Council will vote Oct. 6 on changes to the city's indemnification policy.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
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A policy adopted in 2011 to protect councillors, appointees and employees from losses and other actions which may arise out of ‘conduct undertaken in good faith’ will appear before council during its last sitting on Oct. 6.
Specifically, council will vote to change one specific portion of the current policy that deals with the discretionary authority of the city manager to approve indemnification requests.
The request to adopt these changes came before council in early 2023, however it was not adopted at that time. Instead, the policy was sent to back staff for revisions.
“Since then there have been some discussions at closed sessions of council and closed committee to analyze certain aspects of that policy,” Ben Bullock said during an open committee meeting Tuesday.
The revised draft was presented to the Administrative and Legislative Review Committee in August.
This time committee members requested staff to investigate an option of removing the supervision policy, so that final decisions regarding indemnification were solely decided by council, removing the role of city manager from the equation.
“The updated version specifies that in regards to discretionary authority to make decisions on indemnification of council members, that those decisions would rest entirely on city council,” explained Bullock. “The city manager wouldn’t have any say in those situations … so any further changes to this document must be a council decision.”
Bullock also said changes include housekeeping items that required correction, and staff have provided council with information on other municipalities indemnification policies for comparison.
“Obviously, we’ve seen conflict within our term,” said Coun. Allison Knodel. “Would this be something that would resolve the perception that somebody on council is going by what they believe, is acting in good faith, but the rest of council maybe have a mixed perspective of that?”
Bullock explained the policy acts like a “shield” to protect councillors acting in good faith, however if changes are adopted, it will still allow council to have the authority to input legal fees in the future for somebody if they deem necessary under the circumstances.
“And this allows a mechanism for a council member, whether it be the mayor or a member of council to appeal to council for indemnification, should the city manager deem it unnecessary and not applicable,” added Coun. Andy McGrogan.
A vote on the adoption of amendments to the indemnification policy will be made by council Oct. 6.
