Code of Conduct

I must be honest, for a the last several months there has been a number of issues which were identified to non incumbents about the activities of council members and in one instance a non incumbent candidate.  The issues relate to things such as the use of office staff and city resources as part of the campaign, premature display of election Signage and the use of the council position for the financial gain of the councillor, their family or friends.

The City employee code of conduct, would, one assumes, also apply to councillors.  As a number of us have found out, it doesn’t.  In actual fact, our current crop of city councillors do not have to comply with the same regulations that every other city employee does.  I was going to build the background information up myself, but Michael Kostiuk in River Ward did an excellent job.

According to staff at City Hall, none of the items identified were significant or improper . The main reason for this is that there are inadequate or nonexistent rules in place to address the situations.

I would propose that a team be formed early in the new councils mandate to establish a code of conduct which all council members would abide by.  I would further propose that this be based on the September 2007 code of conduct which was displayed on the city website until superseded by, what I feel is a watered down version, last month.  I would, as always, utilize sections t from cities which do actually have such a policy in place such as Toronto or Vancouver.  This code of conduct would also impact the city electoral policies for councilors office staff.

Perception is a big part of being respected.  It appears that the current group of council members don’t abide by that common sense policy.  The issue may be something as simple as using a city paid for item or facility or staff during the election campaign, even if the current regulations are non existent or easily complied with due to their laxness.