about it.

Mayor asked the team to put the needs of the people first, and to really understand their situations in order to better serve them.

Later at the Quarterly Employee Birthday Celebration/New Employee Tea Party, Mayor Hu especially wanted to thank everyone at the City government for all their hard work. He likened the team at the City government to a big family, where everyone works towards the same common goal ??" to better serve the people and to better Taichung City to become the team that everyone in Taiwan admires.