Minutes of the First Meeting of Central and Western District ...

Minute-第一次會議紀錄-2.1.20 - final_eng (1).doc 1

Minutes of the First Meeting of Central and Western District Council

Date : 2 January 2020 (Thursday)

Time : 2:30 pm

Venue : Conference Room 14/F, Harbour Building 38 Pier Road, Central, Hong Kong

Present: Chairman Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, Susanne, JP District Officer (Central and Western) (Items 1 and 2) Chairman Ms CHENG Lai-king* (Items 3 to 14) Vice-chairman Mr YEUNG Sui-yin, Victor* Members Miss CHEUNG Kai-yin* Mr HO Chi-wang* Mr HUI Chi-fung (2:31 pm – 4:08 pm) Mr KAM Nai-wai, MH* Mr LEUNG Fong-wai, Fergus* Ms NG Hoi-yan, Bonnie* Mr NG Siu-hong* Mr PANG Ka-ho* Ms WONG Kin-ching, Cherry* Mr WONG Weng-chi* Miss YAM Ka-yi* Mr YIP Kam-lung, Sam* Mr YOUNG Chit-on, Jeremy* Remarks: * Members who attended the whole meeting

( ) Time of attendance of Members

http://www.districtcouncils.gov.hk/central/english/members/info/dc_member_list_detail.php?member_id=1937


Item 4 Ms BOOK King-shun, Emma Executive Officer I (District Council), Central and

Western District Office Item 8 Ms YEUNG Wing-shan, Grace Senior Executive Officer (District Council), Central

and Western District Office Item 9 Miss WONG Wai-yan, Agnes Executive Officer (District Council) 2, Central

and Western District Office Item 10 Mr LEE Tin-chi, Cario

Executive Officer (District Council) 1, Central and Western District Office

Item 11 Ms BOOK King-shun, Emma Executive Officer I (District Council), Central and

Western District Office Item 12 Miss WONG Wai-yan, Agnes Executive Officer (District Council) 2, Central

and Western District Office In Attendance: Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, Susanne, JP District Officer (Central and Western) Miss WONG Sze-ki, Carol Assistant District Officer (Central and Western) Ms BOOK King-shun, Emma Executive Officer I (District Council), Central and

Western District Office Secretary Ms YEUNG Wing-shan, Grace Senior Executive Officer (District Council), Central

and Western District Office Opening Remarks Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, District Officer (Central and Western) (DO(C&W)), welcomed Members to the meeting and indicated that she would chair the first two items at the first meeting according to section 62(4) of the District Councils Ordinance (Cap. 547) (DCO) until the Chairman and Vice-chairman of the Central and Western District Council (C&WDC) were elected.


2. DO(C&W) highlighted the procedure for the election of the Chairman and Vice-chairman of the C&WDC. She said that the election of Chairman and Vice-chairman of the C&WDC would be held in accordance with sections 62 and 64(2) and the procedure set out in Schedule 5 of the DCO. The Central and Western District Office (C&WDO) had earlier sent by post the voting procedures, proceedings for the election and nomination form for the election of Chairman and Vice-chairman of the C&WDC. Nominations for the election of the Chairman and Vice-chairman of the C&WDC must be in writing. Candidates must submit the original copy of nomination form in person to the C&WDO. Nomination closed one hour before the start of the meeting (i.e. at 1:30 pm on the day of the meeting). Each Member might nominate or subscribe only one candidate for the office of Chairman and one for the office of Vice-chairman, and he/her might not nominate or subscribe himself/herself as a candidate. The election of Chairman and Vice-chairman was to be conducted by secret ballot held amongst Members present and entitled to vote at the election, as such voting by proxy was not allowed. If only one candidate was nominated for the office of Chairman/Vice-chairman, the candidate was treated as having been elected Chairman/Vice-chairman. If an election was required to be held, a candidate who received an absolute majority of votes was elected. “An absolute majority of votes” meant that the candidate received more than half of the valid votes cast excluding abstentions. Item 1: Election of the Chairman of C&WDC (2:33 pm – 2:34 pm) 3. Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, DO(C&W), said that at the close of the nomination period at 1:30 pm on 2 January 2020, one nomination for the office of the C&WDC Chairman had been received. Ms CHENG Lai-king was nominated by Ms NG Hoi-yan, and the nomination was subscribed by Miss CHEUNG Kai-yin and Miss YAM Ka-yi. DO(C&W) verified the accuracy of the relevant information with the nominator/subscribers (the nominator/subscribers confirmed the accuracy of the information), and asked the candidate, Ms CHENG Lai-king, whether she consented to the nomination and agreed to take up the chairmanship of C&WDC after being elected. 4. Ms CHENG Lai-king thanked the Members who made the nomination and subscription. She said that she would be happy to accept the nomination as the Chairman of the C&WDC and would make every effort to assist the C&WDC’s operation in the capacity of Chairman. 5. As only one candidate had been nominated for the office of Chairman, DO(C&W) declared that Ms CHENG Lai-king was elected as the Chairman of the C&WDC, and


extended her congratulation to Ms CHENG. Item 2: Election of the Vice-Chairman of C&WDC (2:34 pm – 2:35 pm) 6. Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, DO(C&W), said that at the close of the nomination period at 1:30 pm on 2 January 2020, one nomination for the office of the C&WDC Vice-chairman had been received. Mr YEUNG Sui-yin was nominated by Mr HO Chi-wang, and the nomination was subscribed by Ms WONG Kin-ching and Mr PANG Ka-ho. DO(C&W) verified the accuracy of the relevant information with the nominator/subscribers (the nominator/subscribers confirmed the accuracy of the information), and asked the candidate, Mr YEUNG Sui-yin, whether he consented to the nomination and agreed to take up the vice-chairmanship of C&WDC after being elected. 7. Mr YEUNG Sui-yin said that he would be happy to accept the nomination as the Vice-chairman of the C&WDC. He thanked Members for their support, and said that he would commit himself to the duties of Vice-chairman and respond to public demands. 8. As only one candidate had been nominated for the office of Vice-chairman, DO(C&W) declared that Mr YEUNG Sui-yin was elected as the Vice-chairman of the C&WDC, and extended her congratulation to Mr YEUNG. 9. DO(C&W) proposed a 5-minute break and invited the Chairman to chair the remaining meeting. The Meeting was presided by the Chairman of the C&WDC (2:44 pm – 2:49 pm) 10. The Chairman thanked Members for supporting her to serve as the Chairman in the new term and continued to preside the meeting. Before proceeding to discuss other items on the agenda, she said that she had informed the Secretariat before the meeting of her wish to make an oral statement. According to section 26 of the Central and Western District Council Standing Orders (Standing Orders), any statement and question put to a meeting of the Council must be compatible with the functions of the Council. According to section 30 of the Standing Orders, a member who wished to make an oral statement should inform the Secretary before the meeting, but the oral statement should not take more than five minutes. Hence, she would make an oral statement first.


11. The Chairman stated that on this day, 2 January 2020, the C&WDC held its first full Council meeting. All 14 C&WDC members from the pro-democracy camp (including Ms CHENG Lai-king, Mr KAM Nai-wai, Mr YEUNG Sui-yin, Mr HUI Chi-fung, Mr NG Siu-hong, Ms NG Hoi-yan, Miss CHEUNG Kai-yin, Mr HO Chi-wang, Mr LEUNG Fong-wai, Mr PANG Ka-ho, Ms WONG Kin-ching, Mr WONG Weng-chi, Miss YAM Ka-yi and Mr YIP Kam-lung) thanked the electors of the Central and Western District for bravely defending their community by casting their votes on 24 November 2019. She also expressed gratitude to the residents for giving them the authorisation to be people’s representatives. She said that they would definitely accept monitoring by the public, listen to the views of the different quarters of the community, strive to reform the C&WDC for the better, strengthen accountability, increase transparency, and make proper use of public funds; and they solemnly pledged to build the community, improve people's livelihood, fight for universal suffrage, curb police brutality, and support “Five demands, not one less”. She continued that in the spring of 2019, the Government’s attempt to force the passage of proposed amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance (FOO) in the Legislative Council (LegCo) had sparked the “anti-extradition to China” movement. In the six months since 9 June 2019, the public could see clearly the incompetence of the Government and how it had betrayed the people of Hong Kong. Political issues were not resolved with political means, and the Chief Executive only obeyed the Beijing government and used police brutality against Hong Kong citizens. More than 7 000 people had been arrested in the past six months or so, and more than 400 people were arrested on New Year's Day alone. Many of these people were facing prosecution of a riot. There were also countless people suffering injuries, with many anonymous righteous fighters being "suicided". She believed that the tear gas rounds, pepper sprays, bean bag rounds and even live ammunition used by the Police so far were more than 10 000 in total. Hong Kong had descended into a police city marked by police brutality and abuse of power, where people’s lives and property were jeopardised. Hong Kong was also facing a humanitarian crisis. They demanded severe punishment of police officers who had breached the law to curb police brutality and indiscriminate arrests, as well as disbanding and rebuilding the police force. She believed that the three processions took place respectively on 9 June, 16 June and New Year's Day which saw the participation of a million people, two million people and one-odd million people showed that the people of Hong Kong had awakened. Despite the withdrawal of the bill, they still insisted on “Five demands, not one less”, including setting up an independent commission of enquiry, rebuttal of the categorisation of the protest as a riot, and dropping charges against protesters, stepping down of the Chief Executive and implementing dual elections by universal suffrage. Lastly, the Chairman invited all present to stand and observe silence for one minute in honour of those who died in the past year as a result of the anti-amendment events to express condolences and respect to them. 12. The meeting continued. The Chairman said that the Secretariat had drawn up 12


agenda items by making reference to those of the first meeting of the C&WDC of the last term, which were mainly key issues that would facilitate the commencement of the Council’s work. Relevant information was also prepared for Members’ reference. Papers on the items had been circulated to Members earlier for reference. She asked Members to indicate whether the agenda and papers should be put forward for discussion. 13. Mr KAM Nai-wai hoped that the live broadcast arrangement for future C&WDC meetings could be discussed under “Any other business”, so as to expedite the work to facilitate public monitoring. 14. Members agreed to discuss the 12 agenda items drawn up by the Secretariat first. The Chairman announced that the agenda was adopted. Item 3: Appointment of the Secretary of C&WDC (2:52 pm – 2:54 pm) 15. The Chairman proposed the appointment of Ms YEUNG Wing-shan, Senior Executive Officer (District Council) of the C&WDO, as the Secretary of the C&WDC in accordance with section 69(1) of the DCO. The proposal was endorsed. Item 4: Standing Orders of C&WDC (C&W DC Paper No. 01/2020) (2:54 pm – 3:39 pm) 16. Ms BOOK King-shun, Executive Officer I (District Council) of the C&WDO, said that the C&WDC of the last term adopted the Standing Orders (revised in November 2018) at the end of its tenure. Also, C&WDC of previous terms usually endorsed in principle at their first meeting a set of Standing Orders based on the amendments proposed by the C&WDC of the last term and Home Affairs Department (HAD). She said that the HAD had issued the updated model District Council Standing Orders (model DCSO) for reference by the sixth term of District Councils in making their own standing orders. Eight new amendments had been made in the updated model DCSO, and the details were as follows:

(1) to add the definition of “simple majority vote”, that is, the highest number of valid votes exceeded the second-highest number of valid votes, excluding abstentions [section 1(7) of the model DCSO];

(2) to stipulate that the provisions on membership of “standing working group” were


also applicable to “ad hoc working group” [section 41(1) of the model DCSO];

(3) in response to the recommendations in the Audit Report published in April 2017, amendments would be made to the procedures for handling conflict of interest in the Standing Orders to ensure that the procedures for handling conflict of interest in Council/committee meetings were also applicable to working group meetings [section 48(8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15 and 17) of the model DCSO];

(4) to stipulate that all cases of declaration of interests should be recorded in the minutes of meeting, stating the nature of interest declared, the decision of the meeting and the rationale behind the decision as appropriate [section 48(16) of the model DCSO];

(5) to stipulate that provisions regarding admission of the public to meetings applicable to Council/committee meetings were also applicable to working group meetings [sections 49 (2, 3, 4) and 50) of the model DCSO];

(6) to add a section on “Personal Particulars” in the declaration form on Nominee’s Declaration of Qualification for Appointment of Co-opted Members of Committees under the District Council [Annex to Appendix III of the model DCSO];

(7) to add a provision in the Guidelines on Registration of Personal Interests in the Registration Form on Personal Interests of Members of a District Council or Its Committees that the publication of the registration of the interests did not imply any approval or endorsement of the contents thereof by the Government or the Council, and neither the Government nor the Council assumed any responsibility for such contents [Appendix IV of the model DCSO]; and

(8) in response to the recommendations in the Audit Report published in April 2017 on declaration of interests for District Councils, to provide guidelines on type 8 “Other declarable interests” in the Registration Form on Personal Interests of Members of a District Council or Its Committees [Appendix IV of the model DCSO] and revise the form accordingly (the amendment was set out in the model DCSO issued by the HAD in September 2017).

17. Ms BOOK King-shun of the C&WDO continued that the Secretariat had prepared a revised draft of the Standing Orders (set out in Annex I of the paper) in accordance with the above recommendations of the HAD on the basis of the Standing Orders of the fifth term of C&WDC (revised in November 2018). The revision was indicated with words in red. She


invited Members to discuss whether the draft revision set out in Annex I of the paper should be adopted (i.e. to adopt the existing Standing Orders and accept the new amendments proposed by the HAD), and whether an “Ad-hoc Working Group on Review of Standing Orders of the Central and Western District Council” should be formed to review whether further amendments to the Standing Orders were needed. She added that the discussion results of the working group would need to be endorsed by the Council before implementation. 18. The Chairman enquired about the deadline for submission of the form for declaration of interests by Council members to the Secretariat. 19. Ms BOOK King-shun of the C&WDO responded that Members should submit the form within one month after assuming office. 20. The Chairman said that all businesses of the Council should be conducted in accordance with the Standing Orders, and that some of the provisions in the Standing Orders were stipulated by the HAD and some were statutory provisions under the DCO. 21. The Vice-chairman said that since there were many new Members in the current term C&WDC, he suggested that the existing Standing Orders be adopted for this meeting and endorsement of the revision be postponed to the next meeting. This would give Members more time to examine the revised draft of the Standing Orders. 22. The Chairman asked whether the HAD required that the revised Standing Orders must be adopted at the first meeting. 23. Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, DO(C&W), responded that the reason for endorsing the Standing Orders at the first meeting was to facilitate the conduct of meeting in accordance with the Standing Orders. She said that according to past practices, the existing Standing Orders incorporating the new amendments proposed by the HAD would be adopted for temporary use after endorsement by the Council at its first meeting. She continued that Members could propose amendments to the Standing Orders at any time in the future. She also said that the new amendments (a) to (h) involved technical amendments, some of which were mentioned in 2017-2018, while others were to provide a more detailed definition for the provisions, and to achieve uniformity by making some of the standing orders applicable to Council/committee meetings equally applicable to working group meetings. She confirmed that the Vice-chairman’s suggestion was feasible, that is, the meeting could adopt the existing Standing Orders and defer the approval of the new amendments proposed by the HAD to allow more time for the new Members to familiarise with the Standing Orders. She hoped that Members could discuss and approve the new amendments proposed by the HAD at the


next meeting, so as to update the Standing Orders as soon as possible and ensure consistency across the 18 District Councils. 24. The Chairman invited discussion on the paper. Questions and views raised by Members were as follows: (a) Mr HUI Chi-fung agreed that the new amendments proposed by the HAD were

more technical in nature, but also considered that "the devil was in the details". He therefore hoped that the C&WDC and the Secretariat would give Members more time to examine the impact of each amendment before giving endorsement. He agreed that the existing Standing Orders should be adopted for this meeting, and suggested that a “Working Group on Review of Standing Orders of the Central and Western District Council” should be formed to allow Members to examine the Standing Orders in details. He then raised several areas in the Standing Orders where changes were urgently needed and proposed: (i) tightening of the arrangement for handling declaration of interests by District Council members in vetting fund applications. He cited the fund application submitted by the Association of Chinese Culture of Hong Kong (ACCHK) to the C&WDC of the last term as an example. The President of the ACCHK had donated more than $10 million to the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB). However, at the meeting for vetting the said fund application, C&WDC members from the DAB had not withdrawn from the meeting and the then Chairman ruled that no Member was required to withdraw from the meeting or refrain from voting. He reckoned that the existing system of declaration of interests could not be fully executed, so he hoped that the loophole could be fixed by amendments to the Standing Orders; (ii) some of the provisions in the Manual on the Use of DC Funds be included into the Standing Orders of the C&WDC. He pointed out that although political parties and associations were not eligible to apply for DC funds under the Manual on the Use of DC Funds, there was no provision in the existing Standing Orders for refusal of DC fund applications from certain organisations that loved both Hong Kong and the country. He therefore hoped that the loophole could be fixed by amendments to the Standing Orders; and (iii) abolition of the system of proxy voting.

(b) Mr YIP Kam-lung agreed that the existing Standing Orders should be adopted for this meeting to allow more time for Members to examine the Standing Orders and proposed amendments. He also agreed that a “Working Group on Review of Standing Orders of the Central and Western District Council” should be formed to ensure that the Standing Orders would not be abused. In addition, he considered it necessary to examine and revise the provisions on co-opted members in the


Standing Orders, such as abolishing the voting right and limiting the functions of co-opted members, as well as imposing restriction on the composition of co-opted members, etc. He pointed out that if a revised version based on incorporation of the new amendments proposed by the HAD into the existing Standing Orders was adopted, co-opted members would be nominated by Members. He enquired whether there would be issues of law if the C&WDC resolved to limit the functions of co-opted members and if the composition method of co-opted members of the C&WDC was different from that of other District Councils or from the model DCSO issued by the HAD.

(c) Mr KAM Nai-wai agreed that a “Working Group on Review of Standing Orders of the Central and Western District Council” should be formed. He expressed concern about how the Standing Orders could regulate applications for DC funds by groups/organisations appointed by the Government. He remarked that 10 Government appointed groups/organisations frequently applied for DC funds had been listed out earlier. In addition, there were news reports that pro-establishment District Council members who lost in the 2019 District Council election would be appointed by the Government to the Area Committees, and Area Committees were eligible to apply for DC funds. He reckoned that District Council and the public would not accept such practice, and suggested making use of the Standing Orders to restrict Government appointed groups/organisations from applying for DC funds to ensure the effective use of public resources. He hoped that the Standing Orders or policies could be used to restrict this kind of fund applications before the Finance Committee started to handle fund applications. In addition, he said that there was an urgent need to discuss sections 16 to 20 of the Standing Orders. He remarked that pursuant to section 17 of the Standing Orders, any Member who wished to move a motion was required to give the Secretariat 10 clear working days’ notice in advance of a forthcoming meeting. He suggested abolishing section 17 as it prevented Members from moving motion on emergencies or urgent matters. He enquired with the Chairman whether "moving of impromptu motion" could be discussed at the meeting and whether sections 18 to 20 could be applied to impromptu motion, such that before going into detailed discussion of the Standing Orders, moving of impromptu motion would be permitted at the meeting to be held on 16 January.

(d) Mr WONG Weng-chi agreed with Mr KAM's proposal on moving impromptu motion to enable Members to move motions on emergencies or urgent matters. Regarding co-opted members, he said that many citizens had expressed their interest in becoming co-opted members. He opined that the C&WDC should consider how to enable people with knowledge and capability to contribute to the


Council’s work.

(e) Mr HO Chi-wang said that both Members and the public were concerned about the issue of co-opted members. He remarked that at present three committees under the Central and Western District Council had co-opted members, and their appointment was usually conducted at the second meeting of the relevant committees. He enquired whether there was any restriction in the Standing Orders on making changes to the nomination procedures for or terms of reference of co-opted members, so that the Council would have rules to follow in handling matters concerning co-opted members.

(f) Mr YOUNG Chit-on considered that there might be contradictions in the views expressed by Members. He cited an example that if moving of impromptu motion and abolition of proxy voting were implemented simultaneously, there might be chances that an impromptu motion was adopted after voting in the absence of some Members. He hoped that approval of the Standing Orders could be deferred to give Members more time to examine the Standing Orders and proposed amendments, so as to ensure smooth operation of the Council in the future.

(g) The Vice-chairman said that since co-opted members were not elected by the public, he could understand why some Members suggested abolishing their voting right. He hoped that the Secretariat would clarify whether appointing co-opted members while abolishing their voting right would contravene the DCO. He went on to ask Mr KAM about the nature of the impromptu motion, and whether the impromptu motion moved by Mr KAM would be proposed on the spot or within certain time limit. He reckoned that problem might arise if Members could move impromptu motion on the spot while some Members were absent from the meeting.

(h) Mr KAM Nai-wai said that the impromptu motion was proposed by him and he was in favor of abolishing proxy voting. He pointed out that the public expected District Councillors to take part in the whole meeting, and District Councillors were authorised by the public to speak on their behalf. Therefore, District Councillors should take part in the whole meeting and it was also their responsibility to attend meetings. In addition, he considered that the system of proxy voting was illogical and very rare in the international community. He went on saying that impromptu motion was common in the LegCo and was unavoidable. He reckoned that Members should be well prepared for the moving of impromptu motion in the course of discussing agenda items. Also, Mr KAM considered that


motions proposed before the close of meeting and before the end of discussion of an item were all impromptu motions. He hoped that Members could approve the revised Standing Orders before the meeting to be held on 16 January to enable implementation of the proposal on impromptu motion.

25. The Chairman said that pursuant to section 17 of the Standing Orders, “Unless otherwise agreed by the Chairman, any member who wishes to move a motion is required to give the Secretary ten clear working days’ notice in advance of a forthcoming meeting”, meaning that Members could move an impromptu motion upon agreement by the Chairman of the Council or its committees. The Chairman suggested that Members should follow as far as practicable the provisions of the Standing Orders in moving motions by giving ten clear working days’ notice. In case of emergency, Members could first ask the Chairman for consent before moving motions if they could only give less than ten clear net working days’ notice. She continued that the Chairmen of the committees would be elected at the meetings on 23 January, and opined that matters concerning impromptu motion could be handled flexibly if Members agreed to the above proposal. 26. Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, DO(C&W), said that the Chairman's discretion mentioned in section 17 had indeed been exercised in the previous terms of C&WDC in adopting urgent motion. DO(C&W) said that the past practice of requiring the text of motions be submitted in advance of a forthcoming meeting was to comply with sections 23 and 24. She went on saying that in the event of emergency, the Council did provide flexibility for moving impromptu motions. She also said that the practice could be maintained for the time being if Members agreed. DO(C&W) suggested that Members could further discuss the issue at meetings of the ad-hoc working group on review of the Standing Orders expected to be formed. She understood the hope of Members for the revised Standing Orders to be approved by 16 January in order to convey Members’ views. The Secretariat would be happy to facilitate this by arranging a meeting of the “Ad-hoc Working Group on Review of Standing Orders of the Central and Western District Council” by 16 January as far as practicable. 27. The Chairman enquired about co-opted members and whether there was provision in the Standing Orders that fund applications submitted by groups/organisations under District Office could be rejected. 28. DO(C&W) said that in the past, each member of the Council should be entitled to nominate one person as a co-opted member for each of the committees under the Standing Orders. Previously, three committees of the C&WDC had co-opted members. Such practice was in accordance with the Standing Orders of the C&WDC and model DCSO with a view to enable those who wished to serve the district to take part in relevant work. If


Members would like to change the system of co-opted members, changes would need to be made to the Standing Orders. DO(C&W) said that the DCO stipulated that District Councils could appoint some people to participate in committees. It did not specify whether each member could nominate only one co-opted member or how many committees each co-opted member could participate. DO(C&W) pointed out that these two aspects were within the scope of the Standing Orders and Members could discuss amending the Standing Orders. 29. Ms BOOK King-shun of the C&WDO added that Appendix III of the Standing Orders specified that each member of the Council should be entitled to nominate one co-opted member, and the total number of co-opted members appointed to all committees of a Council must not exceed the total number of its members. However, there was no provision specifying that only three of the committees could have co-opted members and the co-opted members should be evenly assigned to three committees. Members could further discuss the above practice. 30. Mr KAM Nai-wai said that he had considered whether the number of co-opted members could be reduced so as to make the meetings more efficient. He had also heard the views that interested persons should be allowed to join the District Councils to make contributions. He also pointed out that as mentioned in the statement made by the Chairman just now, the people of Hong Kong had awakened. They wished to join the District Councils to take part in community affairs and express views. Mr KAM said that he had considered suggesting nomination of one co-opted member by every two members of the Council, but did not do so as the total number of District Council members in the district was singular and there was only one Member from the non-democratic camp. He said that if each Member could nominate one co-opted member and each co-opted member could only join one committee, there would be three to four co-opted members in each committee. He opined that it was undesirable for co-opted members to take part in the voting process as they might be members of the community instead of members of political parties. Mr KAM suggested that co-opted members should only be given the right to speak but not the right to vote, and each member of the Council should be entitled to nominate one co-opted member for each of the committees. This would be a fairer approach to all 15 Members. Regarding impromptu motion, Mr KAM clarified that the impromptu motion he referred to was not an urgent motion. He added that an impromptu motion was one that was moved during the discussion of an issue when Members considered that government department's response was not satisfactory and wished to change the views of Members, so as to relay the view of the Council as a whole to the department concerned. Impromptu motion proposed must be related to the issue being discussed. He further pointed out that other District Councils did not have any rule requiring 10 clear working days’ notice to be given for moving motions. The rule was proposed by Mr James TIEN, who was then a member of the C&WDC. At that time, some members of the Council could not often attend meetings and vote, so the then


members agreed to add the rule requiring 10 clear working days’ notice to be given for moving motions. Mr KAM opined that as time had changed, the rule was no longer appropriate. Rather, it was more appropriate to allow the moving of impromptu motion. Mr KAM agreed that instead of resolving the matter at this meeting, it should be further discussed in detail at meetings of the ad-hoc working group on review of the Standing Orders. 31. DO(C&W) said that the number of co-opted member each Member could nominate was within the scope of the Standing Orders and the Council could make changes accordingly. She understood that Mr KAM Nai-wai wished to ensure efficient discussion. Regarding Mr KAM’s suggestion to allow persons who were not members of the Council to serve as co-opted members and join the committees, and giving them the right to speak but not the right to vote, DO(C&W) pointed out that the suggestion involved the DCO, as section 71 of the DCO stated that "A District Council may appoint to a committee any person who is not a member if the person satisfies the qualifications set out in section 20(1)" and "A member appointed may vote at a meeting of the committee and is to be counted for the purpose of constituting a quorum", meaning that all members of a committee, including co-opted members, had voting rights. 32. The Vice-chairman asked whether it was confirmed that abolition of the voting right of co-opted members would not violate the DCO, and whether legal advice should be sought from the HAD. 33. Ms BOOK King-shun of the C&WDO said that section 71(4) of the DCO stated that “A member appointed under subsection (2) may vote at a meeting of the committee and is to be counted for the purpose of constituting a quorum.” 34. Mr KAM Nai-wai considered that even if the law required that co-opted members should be entitled to vote, the Council could also invite persons who were not members of the Council to attend meetings of the committees. He considered that the matter could be discussed later. 35. After discussion with the Vice-chairman, the Chairman said that to enable the issue of amending the Standing Orders to be addressed by 16 January, it was suggested that the Council should follow the existing practice and set up an ad-hoc working group on Standing Orders to further examine the amendments to the Standing Orders proposed by Members, in order to determine whether it was necessary to revise the existing Standing Orders. She asked Members to indicate whether an “Ad-hoc Working Group on Review of Standing Orders of the Central and Western District Council” should be formed. 36. Members agreed that an “Ad-hoc Working Group on Review of Standing Orders


of the Central and Western District Council” should be formed. 37. The Chairman asked the Secretary whether the Council could endorse the formation of the said working group at the meeting. 38. The Secretary said that the working group could be formed with not less than four Members expressing interest in joining it. 39. The Chairman asked Members who were interested in joining the working group to raise their hands. She indicated that 10 Members had expressed interest in joining the working group. Formation of the said working group was thus endorsed. She suggested that the working group should meet before 16 January. The Chairman also asked the 10 Members who had expressed their interest in joining the working group whether they agreed to elect the Chairman of the working group now. All the relevant Members agreed. 40. Mr KAM Nai-wai nominated the Vice-chairman as the Chairman of the ad-hoc working group on Standing Orders, and the nomination was subscribed by Mr HUI Chi-fung and Ms NG Hoi-yan. 41. The Chairman asked the Vice-chairman whether he agreed to take up the chairmanship of the working group. The Vice-chairman indicated his consent to the nomination and thanked Mr KAM Nai-wai for making the nomination. 42. The Chairman announced the formation of the working group and said that the working group should report to the full Council, and any changes made to the Standing Orders should be submitted to the full Council for endorsement. 43. In response to Members’ views on the provision of District Council funds, DO(C&W) added that groups/organisations under the C&WDO would also apply for District Council funds. Not granting District Council funds to these groups/organisations would not violate the Standing Orders. She said that these groups/organisations mainly served the Central and Western District and had frequent cooperation with the C&WDC, and therefore would apply for District Council funds. The past practice was that the groups/organisations would submit application form for each activity to the Finance Committee for approval. Each fund application submitted by these groups/organisations would be vetted one by one by Members, and whether or not these applications were approved would not violate the Standing Orders. 44. The Vice-chairman opined that organisations under District Office should apply to the Government for resources, and that District Council funds should be reserved for use by


District Council for the benefit of local residents. He said that early adoption of this principle could avoid causing disappointment to relevant groups/organisations wishing to apply for District Council funds. 45. The Chairman shared the views of the Vice-chairman. She concluded the discussion on the item as follows:

(i) the revised draft of the Standing Orders (set out in Annex I of the paper) would not be adopted for the time being;

(ii) an Ad-hoc Working Group on Review of Standing Orders of the Central and Western District Council would be formed to review whether further amendments to the Standing Orders were needed; and

(iii) the Ad-hoc Working Group on Review of Standing Orders of the Central and Western District Council would meet on 16 January to examine any amendments necessary to be made to the Standing Orders and submit so to the full Council meeting on 16 January for endorsement.

46. Ms BOOK King-shun of the C&WDO asked, as the Council did not adopt the revised draft of the Standing Orders (set out in Annex I of the paper), whether it would adopt the Standing Orders (revised in November 2018) as rules of procedure for the time being. 47. The Chairman agreed that the Standing Orders (revised in November 2018) should be adopted for the time being. 48. The Secretary noted that 10 Members had expressed their interest in joining the Ad-hoc Working Group on Review of Standing Orders of the Central and Western District Council. The Secretariat would write to Members later for proper record and to facilitate other Members who had not made up their mind to further consider whether or not to join the working group. Item 5: Formation and Related Arrangements of the Committees under C&WDC (C&W DC Paper No. 02/2020) (3:39 pm – 5:06 pm) 49. The Chairman said that comment from Ms WONG Kin-ching on the terms of reference of the Finance Committee was received by the Secretariat before the meeting and was tabled for Members’ reference. As the committees might wish to have detailed


discussion on or make amendment to their respective terms of reference, in order to make the discussion at full Council meeting more efficient, the Chairman suggested that Ms WONG’s comment should be referred to the Finance Committee for consideration at its first meeting when discussing the terms of reference in detail. She also said that the Secretariat could send the terms of reference of each committee by email to Members for reference after this meeting to facilitate discussion of the terms of reference at the first meeting of the respective committees. The Chairman also remarked that if Members agreed that the existing committees (i.e. Culture, Leisure & Social Affairs Committee, District Facilities Management Committee, Finance Committee, Food, Environment, Hygiene & Works Committee, and Traffic & Transport Committee) should be retained, they could consider adopting in principle the terms of reference and composition of the committees first. Changes to the terms of reference and composition should be left to the respective committees to follow up and discuss, and the results of discussion should be submitted to the Council for endorsement. If Members wished to propose the formation of new committees, the relevant terms of reference and composition could also be left for discussion by the new committees at their first meeting in detail, and the results of discussion should be submitted to the Council for endorsement. 50. Mr YIP Kam-lung enquired that if Members wished to set up a new committee to discuss matters on constitutional development, security affairs, and law enforcement of the disciplined services, etc., whether such item could be added to the agenda for discussion. 51. The Chairman said that the item could be added to the agenda for discussion, but reminded Members that there should be no more than seven committees under the Council in accordance with the Standing Orders. 52. The Vice-chairman said that he personally preferred to retain the five existing committees and proposed to form a new committee entitled the "Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee" to focus on the constitutional and security affairs in the Central and Western District and protect the interests of local residents. He expected that issues like the “clashes in Admiralty on 12 June” (the 612 incident), police brutality, etc. could be discussed at that committee. He hoped that Members would support the formation of the said committee to address these issues of public concern. 53. Mr KAM Nai-wai was in favour of forming a "Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee" and suggested that the committee should meet as soon as possible to address the issue of police brutality. He remarked that the Police’s current enforcement actions were outrageous, and he questioned whether this was the Government's latest strategy for stopping violence and curbing disorder. He also said that if the Police addressed protesters as "rioters" at meetings of this Council, he would address the Police as "black cops". He considered that it was right and proper for the Police to enforce the law against offenders, but


not by means of improper law enforcement as what they were doing now. He said frankly that he was targeting the police force and believed that neither could the public accept the Police’s current enforcement actions. He hoped that a new committee could be formed expeditiously to discuss police brutality and their law-breaching acts. 54. Mr YIP Kam-lung was in favour of forming a "Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee" and considered that this should be done promptly. He said that even now there were still a vast number of people participating in public processions to express their dissatisfaction with the Government and the Police. This was also due to the stalemate in constitutional development and failure in implementing the dual elections by universal suffrage. Also, the LegCo and previous terms of District Councils had failed to convey public opinions. Hence, he hoped that the current-term C&WDC could gather public opinion in order to voice the aspirations of the residents of the Central and Western District, that is, the implementation of dual elections by universal suffrage without screening to fundamentally solve Hong Kong’s constitutional problems. 55. Miss YAM Ka-yi agreed that a "Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee" should be formed immediately. She opined that the Police were resorting to vigilantism in their current enforcement actions; and that violence should not be used against anyone. She said that while she and Mr LEUNG Fong-wai were in Central assisting the arrested persons on New Year's Day, police officers shined strong light at their eyes, jostled them and dismissed them as "cockroach". She believed that this had far exceeded the powers conferred to police officers under the law. She also pointed out that the Police had repeatedly lied. An example was that the Police concealed the location where the arrested persons were detained, which had severely hindered lawyer's efforts in providing assistance to the arrested persons. Hence, she said that investigation on police brutality and abuse of power should be conducted immediately. 56. Mr NG Siu-hong said that the public hoped that Members would speak for them and he opined that the existing constitutional system and police brutality were unjust and unfair. He was also dissatisfied with the Police's work attitude, so he hoped that an independent commission of inquiry into police internal problems in order to reform the police force and put things right. He appealed to the Police to attend future meetings and respond to public demands, otherwise the general public would continue to take to the streets to pursue justice and express their dissatisfaction with the Police. He said that people were not afraid of the Police’s use of force. The Government would only arouse more public grievances if it did not improve its governance. He hoped that a "Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee" could be formed to bring justice to the Hong Kong community and pursue the truth.


57. Mr HUI Chi-fung supported the formation of a "Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee". He said that “constitutional” focused on discussing how to move towards democracy and checks and balance against tyranny, while "security" targetted at pursuing responsibility for police brutality and responding to the “Five demands”. He said that many incidents of police brutality took place in the Central and Western District, and the local community was still affected by tear gas. He had received over 100 complaints alleging that people, including innocent pregnant women and children, felt unwell after inhaling tear gas at home. He said that it was unfair as the Police had not yet apologised for this. He said that the existing police complaint mechanism was ineffective and not trusted by the public, so District Councils had become an important platform and needed to be empowered. He hoped that the Police could attend future meetings and face public opinion, otherwise they would only look like cowards while justice was not on their side. He reiterated his support for the formation of a new committee. 58. Mr LEUNG Fong-wai said that the first police-civilian clash took place on 12 June in the Central and Western District. The Police used violence to disperse protesters outside the LegCo on that day, but so far they had not given an account of the incident nor apologised for the unreasonable disperse on that day. Also, so far no police officers and commanders were held accountable for their actions on that day. Hence, he opined that it would be necessary to hold the Police accountable through the District Council, asking the Police to explain whether they had executed any erroneous decisions and used excessive force on that day and during the subsequent police-civilian clashes, making people suffer unnecessary injuries. This was also what the public expected District Councillors to do. He remarked that the reason why people kept taking to the streets was that the Government still had not listened to public opinion nor held itself accountable to the public. Only by promoting constitutional reform could Hong Kong be empowered and people's grievances allayed. He hoped that a "Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee" would be formed as soon as possible to respond to public aspirations and build the future of Hong Kong. 59. Mr YOUNG Chit-on noted Members' views on the formation of a "Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee". He agreed that the Government should stop violence and curb disorder, and was disappointed with the Government's recent performance of governance. He hoped that Members would explore the terms of reference of such committee first, and considered that the committee might help mend the rift in society if it could confer powers, authority and resources to Members and achieve the expected objectives. If so, he would be in favour of forming such a committee. However, he was worried that if the Police were repeatedly absent from meetings, it might make Members even more disappointed, thereby aggravating social confrontation and bringing more adverse effects. Hence, before clarifying the terms of reference, he had a neutral stance and reservation on the formation of a new committee while having the intention to join.


60. Mr WONG Weng-chi said that the public expected members of the current DC term to speak for the people and show concern for the problem of police power abuse, and the formation of a "Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee" could facilitate discussion of the core problems of constitutional development. He pointed out that the failure to implement dual elections by universal suffrage in Hong Kong under the Basic Law had given rise to tyranny and violence, which had in turn led to police brutality. Remarking that the Hong Kong community treasured social harmony, he opined that the Chief Executive could commence dialogue with the public through the District Councils and respond to public demands, otherwise it would be difficult to resolve the current confrontation. He said that only by forming the said committee could the problems of police brutality and core constitutional conflict be resolved. He continued that the current problem of police brutality had hindered the public's consumption activities in Hong Kong. Members of the C&WDC hoped that police power abuse could be curbed expeditiously, so as to revive and forge a new path for people's livelihood. 61. Miss CHEUNG Kai-yin said that it was difficult for pro-democracy Members to discuss and vote on motions or proposals of political nature in the District Council in the past, so she considered it necessary to set up a "Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee". She pointed out that while the public expected Members to have more discussion on livelihood issues in the Council, the C&WDC Chairman of the last term had expressed a position on some constitutional matters without the consent of the Council and residents. She therefore considered that constitutional matters were related to livelihood, and the public also expected the Council to speak for them. Hence, it was necessary to form a committee to facilitate more discussion on matters concerning constitutional development. Regarding security matters, she said that it was necessary to pursue responsibility and hold the Police accountable for their brutality and abuse of power in the clashes during protests. She was also concerned about the role of District Councillors in police-civilian conflicts in future. She hoped that the Police could attend future meetings, and that the Council and the Police could have effective communication and the Police could treat Members with courtesy. 62. Mr HO Chi-wang was in favour of forming a "Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee". He remarked that the Central and Western District was a key area for public processions and demonstrations and was often affected by police brutality and tear gas, which the Council must follow up. He was concerned about who the Police would designate to attend future meetings of the Council, and said it would be difficult for the Council to express its views to the representative if he/she was absent from the meetings. He hoped that the Chairman or committee Chairmen could invite the Police’s management to attend meetings. He also urged the Police to work with District Councillors to improve Police relationship with the public, maintain good communication and political neutrality.


63. Ms NG Hoi-yan was in favour of forming a "Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee". She reckoned that the public's voice could not be heard in the Council due to the existence of institutional violence, resulting in the stalemate in Hong Kong’s constitutional development. Ms NG recalled that at the Council’s special meeting on 18 July 2019, some Members wished to put forth the “Five demands” to the Council for a vote. However, due to institutional violence, the proposal could not gain enough support in the Council, resulting in the Members concerned being unable to convey public views and aspiration in the Council. Later when various areas in the Central and Western District were affected by tear gas, some Members again called for a special meeting to discuss the matter. However, a second special meeting of the Council was not arranged to discuss and follow up the incidents as pro-establishment Members did not wish to meet. Hence, Ms NG opined that not just the Central and Western District, but the whole of Hong Kong must continue to pay attention on constitutional development. As for security, Ms NG saw police’s abuse of power and indiscriminate arrests, whereas no police officers showed up during the incident of assaults occurred on 21 July 2019 (the 721 incident). It was until 1 January 2020 that she saw the deployment of huge police force in Causeway Bay, Wan Chai and the Central and Western District for stand-by duties, showing that a vast number of police officers could be mobilised simultaneously. She asked why no police officers showed up during the 721 incident. Ms NG asked that seeing police officers lied and expressed their personal opinions at the 4 pm Police press conference every day, how could the public trust the police force under these circumstances. She continued that at present police deployments were often seen in public processions/demonstrations or large-scale events in response to calls on the Internet, where the Police had planned for deployment early in areas close to the event locations to intercept as well as round up and arrest citizens. She believed that the Police had diverted all the police force to suppressing peaceful assemblies, public processions and events for the people to air their opinions to the Government. This had resulted in a lack of police force originally in place in the community, thereby undermining law and order in the urban areas. She opined that the Police force had taken the lead in destroying the tranquility of the community, so it was necessary to set up a constitutional and security affairs committee immediately. 64. Ms WONG Kin-ching was in favour of forming a “Constitutional and Security Affairs Committee”. She reckoned that police brutality had prevailed in the past few months, and neither the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Council) nor the Complaints Against Police Office was effective. She said that now police officers believed that they had the right to beat citizens and LegCo/District Council members up with arms in their hands. Their actions were not subject to checks and balances, which had caused harm to Hong Kong people and undermined Hong Kong's international image. This was a bad situation and had affected the livelihood of Hong Kong people. Hence, Ms WONG believed that a platform was needed to monitor the current police actions and practices, as well as to vindicate and get


justice done for citizens who suffered gratuitous harm. She therefore considered that a constitutional and security affairs committee should be formed as soon as possible to sooth people's anger. As to whether the Police would send representative to attend meetings of the committee, Ms WONG hoped that DO(C&W) could assist in this regard. She said that she had contacted staff of the Police Community Relations Office in the past month, and the relevant police officer said that he was only responsible for livelihood issues. Ms WONG opined that police officers inflicting gratuitous violence on citizens was a livelihood issue as the citizens were living in the community. Moreover, some citizens who had not participated in demonstrations and public processions and were simply passing by the relevant locations also suffered injuries or were affected. Besides, she believed that politics, economy and people's livelihood were inseparable, so it would be appropriate for the new committee to address constitutional issues. She also said that the “anti-extradition law movement” in Hong Kong highlighted people’s discontent and they had taken to the streets to express their demands. The reason was that Hong Kong had not implemented dual elections by universal suffrage, and many of the actions currently taken by the Government and Chief Executive were not what people had hoped for. The Government needed not formulate any policy to please citizens as they did not have the right to vote. Hence, Ms WONG reiterated that the relevant committee should be formed. She also shared Ms NG Hoi-yan’s view that the deployment of police force had affected the community and people’s livelihood. Ms WONG opined that there was insufficient police force in the Central and Western District for combating illegal parking, resulting in aggravation of the problem and traffic congestion; but the Police had indicated that no police force could be spared to carry out the relevant work. Ms WONG reiterated her hope that a constitutional and security affairs committee could be formed as soon as possible. 65. Mr PANG Ka-ho was in favour of forming a “Constitutional and Security Affairs Committee”. He opined that in addition to pursuing responsibility for contravention of police regulations by police officers, the Police also needed to explain their excessive use of arms and ammunition and force when dispersing protesters in Sheung Wan during the 612 and 721 incidents. He said that if the Police considered that their approaches in handling the incidents were appropriate, they could express such a view at the meetings of the new committee and make use of the meetings as a platform for expressing their views. He opined that security affairs should not only command attention whenever large-scale social events or demonstrations took place, as it also involved disturbance to the public caused by the Police’s actions. The Police had recently made search and arrests for no reason, and they had not given the public any reasonable ground for this. He believed that the day-to-day security of the public would also need to be discussed in the Council. Mr PANG believed that the Government, instead of Members, should take responsibility for causing social split. Members wished to make this an opportunity for the Government to express its views. He said that the relevant issues needed to be explained and discussed, and should not be evaded.


Regarding the terms of reference of the proposed Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee, Mr PANG opined that it should be discussed by Members. He said that the discussion should not be confined to police officers, as now Special Constables were also appointed to support the Police in departments like the Immigration Department and Customs and Excise Department. Hence, the relevant disciplined services of the Government should also be held accountable at the Council. He said that pro-democracy Members did not act out of political considerations or attempt to seek attention by speaking up. Rather, they were concerned about the personal safety of citizens. He believed that the Government was responsible for serving the public, and it had the responsibility to explain how it handled the day-to-day security work. On the other hand, the District Councils was a normal and established channel with popular mandate for raising questions to the Government. He also said that people took to the streets because they could not voice out their opinions through normal channels, and so it was necessary to set up the proposed committee to enquire about the Government’s proposals on relevant matters. Mr PANG reiterated his strong support for the formation of the said committee. 66. The Chairman said that the first round of discussion was over and that Members were in favour of setting up a “Constitutional and Security Affairs Committee”. She then invited Members to start the second round of discussion. 67. In response to Mr YOUNG Chit-on’s comments, the Vice-chairman said that for the powers and terms of reference of District Council, reference could be made to the DCO. Pursuant to the DCO, District Council could advise the Government on issues pertinent to the well-being of residents in the district. He opined that the personal safety and freedom of residents in the district, as well as curbing police brutality were obviously related to the well-being of the residents. Members had an undeniable responsibility and would spare no effort to relay the views of the public to the Government. As regards Mr YOUNG Chit-on’s query on the effectiveness of the proposed committee, the Vice-chairman pointed out that given the shielding and condoning by the HKSAR Government and under the escort and defence of the pro-establishment and royalist camps, he believed that it would not be easy for the new committee to carry out its work. In spite of this, Members would not shrink back and would rise to the challenges ahead. As for how to ensure the effective operation of the Council, the Vice-chairman told Mr YOUNG Chit-on to wait and see. 68. In response to Mr YOUNG Chit-on’s concern, Miss YAM Ka-yi supplemented that she believed that it was the Police and Government which had intensified the rift in society. She said that now the Police and Government did not respond to public demands at all. She cited an example that she had made an enquiry with the Police Community Relations Office the day before this meeting about the Police’s enforcement actions in the Central and Western District, but from 7:00 pm the night before the meeting up till this


moment (i.e. 4:00 pm on the day of this meeting), the Police Community Relations Office had not responded to her enquiry through any means and parties. Hence, Miss YAM considered it necessary to set up the relevant committee to provide a platform to openly invite relevant persons to dialogue, so as to resolve confrontation and mend social rifts. 69. Mr KAM Nai-wai said that the second full Council meeting would be held 14 days later (i.e. 16 January). He suggested that Members should submit papers on issues relating to opposition to the proposed legislative amendments (including people’s livelihood, police brutality) for a first-round discussion at the second full Council meeting as soon as possible. Related issues that were more specific should be put to subsequent meetings of the proposed constitutional and security affairs committee for detailed discussion. Mr KAM believed that Members had long been depressed about the relevant issues. He asked Mr YOUNG Chit-on to explain why he thought that it would intensify the rift in society if government departments refused to attend meetings of the proposed committee and the meetings were only attended by Members. Mr KAM said that he did not understand the relationship between social rifts and District Council discussion on police brutality, Police’s law enforcement actions and the use of tear gas, and why Members should bear the responsibility for the absence of government representatives at meetings. Mr KAM opined that an elected Council had the responsibility to reflect to the Government the sufferings of its people. He also invited response from DO(C&W) on whether the Police Force was not required to respond to the Council and questions raised by Members on Police’s law enforcement actions during the movement of opposition to the proposed legislative amendments. He asked whether this was a new policy adopted and directive issued by the Government, and whether the Police would not attend meetings dealing with issues related to abuse of power and indiscriminate arrests, and whether the Police would only attend meetings that commended and supported police officers. 70. Mr YIP Kam-lung said that he was a victim of Police’s indiscriminate arrests. He remarked that on 1 September when he passed by the Western Police Station opposite the building where he lived, he was pressed down on the ground by someone and carried into the police station. Mr YIP said that at the time he did not know that person was a police officer. He asked Mr YOUNG Chit-on that being treated like this, whether it was necessary to enquire with the relevant police officer why he would behave like this. He believed that his was only one of the many similar cases. For example, on the day before the meeting, shoppers, tourists from the Mainland and foreign domestic helpers outside shopping malls in Causeway Bay were arrested by police officers; and after the public procession in Western District in July 2019, some residents were arrested near Ka On Street. Mr YIP pointed out that these various cases were evidence of Police’s indiscriminate arrests, and the Council should form an independent committee to examine and investigate the matter as well as invite the Police and higher officials to attend meetings. Mr YIP also said that he disagreed with Mr YOUNG Chit-on that the proposed committee would achieve nothing if government officials refused to


attend meetings with only Members speaking at the meetings. He opined that an elected council was a fully democratic one. While its purview was subject to certain restrictions and it was only an advisory committee in constitution, it could still perform a number of tasks, such as inviting government officials to attend meetings to respond to public demands. Mr YIP also considered it necessary to defend the dignity of the Council. For example, if the District Commander was not able to attend a meeting of the Council, the Council Chairman should write to invite the Commissioner of Police to attend; if the Commissioner of Police was not able to attend a meeting, then the Secretary for Security should be invited; if the Secretary for Security was not able to attend a meeting, then the Chief Secretary for Administration should be invited; if the Chief Secretary for Administration was not able to attend a meeting, Mr YIP suggested that a standing item should be added to invite the Chief Executive to attend and speak at meetings. He understood that DO(C&W) might encounter difficulties in liaison, but he opined that the proposed constitutional and security affairs committee should have a new standing and even power and obligation to defend the dignity of elected members and elected council. He said that if the relevant officials failed to attend the meetings, it would indicate that District Council was merely an advisory body under the Government and had no real power. In this case, there would be no point for District Council to hold meetings. He believed that what he had just said concerned the fundamental issue of existence of District Council. Mr YIP also emphasised that popularly elected Members should speak for electors. Hence, Members should attend meetings to tell the people of Hong Kong and the world that the Police Force did not respond to Members ’questions nor respect the Council. This would create pressure and make it known to all the current situation of Police’s indiscriminate arrests and abuse of power by the Government and Police, which had resulted in ineffective governance and affected people's livelihood. He believed that the above roles and tasks were what Members could take up. He hoped that his views could be put on record and took this opportunity to express his grief over his arrest. 71. The Chairman said that the proceedings of meetings would be audio recorded and uploaded onto the C&WDC website, and minutes would be recorded in detail. 72. Mr YOUNG Chit-on thanked Members for their concern on his speech, and he could observe from Members’ concerns the existing problems in society. He opined that District Councillors had their terms of reference and scope of powers. He was worried that Members would do things beyond their rights and powers. He went on saying that police officers were entitled to deploy appropriate force under the scope of their powers. While Members monitored whether the Police had exercised rights beyond the scope of their powers, he hoped that Members would also consider whether they themselves were doing things beyond the scope of powers of District Councillors. He said that being aware of the scope of powers of Members, he had no disagreement with the views of other Members, only that his


views were slightly different from those of other Members. He hoped that other Members would not see him as their enemy and attack him. He stressed that he and other Members were colleagues as well as District Councillors representing the voice of the people of Hong Kong. It was normal and healthy to have different voices in the Council. He respected the views of other Members and reckoned that Members could do so if they agreed that the relevant practice was feasible, but he also reserved the right to participate in different committees. He clarified what he had said that it would generate greater anger and be a waste of time for inviting departmental representatives to attend meetings if they were unable to attend. He said that this was not a hypothetical situation. In the past two years, the Council had repeatedly encountered such situation, wasting the precious time and resources of the Council in dealing with some arduous and thankless tasks. Mr YOUNG said that while he agreed that it was one of the responsibilities of District Councillors to protect residents’ safety, he pointed out that the incident in Causeway Bay was outside the scope of the Central and Western District. He also said that the constituency he represented (i.e. the Peak Constituency) was lucky enough not to get involved in the clashes in the storm. He believed that perhaps he would have taken a very different stance if clashes occurred in his constituency. He hoped that what Members did in the Council could yield results, and would give full support to proposals put forward by other Members provided that they were feasible. Otherwise, he would prefer to invest the limited resources and powers of this advisory body on matters that could yield results. 73. Mr WONG Weng-chi said that Mr YOUNG Chit-on had brought up an important issue that elected members might not have the power to inquire into police abuse of power under their terms of reference. He reckoned that this had highlighted the fact that under Hong Kong’s undemocratic constitutional system, elected representatives could only play the role of advisory representative and could not conduct inquiry. He asked whether this meant that the public had no way to air their grievances. He believed that an investigation of police brutality would be possible if the people of Hong Kong could vote for their Chief Executive and the Chief Executive so elected could then set up an independent commission of inquiry. Mr WONG also cited the incident of cutting of reinforcement and settlement in the Shatin to Central Link Project in 2019 as an example. Remarking that an independent commission of inquiry had been set up at the time to look into the construction work, he enquired why an independent commission of inquiry was not established after the people of Hong Kong had gone through six months of police-civilian conflicts. He said that although District Council was subject to the DCO and might not have the relevant powers, District Councillors were popularly elected representatives and hence should spare no effort and leverage available platforms to speak for the people as far as practicable. He did not see this as ultra vires, rather, the reason being that the relevant powers were not conferred under the system and that the Chief Executive was not popularly elected. Regarding the terms of reference of District Council, Mr WONG said that he had also been a victim of police’s indiscriminate arrests. In


2014, he and other four persons were arrested at the LegCo Carpark and taken into a police vehicle, where they were beaten up by police officers. They lodged a complaint against the police officers by means promoted by the Government in a progressive manner. They had also lodged a complaint with the Complaints Against Police Office and had made civil claims for damages against the Commissioner of Police. However, six years had passed and the investigation outcome had yet to be announced. Mr WONG believed that citizens who had experienced a higher level of police brutality would also not be able to seek justice under the existing mechanism. He asked Mr YOUNG Chit-on that if District Councillors did not have the relevant authority, then who could have such authority to carry out relevant work. He believed that no one did have such authority at present. Hence, he suggested that the proposed constitutional and security affairs committee should hold a public hearing as soon as possible and should even invite experts to compile an independent report or provide recommendations. He opined that in addition to large-scale police-civilian conflicts, various cases and police-civilian conflicts at the community level should also be investigated. He said that it was necessary to express such views on behalf of the public, and remarked that the District Councillor of the Peak Constituency might not encounter such problem. If tear gas was deployed in the Peak Tower, perhaps the District Councillor of the local constituency could see why relevant investigation was also required for the Peak area. 74. The Vice-chairman said that after the 612 incident, there had been many police-civilian conflicts, cases of indiscriminate arrests by the Police and areas affected by tear gas in the Central and Western District. There was also a case where some students of Raimondi College were besieged by anti-riot police officers at a restaurant. He opined that this was wasteful employment of police officers and had gone beyond the limits of police powers. He said that for the well-being of the public, the Council should address the issue of police brutality expeditiously. If Members agreed that the proposed committee should be formed, the Secretariat should prepare a meeting schedule as soon as possible. 75. The Chairman consolidated Members’ views and considered that the majority of Members were in favour of forming a “Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee”. She added that some people had criticised the anti-riot police officers stationed outside Hong Kong Park Sports Centre and Government House for not serious at work and suspected that they had cheated on overtime allowances. She also pointed out that the Police had failed to proactively issue penalty tickets against illegally parked vehicles in the district. Although she had repeatedly sought police assistance to deal with illegal parking on the Caine Road bus lane, no reply had been received. The Chairman believed that the entire Police Force was not doing its job properly, and was only concerned with arresting young people and people in black clothes. She therefore supported the formation of a new committee and hoped that it would be able to seek justice for the public and discharge its duties in full.


76. Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, DO(C&W), thanked Members for adhering to traditions by complying with laws and regulations and respecting different voices when discussing terms of reference. She noted that Members intended to form a new committee and were concerned about the terms of reference of the committee. She said that Members only needed to consider which committees were to be retained or formed under the current-term Council at this meeting, the terms of reference of committees could be discussed and drawn up at the first meeting of the respective committees to be held on 23 January. She remarked that if a committee involved investigation work, consultation with relevant departments would be required to see if such terms of reference was permissible under the current DCO. She agreed that constitutional and security affairs were related to people's livelihood, and issues relating to constitutional development had previously been discussed in the Council. DO(C&W) emphasised that the Government attached great importance to the views of District Council and she believed that government departments would be happy to listen to views on constitutional issues that affected people's livelihood and would continue to maintain good communication with the Council. She said that the Chairman, Mr KAM Nai-wai and Ms NG Hoi-yan had earlier convened an inter-departmental meeting and representatives of the Police were also present to show their sincerity and willingness to listen to Members' views. In addition, DO(C&W) pointed out that the C&WDO also attached great importance to Members’ views on livelihood issues and would continue to liaise closely with Members. 77. Mr YIP Kam-lung asked DO(C&W) if the Chief Secretary for Administration, Secretary for Security and Commissioner of Police did not attend meetings of the Council, whether she would write to invite the Chief Executive to attend meetings. 78. DO(C&W) responded that she would offer assistance as appropriate. 79. Mr NG Siu-hong hoped that DO(C&W) would respond to Mr KAM Nai-wai's question, enquiring whether the Chief Executive had asked the Police to absent from District Council meetings so as to avoid responding to matters concerning Police’s law enforcement actions; and how DO(C&W) would invite police representatives to attend meetings. 80. DO(C&W) responded that she had not heard of such a thing. She said that this meeting should discuss which government departments were to assign representatives in regular attendance at the full Council meetings. Government departments such as the Hong Kong Police Force and Transport Department had in the past assigned representative to attend meetings to respond on livelihood issues. If Members endorsed to require the Hong Kong Police Force to assign representative in regular attendance at the full Council meetings, she would request the Police to do so accordingly. As for committees, the list of government representatives in regular attendance at their meetings would be determined in accordance


with their respective terms of reference, such as inviting the Police to attend meetings of the proposed “Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee”. DO(C&W) said that after the lists were confirmed, she would assist in inviting relevant departments to attend the meetings. 81. The Chairman said that the C&WDC had formed a constitutional affairs committee in early days. She hoped that constitutional issues could be discussed in the Council and a “Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee” could be formed to tie in with the efforts in striving for dual elections by universal suffrage. 82. The Chairman asked Members to indicate whether a new “Constitutional & Social Affairs Committee” should be formed. No Member voted against it. The proposal was endorsed by the Council. 83. The Chairman asked Members to indicate whether a “Culture, Leisure & Social Affairs Committee” should be formed. 84. Mr NG Siu-hong opined that the relevant committee should focus more on education and healthcare matters, and hoped that the committee could be renamed “Cultural, Education, Healthcare, Leisure & Social Affairs Committee”. 85. The Chairman asked Members to indicate whether a “Cultural, Education, Healthcare, Leisure & Social Affairs Committee” should be formed. No Member voted against it. The proposal was endorsed by the Council. 86. The Chairman asked Members to indicate whether a “District Facilities Management Committee” (DFMC) should be formed. She remarked that in addition to monitoring the swimming pools, libraries, parks, sitting-out areas, community halls, etc. in the district, Members could consider later whether study rooms or other areas for special uses should be included in the agenda for discussion at the committee’s meetings. 87. Mr KAM Nai-wai said that the “Working Group on District Minor Works” under the DFMC would submit the works projects discussed at its meetings for endorsement by the DFMC. Since DFMC meetings were not lengthy in the past, he suggested that district minor works be included in the agenda for discussion at DFMC meetings, so that a separate working group would not be required and DFMC members could concentrate on discussions at the committee level. He suggested that DFMC be renamed “District Facilities and Minor Works Committee”. 88. The Chairman said that in the past Members and government departments would submit works project proposals to the “Working Group on District Minor Works”, and the


proposals would then be submitted to the DFMC to apply funding in accordance with priorities. DFMC would usually meet two weeks after the working group’s meeting. It might not be able to set priorities for the works projects if the working group was to merge with DFMC. 89. DO(C&W) said that in the past all works project proposals discussed at the “Working Group on District Minor Works” were required to be submitted to the DFMC for endorsement to facilitate further discussion of details of individual projects at the committee. While she understood that the suggestion put forward by Mr KAM was to enhance the effective operation of the DFMC, she added that the working group had the function of facilitating Members to meet and discuss with representatives of relevant government departments, such as the Highways Department, Architectural Services Department, Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), etc. the technical aspects and details of the works projects, as well as request relevant departments to submit updated proposals for submission to the DFMC for discussion. In addition, she noted that Mr KAM had in the last term proposed to broaden the terms of reference of the DFMC to extend the scope of discussion of DFMC meetings, such as recommendation for the LCSD to provide more services, etc. She pointed out that Members had previously expressed the hope to put forth their views to the LCSD directly, so the DFMC had its own important matters to consider. 90. The Chairman said that Members were generally concerned about project cost estimation. After learning the project scope at the meeting of the working group, the relevant department might need to conduct a site visit to work out a project cost estimate for submission to and discussion with Members at the DFMC. If the working group was to be merged with the DFMC, it would have to wait until the next DFMC meeting before the relevant department could report its follow-up actions to Members. 91. Mr KAM Nai-wai opined that whether or not to retain the “Working Group on District Minor Works” could be discussed later, but suggested that the DFMC should be renamed “District Works & Facilities Management Committee”. 92. The Chairman asked Members to indicate whether a “District Works & Facilities Management Committee” should be formed. No Member voted against it. The proposal was endorsed by the Council. 93. The Chairman asked Members to indicate whether a “Finance Committee” should be formed. No Member voted against it. The proposal was endorsed by the Council. 94. The Chairman asked Members to indicate whether a “Food, Environment, Hygiene & Works Committee” (FEHWC) should be formed.


95. Ms NG Hoi-yan said she was in favour of retaining the FEHWC but hoped that building management issues could be included in the agenda for discussion at the committee’s meetings. She pointed out that in the past when the committee discussed hygiene conditions of private rear lanes at its meetings, relevant departments often indicated that they could not handle the matter and would ask residents’ organisations to deal with it themselves. If building management issues were included in the agenda for discussion at the committee’s meetings, relevant departments would be able to address the relevant hygiene issues simultaneously. She suggested that the FEHWC be renamed "Building Management, Environmental Hygiene and Works Committee" (“大廈管理、環境衞生及工務委員會 ” in Chinese). 96. Mr KAM Nai-wai suggested that it would be more proper to use the term “樓宇

管理 ” instead of “大廈管理 ” for the name of the committee as there were many tenement houses in the district. [Translator’s note: Both “樓宇管理” and “大廈管理” mean literally the same thing and both terms are translated as “building management” in English, though “樓宇 ” carries a more general meaning, whereas “大廈 ” generally refers to apartments/western-style buildings.] 97. The Chairman opined that there was no need to include the word “Food” in the name of the committee, because matters concerning food were also an aspect of hygiene which could be handled by the Department of Health and Food and Environmental Hygiene Department. 98. The Chairman asked Members to indicate whether a “Building Management, Environmental Hygiene & Works Committee” (“樓宇管理、環境衞生及工務委員會 ” in Chinese) should be formed. No Member voted against it. The proposal was endorsed by the Council. 99. The Chairman asked Members to indicate whether a “Traffic & Transport Committee” should be formed. No Member voted against it. The proposal was endorsed by the Council. 100. The Chairman declared that the formation of the following six committees was endorsed: (i) Cultural, Education, Healthcare, Leisure & Social Affairs Committee; (ii) District Works & Facilities Management Committee; (iii) Finance Committee; (iv) Building Management, Environmental Hygiene & Works Committee; (v) Traffic & Transport Committee; and (vi) Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee. 101. The Chairman said that the Secretariat would distribute forms to Members for


application of membership to the committees after the meeting. The forms should be returned to the Secretariat by 8 January for compilation of the membership lists. Also, the election of the Chairmen/Vice-chairmen of the committees would be conducted at their first meetings to be held on 23 January, where the terms of reference would also be put forward for endorsement. Members could discuss about expanding the scope of the terms of reference at the meetings. 102. The Chairman said that the Standing Orders of C&WDC stipulated that co-opted members could be appointed to the committees. She enquired whether co-opted members should be appointed to the committees. And instead of appointing co-opted members, whether it was possible to invite relevant parties to attend meetings each time. 103. Mr YIP Kam-lung said that as mentioned in the discussion just now members of the committees were entitled to vote under the DCO, he enquired that for every meeting of a committee, whether it was for the committee Chairman to invite relevant parties to attend. 104. The Chairman said that consideration could be given to allow Committee Chairmen to decide whether to invite guests to attend meetings. In the past, some members of the public had requested to express their views at the Council’s meetings. 105. The Vice-chairman suggested that the appointment of co-opted members should be discussed later to allow sufficient time for Members to consider. 106. DO(C&W) supplemented by citing the Working Group on the Central & Western District Harbourfront under the C&WDC as an example. She said that some members of the working group had no voting right but they were invited to every meeting of the working group. If Members wished to have continuity, they could invite some professors or representatives for regular attendance in the working group, although they would not be addressed as members of the working group nor have voting right. Hence, there were indeed meetings where the same group of people from different sectors was invited to attend and participate in discussion every time, and the number of people invited could be adjusted as well. These attendees were generally addressed as in regular attendance. 107. Mr YIP Kam-lung said that these attendees could not be addressed as members because members of the Council did have voting right. 108. The Chairman said that they should be addressed as guests in regular attendance and suggested that the matter concerning co-opted members should be handled later. She indicated that the first meetings of the committees mainly dealt with matters concerning the election of their respective Chairman/Vice-chairman. Since the appointment of co-opted


members would not be discussed for now, no co-opted members would be present at the second meetings of the committees. 109. Mr KAM Nai-wai said that it would be desirable to invite the same guests to the meeting every time, and they could be addressed as guests in regular attendance as they did not have voting right. He suggested that this meeting should resolve not to appoint co-opted members to the committees. As for the list of guests in regular attendance, Members might consider submitting papers on detailed proposal after the meeting. 110. The Chairman asked whether Members agreed that the appointment of co-opted members would not be dealt with at this meeting and should be left to the meeting on 16 January. 111. The Vice-chairman said Mr KAM Nai-wai meant that this meeting should decide whether to abolish the system of co-opted members. 112. Mr LEUNG Fong-wai suggested that this meeting should decide whether to abolish the system of co-opted members while the list of guests in regular attendance could be decided later. 113. Mr YIP Kam-lung was in favour of abolishing the system of co-opted members in the C&WDC, and said that whether or not to invite guests in regular attendance could be discussed later. 114. Mr LEUNG Fong-wai was also in favour of abolishing the system of co-opted members as the DCO prohibited the appointment of co-opted members without voting right. He opined that in upholding procedural justice, voting rights should not be given to those who had not participated in District Council election. 115. Miss YAM Ka-yi was in favour of the immediate abolition of the system of co-opted members, remarking that only representatives of public opinion should be given voting rights in District Council. 116. The Chairman asked Members to indicate whether the C&WDC should abolish the practice of appointing co-opted members to committees. No Member voted against it. The proposal was endorsed by the Council. 117. The Chairman declared that the co-opted membership of the six committees under the C&WDC would be abolished for the first 2-year service term, while guests in regular attendance would be invited and their proper name was to be confirmed.


118. The Chairman asked Members to indicate whether the term of the six committees under the C&WDC should run for a period of two years. No Member voted against it. The proposal was endorsed by the Council. Item 6: Nomination and Election Arrangements of the Chairmen and Vice Chairmen

of Committees (C&W DC Paper No. 03/2020) (5:06 pm – 5:10 pm) 119. The Chairman briefed Members on the nomination and election arrangements of the Chairmen and Vice-chairmen of committees under the C&WDC. She said that the Secretariat would later send a letter to Members inviting nominations for the chairmanship/vice-chairmanship of the committees. The deadline for nomination was 1:30 pm on 23 January 2020 (i.e. one hour before the start of the first meetings of the committees). The election of the Chairmen/Vice-chairmen of the committees would be conducted at their first meetings proposed to be held at 2:30 pm on 23 January 2020. 120. Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, DO(C&W), remarked that voting by proxy was not allowed for the election of Chairman and Vice-chairman of the Council conducted just now, and enquired whether the same approach would be adopted for the election of Chairmen/Vice-chairmen of the committees. 121. Mr YIP Kam-lung said that if the C&WDC was to abolish the system of proxy voting, it should be stipulated in the Standing Orders that proxy voting was not allowed at all meetings of the Council as well as for the election of Chairman/Vice-chairman of the Council/committees. 122. The Chairman suggested that any member who was unable to attend the committee meeting might not appoint in writing another member to vote on his or her behalf in electing the Chairman/Vice-chairman of the committee. She invited Members to comment on her proposal and asked Members to indicate whether they would endorse the proposal. No Member voted against it. The proposal was endorsed by the Council. 123. The Chairman said that Members must attend the first meetings of the committees on 23 January in person to vote. Members who were interested in running for the chairmanship/vice-chairmanship of the committees should take note of the nomination and election arrangements.


Item 7: Proposed Dates of Meetings of C&WDC and Committees under C&WDC

between January and December 2020 and Arrangements for Subsequent C&WDC Meetings

(C&W DC Paper No. 04/2020) (5:10 pm – 5:32 pm) 124. The Chairman invited Members to refer to the timetable shown in the tabled paper. She said the version tabled was a draft prepared by the Secretariat for the full Council meetings and meetings of the six committees, and this version would replace the Annex to the paper. The Chairman said the 1st full Council meeting was held on 2 January and the 2nd full Council meeting would be held on 16 January. The 1st meeting of the six committees would be held on 23 January and the 2nd meeting of the Finance Committee would be held on 6 February after the Lunar New Year holiday (which began on 25 January). Page 3 of the tabled paper showed the draft timetable for full Council meetings and committee meetings in 2020. She asked if Members had any comment on the arrangement; if not, the timetable for the meetings in 2020 would be endorsed. 125. Mr KAM Nai-wai said he had made some comments to the Secretariat before the meeting. For example, he had suggested holding the 2nd full Council meeting on 16 January. As formation of committees took time, he suggested discussing matters including community issues and police brutality related to opposition to the proposed legislative amendments first at the full Council meeting on 16 January. He hoped that Members could submit papers regarding these issues. He understood that relevant departments needed time to reply to the papers, and there were still two weeks before 16 January for them to prepare a reply. Moreover, he opined that time-wise, it was acceptable to hold the 2nd meeting of the Constitutional & Security Affairs Committee on 23 February. As the first round of discussion on issues of Members’ concern would be held at the full Council meeting on 16 January, specific details about execution and handling could be discussed at committee meetings. He said the Secretariat usually would not arrange meetings before and after long holidays. In addition, he said full Council meetings and committee meetings were mostly held on Thursdays. He believed that many special meetings might be convened in future to provide an occasion for Members to express different opinions. He suggested holding special meetings in the morning or at noon on Thursdays if the meetings were not urgent, so that Members could make time for the meetings. He also believed that there would be many working group meetings in future, and he suggested that the meetings could also be held at a regular time, such as Tuesdays, or right before the full Council meetings. To conclude, Mr KAM suggested holding working group meetings in the morning or afternoon on Tuesdays, so that Members could reserve Tuesdays and Thursdays for attending meetings. He sought Members’ views regarding the suggestion.

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126. Members endorsed the draft timetable for full Council meetings and committee meetings in 2020. 127. Ms BOOK, Executive Officer I, added that C&WDC shared the conference room on 14/F with Islands District Council (IsDC) at the moment. IsDC used the conference room on Mondays and Tuesdays while C&WDC used the conference room on Thursdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays, the two DCs took turns using it and hence, it was better to hold meetings on Wednesdays, Thursdays or Fridays. Members could also consider holding meetings at the conference room on 11/F. 128. The Chairman said all full Council meetings and committee meetings started at 2:30 pm. She consulted Members whether they agreed to holding the 1st meetings of the committees at 2:30 pm on 23 January 2020 (Thursday) to elect the Chairman/Vice-chairman of each committee. Members unanimously endorsed the proposal. 129. The Chairman suggested that, if Members agreed with holding the 2nd full Council meeting at 2:30 pm on 16 January 2020 (Thursday), the paper submission deadline for Members would be 7 January (Tuesday). Members could ask the Secretariat regarding the format of the papers and submission methods. 130. The Chairman consulted Members regarding C&WDC’s standing items. She said the previous standing items in Central and Western District included “Progress Report on Urban Renewal Authority’s Projects in Central & Western District” and “Conserving Central”. The Chairman suggested keeping the two items and sought Members’ views on it. 131. Mr YIP Kam-lung suggested including a new standing item on “Lantau Tomorrow”. 132. Mr KAM Nai-wai had no comment on including new standing items. He opined that an issue could first be discussed at the 1st meeting and then be handled by the working group subsequently set up. He agreed with including one more standing item, such as “Lantau Tomorrow”. Yet, he opined that it was unnecessary to discuss the same standing items in the coming four years and adjustments could be made in future as appropriate. 133. Ms WONG Kin-ching agreed with including “Lantau Tomorrow” as a standing item. She also suggested broadening the scope of discussion under “Conserving Central”. In addition to Central, conservation of Western District and Kennedy Town could also be covered.


134. Mr YIP Kam-lung added that Reverend KOON Ho-ming of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui had said at the previous Town Planning Board (TPB) meeting that he would definitely attend C&WDC meetings if the C&WDC Chairman wrote to invite him. Mr YIP hoped that it could be put on record that Reverend KOON Ho-ming would be invited for the item “Conserving Central” every time to report on the progress of conserving Bishop Hill and other historic buildings in Central and Western District. 135. The Chairman hoped that projects involving TPB could be discussed in full Council meetings in future. She said the latest TPB consultation was about the public viewing deck level of Central Pier No. 7 (Star Ferry), and she had submitted a paper in relation to it. In addition, the Chairman also consulted Members about the name of the item “Conserving Central”. 136. Mr KAM Nai-wai suggested not to change the scope of discussion under “Conserving Central” for the moment. He suggested setting up a working group on historic town district and heritage conservation under C&WDC to handle issues related to conservation. He suggested that projects under “Conserving Central” be continued to be handled at full Council meetings and issues including conserving Western District and the entire Central and Western District, as suggested by Ms WONG, be handled at working group meetings. 137. The Chairman said “Progress Report on Urban Renewal Authority’s Projects in Central & Western District” was an important standing item. “Conserving Central” and “Lantau Tomorrow” would be the other two standing items. 138. The Secretary said the next full Council meeting would be held on 16 January, i.e. in two weeks’ time. As time was rather tight, relevant government departments would not be able to submit papers regarding the three standing items by the deadline set in the Standing Orders. The Secretariat would send the papers to Members as early as possible upon receipt of the papers. 139. The Chairman invited Members to discuss government representatives in regular attendance at the full Council meetings. 140. Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, DO(C&W), said the current government representatives in regular attendance were from C&WDO (including District Officer and other colleagues), Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF), Transport Department, LCSD, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and Civil Engineering and Development Department. For standing items, the Urban Renewal Authority, for example, had also delegated


representatives to attend C&WDC meetings regularly in the past. Regarding the new standing item “Lantau Tomorrow”, as the next meeting would be held in two weeks, the relevant departments might not be able to submit the latest information to C&WDC in time. Still, she would try her best to invite relevant departments to attend the meeting. She asked whether Members wanted to invite any other government departments for inclusion in the list of government representatives in regular attendance, in addition to the departments mentioned just then and representatives who reported on standing items. 141. Mr KAM Nai-wai said HKPF had usually delegated officers of lower rank to attend C&WDC meetings in the past. He opined that staff of Police Community Relations Office could not give a solid response to Members’ questions and it was difficult to contact them. Besides, the representatives sent to the meetings were always different because of posting, and it was difficult to identify them. He opined that HKPF should at least delegate District Commander (Central District) or District Commander (Western District) or officers of equal rank to the meetings. He said District Commanders also participated in Fight Crime Committee which members were appointed by the Government, and there should be District Commanders attending full District Council meetings as well. Hence, he hoped that both District Commander (Central District) and District Commander (Western District) could attend the regular full Council meetings. He especially hoped that District Officer could invite the two District Commanders to attend the full Council meeting on 16 January. He hoped that the two District Commanders could be guests in regular attendance to C&WDC meetings and he considered this a basic requirement. 142. The Vice-chairman agreed with Mr KAM. He opined that staff of Police Community Relations Office were unable to respond to Members’ questions. He opined that it was no longer only about the relation between the police and the public; it was also about whether HKPF had abused its power and made indiscriminate arrests when enforcing the law. He opined that officers of higher rank should come to answer Members’ queries and questions. He strongly agreed that HKPF should delegate officers of higher rank to attend C&WDC meetings. 143. Ms WONG Kin-ching was concerned about the progress of the draft Kennedy Town & Mount Davis Outline Zoning Plan (OZP). She said construction works would commence in Kennedy Town soon, and public housing, parks and private buildings would also be built. She opined that the issue could be included as a standing item and officials of relevant departments could be invited to report on the progress and give updates to C&WDC. 144. Mr YIP Kam-lung agreed that it was necessary to pay attention to the planning of Kennedy Town and Mount Davis but opined that it was also necessary to consider whether it should be included as a standing item. Although the issue involved the land in and the


interests of Central and Western District, he was aware that there was a limit on the number of papers submitted to full Council meetings. He worried that an excessive number of papers or issues would lengthen the time before papers could be discussed at a full Council meeting in future. 145. Mr KAM Nai-wai suggested that a paper could first be submitted to full Council meeting for discussion regarding the planning of Western District mentioned by Ms WONG Kin-ching. If Members agreed during the discussion that it was necessary to follow up on the issue regularly, they could then consider whether it should be included as a standing item. Besides, he also suggested setting up a working group on town planning of Central and Western District under C&WDC, in addition to setting up a working group on historic town district and heritage conservation. He opined that many issues about town planning could be discussed thoroughly and followed up in the working group. Hence, he suggested that Ms WONG could first submit a paper regarding the issue to the full Council for discussion and consider subsequent follow-up actions afterwards. 146. DO(C&W) replied that a limit was put on the number of papers discussed at a meeting in the Standing Orders. For full Council meetings, “3+5” was frequently mentioned, meaning that no more than three government papers and five papers submitted by Members could be discussed at a full Council meeting. For committees, “4+6” was followed, meaning that no more than four government papers and six papers submitted by Members could be discussed at a committee meeting. She said those were the stipulations written in the Standing Orders and Members could further discuss them. Besides, regarding Mr KAM Nai-wai’s suggestion of setting up a working group on town planning, she said C&WDC of the last term had set up a working group on harbourfront to address matters related to “Lantau Tomorrow” and harbourfront development (including the harbourfront site in Kennedy Town). In addition to Members, the working group also had other professors and members of local communities as guests in regular attendance. Members could consider setting up a working group to handle relevant matters. She could relay the message to relevant departments if Members wished to discuss “Lantau Tomorrow” in the 2nd full Council meeting, in the hope that the departments could provide the latest information to Members. 147. The Chairman said Ms WONG Kin-ching could submit a paper on issues related to the OZP to the full Council for discussion. The issue could be included as a standing item if the inclusion was deemed necessary by C&WDC. The paper submitted could be discussed at the meeting on 16 January the earliest. 148. Members agreed with the proposal, and endorsed the inclusion of “Progress Report on Urban Renewal Authority’s Projects in Central & Western District”, “Conserving Central”


and “Lantau Tomorrow” as standing items. The Chairman said the formation of working groups under C&WDC would be discussed at the 2nd full Council meeting, and the formation of working group on planning or historic town district, as suggested by Members, could also be discussed. 149. The Chairman closed the discussion on this item.

Item 8: Recruitment of Executive Assistants, Project Co-ordinator and Project Assistant by C&WDC (2020-2021) (C&W DC Paper No. 05/2020) (5:32 pm – 5:57 pm) 150. Ms YEUNG Wing-shan, Senior Executive Officer (District Council) of C&WDO, hoped that Members would support the continued employment of nine contract staff members, including seven Executive Assistants, one Project Co-ordinator and one Project Assistant, in the following financial year (i.e. 2020-2021) to assist C&WDC in taking forward its initiatives. The funding amount applied was $2,908,047. C&WDC had been recruiting nine dedicated staff members to assist with taking forward its initiatives. As a standard practice, the Finance Committee (FC) would consider the funding proposals for 2020-2021 in April and endorse the organisation of activities. As the recruitment had to be approved by C&WDC, and contract renewal and recruitment had to be done in advance, she hoped that Members could support the fund application and give consent to the Secretariat for commencing the preparatory work for contract renewal and recruitment for 2020-2021. The formal appointment procedure would be confirmed pending the endorsement of the funding proposal by FC. 151. The Chairman invited discussion on the paper. Members’ questions and comments were as follows: (a) Mr KAM Nai-wai had no comment on the staff recruitment but he wished to know

who would be on the interview board and who would approve the panel, whether an applicant would be considered during the recruitment if he had been arrested because of the movement of opposition to the proposed legislative amendments (the movement), whether arrestees would be considered for appointment, and how relevant applications and respective employment packages would be handled.

(b) Mr NG Siu-hong expressed worry over the functions, political stance and allocation of interests, etc. of the Area Committees. He wished to know whether the staff recruited would be involved in the work of the Area Committees.


(c) Mr YIP Kam-lung had no comment on the staff recruitment. He asked whether

the department would recruit additional staff or ask the existing staff to share the workload after the new committee had been set up. Mr YIP understood that the recruitment had to be impartial, open and fair, and it was difficult to give priority to persons who had been arrested because of the movement. Still, he wished to know whether C&WDO would give special consideration to rehabilitated offenders during the recruitment and whether Members could attend the interviews.

(d) Mr HO Chi-wang asked about the job responsibilities of Executive Assistant and Project Co-ordinator.

(e) The Vice-chairman did not object to recruiting staff. He said extra resources could be allocated to C&WDC to recruit more staff members. However, he would object to the recruitment if the staff recruited needed to work for the Area Committees, as the expenses should be borne by the department. In addition, it would be against the public’s will if C&WDO arranged for the candidates who lost in the 2019 District Council Election to take up posts in the Area Committees. He hoped that the Secretariat could clarify on this.

(f) Mr WONG Weng-chi asked about the authority of Members in the recruitment exercise.

152. Ms YEUNG Wing-shan of C&WDO replied that contract staff had to be recruited pursuant to the guidelines issued by HAD. District Office needed to advertise job vacancies with entry requirements and interview applicants. According to the guidelines, the interviewers would be civil servants and in general, one Senior Executive Officer would be the chairman of the interview board while two Executive Officers would be the board members. The recruitment process was fair, open and impartial. Job seekers could apply for the positions as long as they met the entry requirements. According to HAD’s guidelines, District Office could recruit three categories of contract staff for District Council, including Executive Assistant, Project Co-ordinator and Project Assistant. Entry requirements were set across the board by HAD. The entry requirements for Executive Assistant were similar to those of Executive Officers recruited on civil service terms. The entry requirements for Project Co-ordinator were lower and applicants only needed to have Level 3 or equivalent or above in five subjects in Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination. The entry requirements for Project Assistant were lower still. The remunerations for the three categories of contract staff were set in accordance with HAD’s guidelines and were the same in the 18 District Councils. Staff recruited would not work for


Area Committees and their responsibilities would only be related to District Council’s work. As for recruiting more staff, the Secretariat could only recruit nine contract staff members at present because the Secretariat was restricted by the funding mechanism of District Council when recruiting contract staff and could not use more than 15% of the funding received to recruit staff. 153. Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, DO (C&W), said the contract staff assisted C&WDC in organising activities held by committees/working groups under C&WDC listed in the Annex to the paper and they would not involve in other activities held by C&WDO. Moreover, HAD hoped that more members of the public could benefit from District Council activities and services and so, the maximum amount of funding for recruiting staff was capped at 15% of the total funding. The Area Committees used the resources of C&WDO and their members were appointed based on whether a candidate possessed relevant service experience on district development and relevant professional qualifications, etc. As for arranging for candidates who lost in the 2019 District Council Election to be members in the Area Committees, since the present term of office had not ended, the appointment procedure for the Area Committees had yet to be commenced. 154. Mr HO Chi-wang wished to know the specific functions of and differences between Executive Assistant and Project Co-ordinator. 155. Mr KAM Nai-wai asked about the Government’s policy on recruiting arrestees and rehabilitated offenders. 156. Mr YIP Kam-lung said the Government had recently announced that candidates who lost in the 2019 District Council Election would take up posts in Area Committees. There were three Area Committees under C&WDC, namely Chung Wan and Mid-Levels Area Committee, Sheung Wan and Sai Ying Pun Area Committee, and Kennedy Town and Shek Tong Tsui Area Committee. The possibility of appointing five candidates who lost in the 2019 District Council Election as members for each Area Committee could not be ruled out even though District Officer (Central and Western) said the procedure had yet to be started. Besides, there were no clear definitions of the distribution of responsibilities between Executive Assistants, Project Co-ordinators and Project Assistants. He asked whether contract staff would be on loan to other departments/committees. He hoped that C&WDO could submit paper after the meeting to provide information including the organisation chart and the committees/working groups these staff were responsible for. 157. The Vice-chairman hoped that DO(C&W) could clarify the plan to appoint candidates who lost in the 2019 District Council Election as members in the Area Committees. The Democratic Party objected to it. He hoped that DO(C&W) would


consider the plan carefully. 158. DO(C&W) said information about the projects handled by the nine staff members in the last term, which were listed in the Annex to the paper, and the distribution of responsibilities among them would be submitted in written form after the meeting. In addition, she said some Members of the last term had also brought up the matter. As there were more activities held during autumn and winter, contract staff would be deployed to perform different work of the C&WDC for effective use of resources. These work were solely activities implemented by C&WDC and the staff would not be required to take care of matters related to community halls and Area Committees. DO(C&W) also said C&WDO staff would coordinate the execution of some DC activities, and LegCo had stipulated the ambit of funding under “Community Involvement Programme” when allocating funding to District Councils. C&WDO had the responsibility to assist C&WDC in implementing the projects in order to meet the expectation and achieve the outcome desired by C&WDC. Hence, C&WDO also deployed staff to monitor C&WDC-funded activities to facilitate HAD in reporting to LegCo on the use of public funds when necessary. 159. Ms BOOK King-shun, Executive Officer I (District Council) of C&WDO, said staff would be recruited in accordance with the recruitment guidelines of Civil Service Bureau and HAD, and criminal conviction record of every applicant who passed the interview would be looked into according to the standard recruitment procedure. Yet, criminal conviction record was not the only factor which would be taken into account during the recruitment; instead, every aspect would be considered. Regarding the distribution of responsibilities among the nine staff members, as the entry requirements for the seven Executive Assistants recruited on contract terms were similar to those of Executive Officers, they were responsible for handling more complicated work, such as major events organised by C&WDC which included Youth Job Expo, activities on New Year’s Eve and Sheung Wan Promenade, etc. They also assist in the work of different committees and working groups, including making souvenirs and drafting minutes of meetings, etc. As the entry requirements for the Project Co-ordinator and Project Assistant were lower, they were responsible for organising minor activities such as “Cantonese Opera Show”, production of red packets and calendars, etc. The Project Assistant was also responsible for updating the website of C&WDC. 160. Mr KAM Nai-wai hoped that C&WDO would not reject a job seeker during the recruitment just because he/she had been involved in the movement. He also hoped the comment would be put on record. 161. As no member objected to the proposal, C&WDC approved an allocation of $2,908,047 for the continued employment of the nine contract staff members, including seven Executive Assistants, one Project Co-ordinator and one Project Assistant, to assist C&WDC


in taking forward its initiatives. 162. The Chairman closed the discussion on this item. Item 9: Meet-the-Public Scheme (C&W DC Paper No. 06/2020) (5:57 pm – 6:12 pm) 163. Miss WONG Wai-yan, Executive Officer (District Council) 2 of C&WDO, presented the paper on “Meet-the-Public Scheme”. She said the paper mainly aimed to seek Members’ views on “Meet-the-Public Scheme” under the new term C&WDC. She said there was a duty roster for the current “Meet-the-Public Scheme” and Members, in a group of five, took turns to meet the public every four months. If a member of the public wanted to meet a specific Member or make suggestions on a specific constituency, the Secretariat would refer the case to the Member concerned. She said that the number of cases under “Meet-the-Public Scheme” had not been many in recent years probably because there were many direct channels of communication, such as social media, messaging applications, emails and Members’ ward offices, etc., between the public and Members. She continued that most of the cases were referred to Members by the Secretariat and handled at Members’ ward offices. From January 2016 to September 2019, 17 cases were handled in total under “Meet-the-Public Scheme”. 16 of them had been referred to Members and handled at their ward offices, and the remaining one was handled at a venue arranged by the Secretariat. As the number of appointments made under “Meet-the-Public Scheme” was few, she asked Members to consider whether a simplified and more flexible approach should be adopted to increase the scheme’s flexibility. That is, the Secretariat could, instead of preparing a duty roster for Members as in the past, refer a case to the Member concerned based on the public’s preference, nature of the case or the constituency involved. If the Secretariat was unable to refer a case based on the said criteria, it would discuss with Members the meeting arrangement in alphabetical order according to their English name. 164. The Chairman invited discussion on the paper. Members’ questions and comments were as follows: (a) Mr YOUNG Chit-on welcomed the suggestion of simplifying the “Meet-the-Public

Scheme”.

(b) Mr YIP Kam-lung said the operation of “Meet-the-Public Scheme” was similar to that of the Public Complaints Office of LegCo and of the Office of the Ombudsman. He suggested C&WDC refer to the mode of operation of the Public


Complaints Office of LegCo in handling public requests for assistance, including meeting and corresponding with complainants, examining the cases lodged and communicating with relevant organisations and Government departments, and assisting Members in determining suitable courses of action as well as scheduling interviews with complainants and servicing case conferences with Government officials.

(c) Mr KAM Nai-wai opined that the mode of operation of “Meet-the-Public Scheme” should be kept for the time being. He suggested Members to submit papers to C&WDC to discuss the matter if they had any new suggestion on the scheme.

(d) Mr PANG Ka-ho did not recommend cancellation of “Meet-the-Public Scheme”.

(e) Miss YAM Ka-yi agreed with keeping the “Meet-the-Public Scheme” as the scheme enabled the public to approach District Council members. She said she would submit paper to C&WDC later to improve the “Meet-the-Public Scheme”.

(f) Miss CHEUNG Kai-yin opined that it was necessary to keep the “Meet-the-Public Scheme” so that the public could make appointment with Members through the Secretariat. She asked the Secretariat how the “Meet-the-Public Scheme” was promoted, and suggested the Secretariat to promote the scheme” through online media.

(g) Mr WONG Weng-chi agreed with adopting the suggestion proposed in the paper, that is, the Secretariat could, instead of preparing a duty roster for Members as in the past, refer cases under “Meet-the-Public Scheme” to the Members concerned for follow-up.

165. Ms YEUNG Wing-shan, Senior Executive Officer (District Council) of C&WDO, said the paper did not suggest cancelling the “Meet-the-Public Scheme”. Rather, it invited Members to consider whether a simplified and more flexible approach should be adopted. That is, the Secretariat could, instead of preparing a duty roster for Members as in the past, refer a case to the Member concerned based on the public’s preference, nature of the case or the constituency involved. If the Secretariat was unable to refer a case based on the criteria mentioned, it would discuss with Members the meeting arrangement in alphabetical order according to their English name. 166. Mr HO Chi-wang asked the Secretariat how cases lodged by residents outside the Central and Western District would be handled.


167. Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, DO(C&W), said that those cases were rare, but if there were any such case, it would be referred to the relevant District Council. She agreed with Miss CHEUNG Kai-yin that “Meet-the-Public Scheme” could be promoted through online media. She said she was also thinking about further improving the website of C&WDO to promote the public business and District Council work in Central and Western District. 168. The Chairman agreed with the arrangement proposed by the Secretariat. That is, the Secretariat could, instead of preparing a duty roster for Members as in the past, refer a case to the Member concerned based on the public’s preference, nature of the case or the constituency involved. If the Secretariat was unable to refer a case based on the criteria mentioned, it would discuss with Members the meeting arrangement in alphabetical order according to their English name. She asked whether the Secretariat promoted the “Meet-the-Public Scheme” through posters on the notice boards at present. She suggested promoting the scheme” through posters on the notice boards if space was still available. 169. Miss WONG Wai-yan, Executive Officer (District Council) 2 of C&WDO, said banners promoting “Meet-the-Public Scheme” would be displayed at four locations in Central and Western District. 170. Ms BOOK King-shun, Executive Officer I (District Council) of C&WDO, said “Meet-the-Public Scheme” would be promoted through posters on the notice boards. Item 10: Use of C&WDC Funds and Noting the Allocations by C&WDC (2016-2019) (C&W DC Paper No. 07/2020) (6:12 pm – 6:46 pm) 171. Mr LEE Tin-chi, Executive Officer (District Council) 1 of C&WDO, referred Members to C&W DC Paper No. 07/2020. He said the 20 activities listed out in Annex I to the paper had been approved by the fifth term C&WDC and would be implemented during 2020 (i.e. during the sixth term C&WDC). A funding of $1,130,375 was involved and the preparatory work had commenced in 2019. He asked Members to take note of it. Mr LEE continued that Members could refer to Annexes II and III for a detailed record of usage of C&WDC funds. The annexes showed that $644,433.7 had yet been allocated by the fifth term C&WDC from 1 April to 31 December 2019. Besides, pursuant to HAD’s guidelines, the fifth term C&WDC had earmarked $1,166,400 (i.e. 5% of the current year provision) for use by the sixth term C&WDC during the first three months from 1 January to 31 March 2020. In other words, the amount of funds available for use by C&WDC of the current term before 31 March 2020 was $1,810,833.7. If Members agreed, $278,300 could be earmarked for C&WDC Secretariat to cover the additional expenditure arising from pay adjustment for


Executive Assistants, Project Co-ordinator and Project Assistant in 2019-2020. Consideration could also be given to earmarking $720 for producing four banners for “Meet-the-Pubic Scheme”. Relevant fund applications would be discussed later at the meeting. Mr LEE continued that part of the District Council funds would usually be earmarked for non-governmental organisations (NGOs). According to past experience, as it took time to organise an activity, it might not be able to settle the payment for the activity before the end of the current financial year if a public invitation was issued to the organisations to apply for funding only after the sixth term C&WDC had started. To allow sufficient time for the organisations to organise activities, the Secretariat had referred to the practice of the last term, and had publicly invited NGOs in early December 2019 to submit fund applications to C&WDC for activities which they wished to hold during the first quarter of 2020. As at the deadline at 6:00 pm on 31 December 2019, the Secretariat received nine applications in total, involving a funding amount of $180,332. If C&WDC agreed to consider the applications, the applications would be discussed at the 1st FC meeting on 23 January, and representatives of the applicant organisations would be invited to attend the meeting and answer Members’ questions. 172. Mr LEE Tin-chi of C&WDO also said that if Members agreed to earmark funding for the three activities mentioned just then (i.e. additional expenditure arising from pay adjustment for Executive Assistants, Project Co-ordinator and Project Assistant in 2019-2020, production of banners for “Meet-the-Public Scheme” and the nine fund applications made by NGOs), the amount of funds available for use by C&WDC before 31 March 2020 would be $1,351,481.70 (i.e. $1,810,833.70 - $278,300 - $720 - $180,332). Mr LEE asked Members to consider whether the funds would be used for holding other activities or for other possible uses before the end of the current financial year (i.e. by end of March). Mr LEE continued that according to past experience, activities under the new applications approved in January might not be able to be completed before mid-March because time was tight and reservation of venues and procurement procedures took time. Hence, the funding might need to be handled in the following financial year, and the amount of funds that could be used in the following financial year might be indirectly affected. 173. The Chairman invited discussion on the paper. Members’ questions and comments were as follows: (a) Mr KAM Nai-wai said he had no comment on earmarking funding for the

production of banners for “Meet-the-Public Scheme” and fund applications made by NGOs, as NGOs had recurrently held activities in the past. However, Mr KAM was aware that “2019/2020 Fall/Winter Sheung Wan Promenade” and “New Year's Eve Countdown in Central & Western District” had been cancelled. As a large amount of funding was involved in the two activities, he wished to know


whether the funding was counted towards the amount of $1,810,833.7. In addition, Mr KAM opined that C&WDC should implement more direct services so that the public could see how C&WDC was related to them. He hoped that Members could put their heads together and think about how the funds should be used before 31 March, with a view to using the resources efficiently. Mr KAM hoped that a year-end clean-up campaign could be conducted to clean the streets, collect community refuse and implement safety measures at locations where railings had yet been available, etc. He suggested that the remaining provision of the current term C&WDC could be used for implementing similar activities so that the public could experience firsthand how C&WDC had directly improved the community. Members were welcome to make other suggestions. Mr KAM said some activities, such as street cleaning, could be implemented very quickly. He remarked that Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) also had funding for similar purposes. However, there were suspected cases of infectious diseases in Hong Kong and rodent infestation had been serious recently. Some residents had relayed that they spotted rats at locations such as parks and markets, and the pubic was fairly concerned about environmental hygiene. Mr KAM suggested that C&WDC implement measures which could improve the environment, such as establishing rodent control team and mosquito control team, so that the public could see the new outlook of the new term C&WDC.

(b) Mr YIP Kam-lung expressed concern over the “Central and Western District Fight Crime Carnival 2019-20”, organised by District Fight Crime Committee (Central and Western District) and listed under “List of activities approved by the fifth term C&WDC which had started preparation and would be held within the first three months of the current term C&WDC” in Annex I. He hoped that funding allocation to the activity could be suspended. Mr YIP said recently, police brutality had been rampant and people had impersonated police officers as a result of the police failing to present their warrant card and police identification number. If crime was to be fought, the police’s internal disciplinary matters should first be tackled. Hence, he opined that the fund application (which involved $80,800) should not be approved by C&WDC. The police should bear the expenses themselves in fighting crime, instead of applying to C&WDC for funding.

(c) Mr WONG Weng-chi was concerned about the public invitation issued earlier by C&WDC to NGOs for fund application earlier. He said some members of the public had reflected to him that they needed to apply to HKPF for registration of societies. However, it took time for the department to vet and approve the community groups’ applications; around six months were needed before an application was completed. Some residents wished to apply for District Council


funding to carry out activities related to culture, leisure, sports and welfare but failed to do so, because they could not successfully apply to HKPF for registration of societies. It was even more difficult to apply to Inland Revenue Department for a charity licence because the entire process took around two years. Hence, the residents reflected that small-scale kai-fong associations could not benefit from District Council funding. Mr WONG continued that some organisations, such as Owners’ Corporations, could not apply to C&WDC for funding even if they wished to hold activities such as Lunar New Year Fairs. It gave the public an impression that District Council funding only benefitted activities organised by organisations related to the royalists, such as “free offers of seasonal delicacies”. Mr WONG asked whether discretion might be granted under the “Manual on the Use of DC Funds” in respect of applicant organisations so that more small-scale organisations could benefit promptly.

174. Ms YEUNG Wing-shan, Senior Executive Officer (District Council) of C&WDO, responded to Members’ questions. She said “2019/2020 Fall/Winter Sheung Wan Promenade” and “New Year's Eve Countdown in Central & Western District” had been cancelled because of the recent unstable social conditions. As C&WDC had already vetted and approved the fund applications for the two activities, the amount of funding was regarded as “funding amount granted” and usually would not be ploughed back according to the current practice. HAD had an “over-allocation mechanism” in place for situations where an activity could not use up the funding amount granted, and C&WDC was allowed to commit funding up to 120% to 125% of the current year provision for situations where the funding granted was not used up (The fifth term C&WDC approved an over-allocation at 120% for the current financial year). Ms YEUNG added that no C&WDC funds had been spent on “2019/2020 Fall/Winter Sheung Wan Promenade” and only a few thousand dollars had been spent on the advance publicity work for “New Year's Eve Countdown in Central & Western District”. 175. Regarding “Central and Western District Fight Crime Carnival 2019-20”, Ms YEUNG Wing-shan of C&WDO added that the activity, which was supposed to be held together with “2019/2020 Fall/Winter Sheung Wan Promenade”, would not be held as “2019/2020 Fall/Winter Sheung Wan Promenade” had already been cancelled. As for the eligibility criteria for fund application, Ms YEUNG said the Secretariat determined whether an organisation was eligible by referring to HAD’s “Manual on the Use of DC Funds”. According to the guidelines, the organisation must be a statutory organisation or an organisation registered under the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and established wholly or mainly for the benefit of the district in which it was set up. Hence, organisations registered under the Societies Ordinance were not the only organisations which could apply for District Council funding; organisations registered under the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622) or the Inland Revenue Ordinance (Cap. 112) were also eligible to apply


for District Council funding. Yet, other factors, such as whether the activity served the residents living in Central and Western District, also contributed to whether an organisation was eligible to apply for District Council funding. 176. Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, DO(C&W), responded that C&WDC had only spent a few thousand dollars on the cancelled activity for its advance publicity work. As the activity was sponsored by other organisations, the remaining expenditure would be met with sponsorship, so that cancellation of the activity would not have specific impact on C&WDC’s expenditure. Besides, as the organiser had been aware since the beginning of the preparation phase that the activity might not be able to be held due to the current social environment, expenditure had been minimised at the early stage of the preparation. Regarding making good use of C&WDC to implement social services, DO(C&W) said many C&WDC-funded projects held in the last term were organised by non-traditional local organisations and many of them were direct social services. She agreed with the suggestion by Mr KAM and opined that C&WDC could organise more activities which could directly benefit the public within its ambit. For example, C&WDC had partnered with NGOs and organised activities related to emotional problems encountered by children and the elderly and activities related to prevention of dementia in the past. She emphasised that not all activities held previously were carnivals. She also said the District Councils Ordinance stated that organisations registered under the Societies Ordinance were not the only organisations which could apply to District Councils for funding; many social enterprises registered under the Companies Ordinance could also apply to District Councils for funding. It was true that applying for a charity licence took time and the procedures involved were not simple. If an organisation which was not exempt from tax under section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance organised a non-profit-making activity and C&WDC opined that the activity could benefit the public and the funding amount requested was reasonable, the activity would be approved. There had been similar cases in the past. The department could flexibly review the arrangements if it was the direction C&WDC preferred. She pointed out that there had also been precedents in which the organisations making the applications had no charity-related licence and were not major organisations but could still apply to C&WDC for funding. She said the most important thing would be that whether it was a worthwhile activity in C&WDC’s view. 177. Mr KAM Nai-wai wished to know how much funding had been allocated to the two cancelled activities (i.e. “2019/2020 Fall/Winter Sheung Wan Promenade” and “New Year's Eve Countdown in Central & Western District”) earlier and whether the funding could be re-allocated. Moreover, Mr KAM said it had been a C&WDC tradition since the 80s that Members were self-disciplined and organisations which had connections with Members would not apply to C&WDC for funding. Mr KAM said if he established a “Sheung Wan Residents Association” in Sheung Wan and became the Chairman himself, he would not apply to C&WDC for funding when he held activities in Sheung Wan. It had nothing to do with


the rules and it was merely about being self-disciplined. By following the practice, incidents of Members approving and allocating funding to organisations related to themselves and nepotism were uncommon in C&WDC. Mr KAM said C&WDC could discuss whether such practice should be maintained. Besides, as C&WDC always upheld the principle of “open to public” and Owners’ Corporations served mainly the residents of the respective buildings when organising activities, C&WDC had not allocated funding to Owners’ Corporations for organising activities in the past. If other Members had different suggestions regarding the practice, they could put them forward for discussion by C&WDC. Mr KAM said Members could submit papers at the 2nd FC meeting held later and discuss the priority regarding organisations making applications, so that the public could know about the eligibility criteria and funding criteria. Mr KAM continued that because of Government red tape, various preparation work had to be taken care of when organising activities, including venue booking, so the activities might not be able to be carried out before the current financial year ended. Hence, he suggested that the Secretariat prepare a survey to consult Members regarding the uses of the remaining provision, so as to draw on collective wisdom in utilising the remaining provision on activities which could directly benefit the public. He also remarked that it was necessary to come to a conclusion at the full Council meeting held on 16 January and at the FC meeting held on 23 January or otherwise, the proposed activities would not be able to be implemented before the end of the current financial year. 178. The Chairman said the balance of funds before 31 March was $1,351,481.70 (assuming that Members agreed to earmark funding to the three activities mentioned above). She asked Members to consider how the funds should be used. The Chairman quoted an example that a singing performance organised in the past at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park for the elderly was well-received. She hoped that Members could make suggestions about activities which could benefit residents in Central and Western District and at the same time could be held before the end of the current financial year. The Chairman was in favour of the suggestion about street cleaning. She said rumour had it that Hong Kong would suffer from an infectious disease. She hoped that large scale cleaning exercise could be carried out on streets that were contaminated by tear gas. She also wished to know whether C&WDC could engage contractors to carry out the initiative. 179. DO(C&W) responded that her department did engage contractors to carry out relevant initiatives. Meanwhile, regular street washing service was provided under the “District-led Actions Scheme” after consultation with Members earlier. She also agreed that initiative of this kind could be completed quickly. 180. Regarding the funding amount allocated earlier to the two cancelled activities (i.e. “2019/2020 Fall/Winter Sheung Wan Promenade” and “New Year's Eve Countdown in Central & Western District”), Ms YEUNG Wing-shan of C&WDO responded that $572,000


was allocated to “New Year's Eve Countdown in Central & Western District” and $270,000 was allocated to “2019/2020 Fall/Winter Sheung Wan Promenade”. 181. Mr KAM Nai-wai wished to confirm whether the funding granted for the two cancelled activities could be re-allocated. 182. Ms YEUNG Wing-shan of C&WDO said that according to the current practice, funding allocation of District Councils was subject to a restriction, that is, any funding approved would be regarded as amount granted and usually would not be ploughed back. However, if fund applications in respect of the funding earmarked, like the amount of $644,433.7 mentioned just then, had yet been submitted to C&WDC for approval, then the unallocated balance would still be available for allocation purposes. 183. Mr KAM Nai-wai wished to know whether the funding granted for the two cancelled activities could be used to organise other activities. 184. The Chairman asked, given that the fifth term C&WDC approved an over-allocation at 120%, whether the funding amount of some $800,000 should be deducted to reduce the over-allocation rate. 185. DO(C&W) said pursuant to HAD’s established practice, the funding amount granted had been approved by C&WDC of the last term and usually would not be ploughed back for other uses. However, according to the current practice, C&WDC could commit funding up to 120% to 125% of the current year provision under the “over-allocation mechanism” in order to grant more funding, so that the unspent funding granted could in turn be “reused”. 186. Mr KAM Nai-wai asked whether the funding could be used to organise similar activities, given that the funding had already been allocated to the two major activities and they were cancelled subsequently. He suggested, for example, changing “New Year’s Eve Countdown” to “New Year Countdown”. 187. Miss YAM Ka-yi wished to know whether Members could decide the content of C&WDC-funded activities. She was in favour of the suggestion about street washing but wished to know whether it was possible to examine the chemicals and tear gas residue in various places in Central and Western District before the street washing operation, with a view to knowing which locations particularly needed cleaning and conducting street washing accordingly. 188. Mr YIP Kam-lung said that in addition to the above suggestion by Miss YAM


Ka-yi, as far as he understood, street washing was mainly carried out by contractors engaged by FEHD. Even if C&WDC funds was used for street washing, the operation still had to be carried out by FEHD contractors using high-pressure water jets. Yet, cleaning workers employed by contractors were not equipped with appropriate protective equipment when carrying out street washing. He expressed concern over cleaning workers not being equipped with sufficient protective equipment, be it when they were engaged using C&WDC funds to clean “tear gas black spots” or when they were engaged by FEHD to conduct regular street cleansing. He wished to know whether protective equipment could be provided regularly by using C&WDC funds or had to be provided by FEHD. 189. Mr KAM Nai-wai agreed with Miss YAM Ka-yi and Mr YIP Kam-lung. However, he said it was necessary to take note that conducting a tender exercise for the activity took time and the activity needed to be completed for settlement of payment before end of March. Still, he agreed that the composition of tear gas must be examined. 190. The Chairman hoped that the Secretariat could distribute questionnaires to Members to seek their opinions about street washing and other possible uses of the remaining provision after the meeting. The suggestion of providing equipment such as gloves and masks to frontline cleaning workers could be discussed later. 191. The Vice-chairman shared Members’ concern on the need to examine the composition of tear gas. As detailed information about the residue was not available at that moment, he asked whether it was possible to request HKPF to provide relevant information. 192. The Chairman believed that HKPF would not provide relevant information, but she hoped that the remaining provision could be used on activities that could really benefit the public. 193. Ms YEUNG Wing-shan of C&WDO responded that the Secretariat could distribute questionnaires to Members after the meeting and seek Members’ opinions on the uses of funds. She also said that as the use of funds under “Community Involvement Programme” was subject to relevant government regulations, C&WDO might need to, after collecting Members’ views, consult HAD and see whether the proposed activities complied with the regulations. Regarding Mr KAM’s question about whether the unspent funding granted for the two cancelled activities could be used to organise other similar activities, the Secretariat would consult HAD first before replying to Members. 194. With no objection from Members, the Council agreed to discuss earmarking funding for “additional expenditure arising from pay adjustment for Executive Assistants, Project Co-ordinator and Project Assistant (2019-2020)” ($278,300) and “production of


banners for “Meet-the-Public Scheme” ($720) and vetting of relevant fund applications later. With no objection from Members, the Council also agreed to earmark funding for and vet the nine applications made by NGOs mentioned above. These applications would be vetted at the 1st FC meeting held on 23 January. For the possible uses of the remaining provision of $1,351,481.70, the Secretariat would distribute questionnaires to Members after the meeting to collect their views on the uses of the remaining provision. 195. The Chairman closed the discussion on this item. Item 11: Additional Allocation for Recruitment of Executive Assistants, Project Co-ordinator and Project Assistant by C&WDC (2019-2020) (C&W DC Paper No. 08/2020) (6:48 pm – 7:04 pm) 196. Ms BOOK King-shun, Executive Officer I (District Council) of C&WDO, said the paper sought to consult Members regarding the application for additional C&WDC funding to meet the additional expenditure arising from the pay adjustment for C&WDC staff. She said an allocation of $2,797,686 had been endorsed at the 17th full Council meeting by the last term of C&WDC, for the purpose of recruiting seven Executive Assistants (District Council), one Project Co-ordinator (District Council) and one Project Assistant (District Council) to assist with carrying out the work and holding events for C&WDC, and one Executive Assistant to implement the 13th Central and Western District Festival. She continued that HAD had conducted a review on the pay of its Non-Civil Service Contract (NCSC) staff in June 2019. A host of considerations, including the change in cost of living, the market conditions for the jobs in question and the need to facilitate staff retention, had been taken into account. The Director of Home Affairs approved a pay increase for Executive Assistants from $21,930 to $24,700 per month starting from 1 July 2019. Later, in accordance with the pay adjustment proposal of the Civil Service Bureau, the pay of full-time NCSC staff had also been increased by 5.26% to $26,000 starting from 1 August 2019. She added that C&WDC currently had seven Executive Assistants, one Project Co-ordinator and one Project Assistant. Moreover, C&WDC had additionally recruited one Executive Assistant for implementing the 13th Central and Western District Festival. The financial implications were $278,300 (rounded up to the nearest thousand) after the Secretariat adjusted the pay for the NCSC staff. As the additional expenditure was related to the operation of the C&WDC Secretariat in the new term, the last term of C&WDC agreed at the 9th FC meeting held on 1 August 2019 (C&W DC FC Paper No. 242/2019) that the Secretariat would apply to C&WDC for an additional allocation for meeting the salary payment for its NCSC staff after the new term C&WDC had assumed office. Pursuant to HAD’s guidelines, C&WDC had reserved 5% of the current year provision for use by C&WDC of the new term. If the additional allocation was endorsed, the amount of the allocation would be deducted from the provision reserved for


the current term C&WDC. She asked whether Members agreed with the said arrangement to allocate an additional amount of $278,300 to C&WDC Secretariat for meeting the additional expenditure arising from pay adjustment. 197. The Chairman asked whether the allocation was for the financial year from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020. 198. Ms BOOK King-shun, Executive Officer I (District Council) of C&WDO, replied that the Executive Assistants were employed on contract terms for a period of one financial year, and the allocation was for the financial year from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020. 199. The Chairman invited discussion on the paper. Mr YIP Kam-lung asked whether allocating an additional amount of $278,300 to C&WDC Secretariat for meeting the additional expenditure arising from pay adjustment would reduce the amount of provision that could be used by C&WDC. He suggested that the Secretariat relay to HAD that an additional allocation should be made by HAD in respect of the additional expenditure. 200. The Chairman asked whether the Secretariat could apply to HAD for an additional allocation to meet the additional expenditure arising from pay adjustment. 201. Ms BOOK King-shun, Executive Officer I (District Council) of C&WDO, said it was also the practice of the other 17 District Councils to apply for an additional allocation to meet the additional expenditure arising from pay adjustment. 202. Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, DO(C&W), said the Government had an established practice in which District Councils made an additional allocation to District Council Secretariats for meeting the additional expenditure arising from pay adjustment for all NCSC staff. She continued that she would relay the comments to HAD. 203. The Chairman suggested writing to HAD to relay Members’ requests for HAD to make an additional allocation to meet the additional expenditure arising from pay adjustment. 204. Mr HO Chi-wang commented that the pay rise for Executive Assistants, from $21,930 to $24,700 per month, was far higher than the inflation rate. He opined that even if HAD made an additional allocation to District Councils in accordance with the inflation rate every year, it would still be insufficient to meet the increase in the pay expenditure. 205. Mr YIP Kam-lung would like to suggest HAD to develop an independent pay scale for Executive Assistants working in District Councils.


206. DO(C&W) said all staff members covered by this C&WDC staff pay adjustment were engaged in discharging duties of the C&WDC, but not that of the C&WDO. She said a District Council could use not more than 15% of the provision received to recruit dedicated staff for discharging the Council’s duties for an entire year. Even if an additional allocation was made to meet the additional expenditure arising from pay adjustment, the amount which could be used by the District Council on residents, amounting to around 85% of the provision, remained unchanged. She added that she would first come up with a solution with HAD without affecting District Councils’ funding allocation and the existing mechanism. She also suggested that the Chairman decide whether the Council would write to HAD only if the problem related to the additional allocation could not be resolved after discussion. 207. The Chairman asked whether it was unnecessary to endorse the application for the additional allocation at this meeting. 208. DO(C&W) suggested that C&WDC first endorse the additional allocation. She would, at the same time, ask HAD and see whether the department would make an additional allocation to District Councils to meet the additional expenditure arising from pay adjustment. 209. Miss YAM Ka-yi hoped that DO(C&W) would first consult HAD before C&WDC decided whether the additional allocation would be endorsed. 210. The Chairman and Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, DO(C&W), suggested discussing the additional allocation again at the 1st FC meeting on 23 January. 211. Mr YIP Kam-lung remarked that if the total expenditure on recruiting Executive Assistants, Project Co-ordinator and Project Assistant exceeded the 15% of the provision that could be used for such purpose by District Councils, manpower had to be cut and fewer staff members would be available for discharging duties of District Councils. This would also affect services provided to the public. 212. The Chairman said the additional allocation would be discussed again at the 1st FC meeting on 23 January. Item 12: DC Fund Application: Design and Production of Banners for Promoting the “Central and Western District Council Meet-the-Public Scheme” (C&W DC Paper No. 09/2020) (7:04 pm – 7:05 pm) 213. Miss WONG Wai-yan, Executive Officer (District Council) 2 of C&WDO, presented the paper regarding the C&WDC fund application “Design and Production of


Banners for Promoting the ‘Central and Western District Council Meet-the-Public Scheme’”. She said the paper was about an application for funding of $720 for designing and producing four banners to promote the “Meet-the-Public Scheme” of the new term of C&WDC. Information about “Meet-the-Public Scheme” and the enquiry phone number would be printed in both Chinese and English on the banners. The banners would be displayed at four of the banner spots allocated to C&WDC. 214. Mr LEUNG Fong-wai said he was, in principle, in favour of the fund application. He also hoped that there would be more ways to promote “Meet-the-Public Scheme”. 215. As Members had no objection, C&WDC endorsed the fund application “Design and Production of Banners for Promoting the ‘Central and Western District Council Meet-the-Public Scheme’”. Item 13: Any Other Business (7:05 pm – 7:38 pm) 216. The Chairman said she had received a few discussion items under “Any other business” before the meeting and she wished to seek Members’ views at the meeting. The first item was about some ten notice boards of C&WDC in the district. She pointed out that it was necessary to update the content of the notice boards, in order to display the contact information of the Members of the new term. She asked the Secretariat whether the content of the notice boards could be updated within January. 217. Ms BOOK King-shun, Executive Officer I (District Council) of C&WDO, replied that the Secretariat was going to update the contact information of Members posted on the notice boards. However, as some Members had yet to set up their ward offices, the addresses of their ward offices were yet to be updated. If the Members concerned still could not provide the addresses of their ward offices in the following week, the Secretariat would first update other content of the notice boards. 218. The Chairman suggested that the contact number of Members should at least be displayed on the notice boards at the current stage. Besides, the Chairman said another discussion item under “Any other business”, brought forward by Mr KAM Nai-wai, was about the live broadcast of C&WDC meetings. 219. Regarding the issue of live broadcast of C&WDC meetings raised by Mr KAM Nai-wai, Mr YIP Kam-lung suggested establishing an information technology working group under the full council of C&WDC to focus on discussing means of disseminating information


of the C&WDC, including live webcast. 220. The Chairman said the suggestion could be raised for discussion at the meeting held on 16 January. 221. Mr KAM Nai-wai hoped that C&WDC meetings could be broadcasted live as early as possible. He said the Secretariat only needed to ask its staff to film the meetings using a mobile phone if the meetings were to be broadcasted live on Facebook page. Neither state-of-the-art technology nor a host of cameras was necessary. Also, there was no need to recruit a producer to select scenes before releasing the videos either. He hoped that C&WDC meetings could be broadcasted live as early as possible. He opined that the Secretariat simply needed to recruit some young staff and they would know how to handle it. He also opined that the Secretariat only needed to purchase a phone, register an official account for C&WDC and then arranged for a staff member to film the meetings at the side. Other details could be discussed later. Mr KAM emphasised that he hoped that a channel would be made available to the public to watch the live broadcast of C&WDC meetings as early as possible, as the public could only watch live meetings on a few online media platforms at the moment. When District Council meetings were not as newsworthy as now, the media would not come to cover them anymore. He pointed out that District Council members had to be monitored by the public, and making use of Facebook page for the live broadcast was the easiest and fastest way to do so. He expected that the Secretariat could arrange for staff to broadcast the meetings live within three months by recruiting contract staff and using relevant resources. As for Mr YIP Kam-lung’s suggestion about establishing an information technology working group to enhance the information flow, it could be discussed in detail at the meeting on 16 January. 222. Mr YIP Kam-lung agreed with Mr KAM Nai-wai that C&WDC meetings should be broadcasted live as early as possible. He himself had also especially arranged for his assistant to broadcast the meeting live for some six hours. He remarked that meetings could be broadcasted live in a simple manner. C&WDC simply needed to purchase mobile phone devices or alternatively, follow the practice adopted by Town Planning Board by installing in the conference room cameras which could capture all attendees and the presentation slides. Hence, the live broadcast of meetings could be cheap and done within a short period of time. Besides, Mr YIP reminded that broadcasting the meetings live only on Facebook page might seem to be promoting Facebook. It might also violate the regulations of HAD or the Government. Hence, C&WDC should use multiple platforms for live broadcast, or should only broadcast the meetings live on C&WDO’s own platform or C&WDC’s website. 223. The Chairman commented that the details and arrangements could be further discussed.


224. Mr WONG Weng-chi expressed his views on another issue. He said pan-democratic Members in Central and Western District were very concerned about the fences installed on the footbridge outside Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park. A few of them had received many comments from the public saying that the practice seemed to plunge the place into isolation. He had collected around 300 signatures and views regarding the issue from the residents. Mr WONG understood that they might not be able to come up with any proposal at the meeting but still, he hoped that C&WDC could indicate its stance regarding the issue and relay its views to Highways Department (HyD) or the senior leadership of the Government, pointing out that C&WDC strongly opposed to the installation of the fences there without reasons. In addition, he said many professionals, including architects and engineers, wished that C&WDC could put questions to HyD, including whether the advisory committee on the appearance of associated structures under Development Bureau (DEVB) had been consulted regarding the installation of the fences. He opined that the advisory committee should be consulted and a vetting should be carried out before any new facilities were installed. Mr WONG suggested that C&WDC write to the authority to enquire about relevant issues and formally discuss the discussion item at the C&WDC meeting held on 16 January. 225. The Chairman suggested that Mr WONG Weng-chi could submit paper on the discussion item. 226. Mr YOUNG Chit-on agreed with Mr YIP Kam-lung’s suggestion regarding live broadcast of the meetings. He opined that the Government should allocate additional resources for this specific purpose, and an official platform should be used for the live broadcast to avoid disputes. He said the public liked to watch live news nowadays. While having doubts about the content of some media groups, he opined that it was still necessary to make such attempts. As many media groups broadcasted the meetings live, he opined that it was necessary to broadcast the meetings live on an official platform, with a view to avoiding situations where different angles or points of view were presented and making a consistent presentation. Mr YOUNG opined that technology was very advanced nowadays and it would not require many resources to broadcast the meetings live. Also, in addition to meetings of the C&WDC, the authority should consider broadcasting meetings of other District Councils as well. 227. Ms WONG Kin-ching suspected that HyD had handled materials contaminated by tear gas during the protests in the sealed-off area opposite to Kennedy Town (Sai Ning Street) Bus Terminus and next to Victoria Public Mortuary in mid-November 2019. The said area was managed by HyD. She had lodged a complaint by phone about the presence of refuse materials there and HyD had handled them subsequently. She had also written to HyD and


Environmental Protection Department, but so far the departments did not confirm whether they had handled materials contaminated by tear gas at the location. The departments also refused to examine whether the location was contaminated. Ms WONG said the location was very close to residential area and there was no roof. Still, the departments refused to carry out tests nor admit that the practice would affect the residents. Ms WONG pointed out that a similar incident took place at the location last night and the works continued till midnight. As the location was very close to her residence, she could clearly hear the noise of the works. Some residents had also complained to her that the works were very disturbing and they knew nothing about the details of the works. Hence, she called the Police last night to complain about the works. She had also informed HyD but HyD had yet to give a reply. She pointed out that relevant department had delivered the contaminated materials to Kennedy Town without consulting the residents in advance. After such incident took place for the first time, HyD had undertaken that it would not happen again. However, the department was found to have handled some suspicious materials again at the location last night. Ms WONG asked DO(C&W) whether she knew about the details of the works carried out by HyD and why the department did not honour its promise. 228. Mr KAM Nai-wai said in his second speech that he hoped that letter could be issued to relevant departments to address the problems other Members mentioned just then. He also suggested that other Members address the problems by submitting papers. He said he had submitted two papers to the Secretariat at around 1:00 am on 1 January, requesting a discussion on various issues related to railings, street cleaning and tear gas, etc. at the meeting on 16 January. He said government departments could be requested to give a written reply when papers were submitted. He also agreed that C&WDC should immediately write to the department which gave the order if there was an urgent issue. For instance, he questioned why HyD installed fences on the Connaught Road footbridge without consulting C&WDC and removed all railings at the roadside at the same time. He also questioned why HyD was only afraid of railings at the roadside being removed by people but did not fear that the fences on the footbridge would be removed and thrown onto Connaught Road. He believed that it was HKPF which gave the order and he requested the department to remove the fences at once. He suggested writing in the name of C&WDC Chairman to request the department concerned to remove the fences if no Members objected to it. In addition, regarding the live broadcast of C&WDC meetings, Mr KAM said there was a lot of red tape in the Government and commented that C&WDC should not use Facebook as the only platform for the live broadcast. He simply hoped that the meetings could be broadcasted live as early as possible, and Facebook was the only free and immediately available option if the live broadcast was to be conducted expeditiously. As for exploring the feasibility of live broadcast under a multi-platform framework and what platforms should be used, this could be discussed at a later stage. He said given that the Government needed time to prepare tender documents, conduct a tendering exercise and coordinate all District Councils, etc., it was possible that live


broadcast could not materialise after a year. He requested that live broadcast should start with the meeting on 16 January, and hence suggested live broadcast on Facebook first to allow public monitoring of Members’ work as early as possible. 229. Mr NG Siu-hong requested the authority to stop installing fences on footbridges at once. He asked which department gave the order to install fences, and why C&WDC and the public were not consulted beforehand. He also wished to know about the number of fences installed and the locations where fences had been or would be installed. He asked whether the authority would remove the fences and when would the removal take place. Besides, he asked whether the authority planned to install fences at the Central to Mid-Levels Escalator and Walkway System. He would stage a protest there with the residents if there was such a plan. 230. The Vice-chairman suggested that C&WDC write to the authority regarding installing fences on footbridges, requesting it to remove the fences as early as possible and stop the ongoing installation works at once. He said the authority had not consulted C&WDC at all regarding the issue. The practice of installing fences was not practical and the fences were an eyesore. The issue was indeed a laughing stock in the international community. He said Mr NG Siu-hong was too kind to say that installing fences had made the place look like a zoo, for in his opinion it had made the place look like a prison. The public would feel that they were like prisoners when they passed through the footbridge. It was just like how windows of the buildings in Mainland China were sealed and he did not wish Hong Kong to become a mega prison. Moreover, the Vice-chairman hoped that DO(C&W) could address the problem of absence of litter containers on the streets in the district as early as possible as which had resulted in refuse being found everywhere in the street. He said he certainly knew why the authority placed no litter containers on the streets but he opined that with 170 000 civil servants, the Government was capable of tackling the problem. For example, stone-made litter containers could be placed or litter containers could be locked with chains. There was no reason at all not to place litter containers on the streets. He also indicated that many residents had asked him where the litter containers had gone and said they did not know where to dispose refuse. This had resulted in a deterioration of the environmental hygiene of the streets and Hong Kong again became a laughing stock of the world. He hoped that DO(C&W) could resolve the problem as early as possible. 231. Mr YIP Kam-lung said in his third speech that Members were all very concerned about the issue of footbridges becoming prisons. He said a public works contractor had told him in private that the cost of installing fences, regardless of the length of the footbridge, was $3 million. He said although he did not know whether the figure was reliable, he still wanted to bring up the issue at the meeting and enquire about it with the authority. He asked whether DO(C&W) knew about the practice, whether she knew which department had given


the order to install fences, and how many footbridges had been fixed with fences. He questioned why the Government claimed that it would delegate powers to District Councils but at the same time circumvented the District Councils when carrying out the works. Considering that the powers of District Councils were limited, he asked why the Government had to further deprive the Councils’ powers in managing footbridges. The Government even expedited and completed the works before the elected District Council members of the new term assumed office. He said the Government had displayed a disregard to all elected members. He reiterated that installing fences on footbridges was definitely unacceptable. He asked whether District Council could use its funding to remove the fences if the Government refused to remove them. He opined that the suggestion was definitely worthy of discussion. 232. Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, DO(C&W), gave a response regarding Members’ comments on the railings and fences on footbridges. She said she would try to understand the situation and information related to the works costs was not available at the moment. She understood that Members were very concerned about the matter and she would follow it up. DO(C&W) replied to Mr KAM Nai-wai saying that while the Government needed to follow certain procedures when handling matters, it also attached great importance to efficiency. She said Members of the last term had suggested broadcasting the meetings live and in view of the suggestion, C&WDO colleagues had referred to the live broadcast of LegCo meetings, and invited quotations based on Members’ request (e.g. using three cameras for filming meetings simultaneously). DO(C&W) said the Secretariat might just need to purchase a few mobile phones and arrange for staff to record the meetings if Members opined that broadcasting the meetings live in a simple format was acceptable. Yet, in that case the meetings could only be broadcasted live on Facebook. She said the Secretariat could use C&WDC resources to provide manpower and material resources for filming the meetings if Members accepted the suggestion. 233. Ms BOOK King-shun of C&WDO gave supplementary background information. She said some Members had suggested broadcasting meetings live in the previous year, and the Secretariat had circulated a paper consulting Members regarding their request for live broadcast. Members at the time opined that the manner and format of the live broadcast needed not follow that of the LegCo but the outcome could not be poor. For instance, there should be more than one camera so that both Members and government representatives were filmed. Hence, they had come to a conclusion that three cameras should be used to respectively film C&WDC Chairman, Members and government representatives to provide the public with multiple viewing angles. As the meetings had to be filmed from different camera angles, it was necessary to recruit professional technicians to provide the service. Since there being no other comments from Members, the Secretariat had invited two companies to submit quotations based on the specifications, and the replies were that the cost


involved for each meeting would be $20,000 to $30,000. The cost estimate, which was solely for Members’ reference, included using three cameras for professional filming, editing and providing broadband services. Moreover, Ms BOOK said that after studying, it was opined that broadcasting the meetings live on Facebook page was technically feasible, but probably only one camera angle could be used. Depending on Members’ request, the Secretariat could purchase two to three mobile phones and accessories such as tripods and backup power supply. However, she pointed out that one of the restrictions would be that netizens could leave comments once the Facebook page was created, and the Secretariat would not have sufficient manpower to reply to comments. 234. DO(C&W) added that the cost estimate was made pursuant to the request made by Members of the last term, and the Government had not suggested using the same amount of public funds to broadcast the meetings live. She understood that Members wished to broadcast the meetings live as early as possible, and said it could be done in a simple manner if Members did not mind. As the Secretariat had limited knowledge of the respective area, Members could give other suggestions to the Secretariat in order to settle the matter. 235. Mr YIP Kam-lung said he had been engaged in work related to concert organisation. He remarked that the cost estimate, given by the Secretariat just then, was so high and surprised the attendees because the service providers regarded each C&WDC meeting as an individual event. He commented that meetings could be broadcasted live in many other low-cost ways without the need to use so many resources. Regarding the wish for early live broadcast of meetings, such as the full Council meeting on 16 January and the six committee meetings on 23 January, he asked whether C&WDC or C&WDO could allocate funding and purchase a mobile phone and a wide-angle conversion lens as early as possible, so that the meetings could be broadcasted live on Facebook. As for creating a relevant Facebook page or YouTube channel, as both of them were free and the Government chose Facebook to broadcast meetings live more often recently, he suggested broadcasting the meetings live on Facebook first. Issues including whether the Central and Western District Information Network would be used in future and whether contract staff of C&WDC Secretariat would be required to manage the Facebook page to, for example, upload the minutes of and information related to the meetings, could be discussed later at subsequent meetings. The live broadcast of meetings on 16 January and 23 January should be handled first and he hoped that the Secretariat could provide assistance. Moreover, Mr YIP asked whether the future expenditures on live broadcast could be shared by C&WDC and IsDC, as the two District Councils shared the same conference room. He said the issue could be further discussed later. 236. Ms BOOK King-shun of C&WDO replied that the Secretariat could discuss with IsDC regarding sharing the expenditures on the necessary equipment. She added that the


cost estimate for the live broadcast service mentioned just then was the quotation provided by the service providers for bringing along the necessary equipment to meetings each time. If Members agreed to use the Facebook page as a temporary platform for live broadcast, she would prepare papers for fund application to C&WDC and seek Members’ endorsement of the application as early as possible, so as to try to make it in time to broadcast live the meeting on 16 January. Initially, the Secretariat might need to purchase two mobile phones and a tripod, as well as a wide-angle conversion lens suggested by Mr YIP Kam-lung. 237. Mr YIP Kam-lung asked whether the two mobile phones would be used simultaneously for two live broadcasts. 238. Ms BOOK King-shun of C&WDO replied that one of the two mobile phones was for backup purpose. 239. Mr YIP Kam-lung asked whether the relevant fund application would be handled by circulation of paper. 240. The Chairman said there was no other meeting before 16 January and hence, the fund application might need to be handled by circulation of paper. However, she hoped that endorsement of papers, especially FC papers, by circulation of paper could be avoided in future, with a view to enhancing transparency. As the case was special and it was necessary to conduct live broadcast of the meeting on 16 January to let the public see the real-time situation of C&WDC meetings, an exception would be made for the application to be handled by circulation of paper. 241. Mr KAM Nai-wai suggested that they should not only discuss the live broadcast of the meetings on 16 January and 23 January, as he did not expect the Government to be efficient in handling matters. He suggested handling the live broadcast of meetings held during the first quarter of 2020 in an ad hoc manner, given that the funding currently available for use by C&WDC was for the financial year up to 31 March 2020. If the Secretariat needed to recruit an additional staff member or other part-time staff and purchase a certain number of mobile phones, it could, after taking everything into account, seek the Council’s approval of the relevant fund application by circulation of paper, so that live broadcast could start in time to cater for the meeting on 16 January. Meeting could be arranged during these months to discuss relevant details. He said if the charge for live broadcast of each meeting was $30,000, then the some 40 meetings in one year would cost around $1 million. He remarked that C&WDC could neither afford nor accept it. As full Council meetings and committee meetings were expected to be held only on Thursdays, he opined that C&WDC needed not recruit a full-time staff member to assist with the live broadcast, but would need to recruit part-time staff to assist with the live broadcast and to purchase two to three mobile


phones. As for the use of software, he remarked that C&WDC could seek advice from experts such as Mr YIP Kam-lung later. For the moment, the most important target was to broadcast live the meeting on 16 January. 242. Regarding manpower, Ms BOOK King-shun of C&WDO added that the Secretariat recruited two to three part-time staff members to provide assistance in each meeting. One more part-time staff member might be needed for the filming work and the hourly rate of a part-time staff member was around $50. 243. DO(C&W) reiterated that C&WDO definitely did not consider it worthwhile to spend an amount of some $1 million as quoted in the said cost estimate. It was just that C&WDO needed to follow the procedures and inform Members about the information obtained pursuant to an earlier request. Besides, other District Councils had also made similar request. If other districts had brought up something worth considering, the Secretariat would list them out in the relevant C&WDC fund application for Members’ reference. As the meeting was the first occasion where the department had the opportunity to discuss with Members the live broadcast arrangements, she hoped that Members could give her some time so that she could discuss with HAD the live broadcast arrangements in other District Councils and see whether there were other points worth considering, so that she could report to Members later on. Still, she understood that Members wished the live broadcast to start with the meeting on 16 January. 244. In connection with the fences installed on the footbridge outside Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park, Mr NG Siu-hong said the fences were installed three days ago. He asked whether DO(C&W) could call off the other similar works which had yet to commence, and asked her to report to C&WDC promptly regarding whether the authority had other similar projects. 245. The Chairman said she was certain that the works were done at night on 29 December 2019 because she went past the footbridge at night on 28 December and fences had yet been installed then. 246. Mr KAM Nai-wai asked whether they should write to the authority in the name of C&WDC requesting the removal of the fences on the footbridge. 247. The Chairman said according to past practice, for individual cases requiring urgent follow-up, the Chairman of C&WDC or of the relevant committee would write to the department concerned for follow-up action. The Chairman sought Members’ views on Mr KAM Nai-wai’s suggestion. As no Members objected to it, the Chairman would write to the department concerned and request the department to take follow-up actions as soon as


possible. In addition, the Chairman said the Secretary suggested that all Members of the current term (2020-2023) take a group photo prior to the start of the 2nd full Council meeting (i.e. at 2:15 pm on 16 January (Thursday)). 248. Ms BOOK King-shun of C&WDO said the Secretariat had made ties and scarves for C&WDC in the past and they were available in two colours (red and blue). Members could decide whether they would wear them for the group photo. Item 14: Date of the Next Meeting (7:38 pm) 249. The Chairman announced that the next meeting would be held at 2:30 pm on 16 January 2020 (Thursday). She then declared the meeting closed.

The minutes were confirmed on 16 January 2020

Chairman: Ms CHENG Lai-king

Secretary: Ms YEUNG Wing-shan, Grace Central and Western District Council Secretariat January 2020

Minutes of the First Meeting of Central and Western District ...

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Transcript of Minutes of the First Meeting of Central and Western District ...