Members of the administration and legislative review committee discuss the city's proposed Public Code of Conduct policy during a meeting Tuesday afternoon at city hall.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
The conversation around a possible framework needed to address disruptive behaviour at call hall and toward city staff and members of council continued Tuesday between members of the administrative and legislative review committee and city staff.
The committee accepted the draft of a new code of conduct policy back in February that aims to address excessive disruptive behaviour between residents and city staff or council, and set “reasonable” boundaries to deal with public complaints and issues.
Although the policy is still under development and is not yet ready to go to council for adoption, members of the committee heard the policy looks at providing a framework for boundaries and an expectation of acceptable behaviour that will be tolerated at city-run facilities and toward city staff.
Managing director Brian Stauth says the city often receives public complaints from residents, and some of those complaints receive a response that might not solve the specific problem a resident is facing.
“And they may reach out to a councillor and say, you know, I tried to get a problem solved and it didn’t occur. Can you intervene?” says Stauth.
Part of the policy, explains Stauth, is to implement an improved system, based around consistency, on how the city will address public complaints moving forward.
“We can’t solve everyone’s program all the time. We act in a consistent manner and for the good of the community, and sometimes it’s not to everyone’s satisfaction.” said Stauth, citing individuals who excessively complain to several city departments or members of council.
“If you have an issue, come and talk to us and we’re going to do our best to address it to your satisfaction,” says Stauth. “It doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to be completely satisfied, and you may have to accept that and move on as opposed to strafing departments with further requests for information or resolution.”
Coun. Andy McGrogan sought clarification from city staff to numerous portions of the new 20-page code of conduct policy, authored by Karla Kochan, director of peoples services, including public harassment.
“Under (section 4.10) it talks about photographing or video recording city staff members, council, members of the public; where does this fit in as far as the legal right to, I guess, prohibit that activity?” McGrogan asked Matthew Klasen, city solicitor.
“That permission is really oriented to situations where the video recording could cause a disruption to the provision of service,” explained Klasen. “And really, in some way, prevent or abandon the provisional service, or where there’s a reasonable expectation of privacy.
McGrogan also suggested adding penalties for residents who cause continual and unreasonable issues for the city and its staff.
“In my view they won’t care if they get a warning letter, they probably won’t care if they get a letter of restriction,” said McGrogan. “I like the idea of ‘notice of trespassing,’ at one point you say, ‘Well you’re not allowed at city hall for this period of time or you’re going to get a ticket, or something of that nature.
“I’m just curious if you’ve considered this and how this could be applied on an ongoing basis, with those few people that are a large problem in the city?”
Director Stauth replied, “I don’t think this policy is directed at those few individuals that seem to be a pain from time to time. In some folks’ opinion, it’s really a health and safety document developed to protect the health and safety of our staff.
Coun. Knodell provided the committee her input on the policy.
“It’s important to establish predictable boundaries that any human being who has to interact with one another can rely on in order to know that their day-to-day business, or the things they expect will be satisfied, and that it’ll be a safe and healthy environment.”
The code of conduct is a requirement of the Municipal Government Act, and was first adopted in Medicine Hat in 2018 with minor updates in 2022.
The new code of conduct policy will be brought back before the ALR committee in September for a second look.
