New Westminster city council is moving forward with plans for a new code of conduct and a municipal ethics commissioner.
Councillors gave first reading Monday night to a draft code of conduct for city council.
The new code of conduct will set out the rules that council members are expected to abide by while carrying out their duties as elected officials. It will also result in the creation of a new municipal role: an ethics commissioner, to ensure those rules are abided by and enforced.
Reece Harding, with the law firm of Young Anderson, made a presentation to council at their meeting Monday night. He said the proposed code of conduct is based on the foundational principles of “integrity, accountability, leadership, respect, openness and collaboration.”
What it’s not intended to do, he said, is stifle debate.
“We do not want codes to stifle democracy,” he said. ‘We do not want codes to interfere with, in the words of this code, the ‘vigor, flair and freedom’ of a typical, well-functioning democratic institution.”
The code of conduct would not apply to council members’ behaviour in their lives outside of their elected role, except to the extent that such conduct “reasonably undermines public confidence in city governance.”
What it would apply, to, though, is social media: both personal and professional social media accounts would be covered by the code.
“If you say something offside on social media, you should be taken to task for that,” Harding said.
The code covers a range of areas of council behaviour, including general conduct; there is to be no “abuse, bullying, intimidating or derogatory behaviour” by an elected official.
It also includes specific sections covering areas such as conduct at meetings, interactions with the public and media, handling of confidential information, conflicts of interest, and use of public resources.
The proposed new bylaw would make New Westminster one of only three municipalities in B.C. with a dedicated ethics commissioner. Currently, only the cities of Surrey and Vancouver have such positions.
The idea is to create a position, separate from staff and elected officials, to handle complaints about elected officials.
The commissioner would review complaints, with the options to pursue informal resolution processes (such as restorative justice or mediation) or a formal investigation.
The bylaw sets out specific timelines for each stage of the process and also allows for various remedies that could be imposed by council for violations of the code of conduct – such as a letter of reprimand, a request for an apology, public censure, or a recommendation that a council member attend specific training or counselling, complete volunteer hours or make a charitable donation to a particular organization.
Under the proposed bylaw, an ethics commissioner would need to be chosen by a two-thirds vote of council and would serve for a prescribed length of time (the draft bylaw suggests two years, but Harding noted that could be flexible).
Harding reminded council that the code of conduct bylaw can be revised at their suggestion.
“This is your code. These are your expectations of each other as to what behaviour expectations you want to impose upon each other as a group of elected officials,” he said.
Councillors gave first reading to the bylaw at their Monday night meeting (June 26).
The proposed bylaw will continue to see revisions and additions based on council feedback and return to the table for second reading at a future meeting.
