SPC split on integrity commissioner
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on March 26, 2022.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com Lethbridge city council will not be giving first reading to a bylaw that would enable the hiring of an integrity commissioner to move forward.A split vote among the four members of the Governance Standing Policy Committee Thursday means council will only receive a report on the proposed bylaw as information.
The Governance SPC consists of chair deputy mayor Belinda Crowson who moved the motion that SPC recommend council give first reading, vice-chair Jeff Carlson, acting mayor Rajko Dodic and councillor John Middleton-Hope.
Dodic and Middleton-Hope voted against the motion.
Crowson said “this is a continuation of a process that of course we’ve been working on for several months. If anyone has concerns about the bylaw, of course they’ll have plenty of opportunity at second reading to make changes or argue against it, et cetera. This is, as I’ve said, moving the process and you have lots of options coming up.”
Dodic told the SPC he couldn’t support the motion.
“I was going to exercise the option of voting against this earlier rather than later and in the interests of consistency, I will not be supporting this resolution,” Dodic said.
Faust told the SPC Thursday “what’s before you now is the actual amending bylaw that would put into effect the changes that were tracked in the previous bylaw.”
He added “this will get the bylaw into the process of first reading, second, third reading. I have been working with HR and we do have a draft expression of interest which will be the posting for people to apply to this position. And I envision that with the bylaw working its way through, next SPC will come back with a package and a real outline of plan as to how we implement that posting, timelines for that, scheduling, arranging for applications.”
Bylaw 6362 was a bylaw to amend the Council Code of Conduct Bylaw 6125.
The City’s administration has been working with its Human Resources department to facilitate the hiring process for an integrity commissioner.
“Having an independent third party investigating alleged breaches of the Bylaw, as well as having the opportunity for the public to make complaints will increase transparency of council and help continue to grow trust in Council decisions,” a report submitted to the SPC stated.
If hired, an integrity commissioner would be given a monthly retainer of $2,000 and be paid an hourly rate of $200 during a two-year pilot program with maximum compensation of $50,000 which would come from city council surplus.
In February, city council tasked the committee with further investigating the possibility of creating such a position.
Under the existing code of conduct bylaw, only council members can file a complaint that a fellow member has acted in breach of that bylaw.
A report from administration says that opening complaints up to the public could create better transparency and increase public confidence in government. Both Edmonton and Calgary have full-time integrity commissioners.
“The public cannot actually initiate a complaint and so one of the ways is solving these problems has been seen as potentially creating the integrity commissioner position and this would actually, if we move forward with what’s being recommended, would allow the public to bring forth concerns about any member of council. It would also have an outside investigator,” Crowson told council in February.
At that same meeting, city solicitor Adam Faust told council the goal of an ethics program “isn’t actually to catch the wrongdoers. It’s to establish and promote public trust for the officials that are acting and ensure they’re acting in the community’s best interests.” Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter 4
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