City Hall has been urged to hold a public forum to gauge public opinion on whether to reduce the number of city councillors after public consultations via its website came under fire for getting an inadequate response.
Earlier, City Hall conducted an online survey on the controversial proposal to scrap district councils and replace them with so-called civic committees as part of national reform of local administration.
However, the reliability of the survey was questioned over whether all demographics had provided feedback.
Amid the ongoing debate on the future of district councillors, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said earlier this month that elections of district councillors remains intact in a draft amendment bill which seeks to streamline the city's administration.
The amendment draft, which was prepared by the Council of State, the government's legal advisory body, suggests a cut in the number of city councillors, which prompted the controversy.
Early this month, the Pheu Thai Party slammed the idea to swap the councils for civic committees. It said committee members will be selected rather than elected.
As a result, the party said they are less likely to understand the problems and know how to solve them, compared to councillors who are elected and more familiar with the issues affecting the lives of residents, many of whom voted them into office.
Former city council chairman Kittiphon Choetchukitkun doubted whether information only provided about the civic committees online would be enough to help people understand the proposed switch.
He said it would be much better if City Hall invited representatives of communicates across Bangkok to"hear their real voices and opinions" about the need for city and district councillors.
Mr Kittiphon said he believed city and district councillors are necessary to help people deal with the mountains of problems, which cannot be handled only by district officials.
City councillors act as local lawmakers who monitor the work of the Bangkok governor and approve budgets while district councillors advise district chiefs.
