Ethics commissioner coming to New West city hall

JulieMacLellan jmaclellan@newwestrecord.ca

NewWestminster 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

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 justice or mediation) or a formal investigation

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 bylaw sets out timelines for each stage of the process and also allows for remedies that could be imposed by council for violations of the code of con- duct 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 or make a charitable donation.

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 expec- tations 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).

Reece Harding, with the law firm ofYoung 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 ”

Ethics Commissioner

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 andVancouver 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