Council will summon City Hall spokesman

The City Council has said it will summon the spokesman for the city administration, Soesilo Darmoadji, and seek an explanation concerning his letter addressed to the council urging its members not to be easily provoked by reporters' questions.

"The municipality has no right to dictate to the City Council, even the governor does not have any say in telling us what to do," said the chairman of the City Council, MH Ritonga.

Ritonga said yesterday that the rights and responsibilities of both the city administration and the City Council have been clearly and legally defined and, therefore there is no need to interfere in each other's affairs.

In his letter to members of the City Council which was sent after the celebration of the Indonesian Independence on Aug. 17, Soesilo appealed to city councilors not to make statements contrary to those of the city administration, and advised them to contact the city administration beforehand for corroboration if they are not well-informed on the problems asked about by reporters.

Ritonga said the City Council would be glad to get input from various sides, including from the city administration's public relation office provided that the input is in the form of constructive criticism.

"But because some of the content of the letter is not easy to understand, we have to call the head of the city administration's public relation office and ask him to clarify what he means," Ritonga said. (has)