ROTHENBURGER – City council’s strange approach to writing a Code of Conduct
(Image: John Hain, Pixabay)
EVERY CITY COUNCIL should have a Code of Conduct but the Kamloops council’s approach to it is perplexing.
At this week’s Committee of the Whole meeting, corporate officer Maria Mazzotta presented a report on how to update the existing Code, with a recommendation that the committee “provide input to administration on potential updates to the Council Code of Conduct, and that an updated draft Code of Conduct be presented to Council for its consideration.”
Instead, giving scarcely a word of input, council sent the matter back to administration with instructions to present the council with a bylaw.
So, instead of taking control of their own behaviour, they turned the matter over to staff to come up with a plan.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops, alternate TNRD director and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
– add to list as to poor decisions made by and directions given by this council – check.
– add to list where the Mayor didn’t speak up from a place of experience, stopping nonsense in its tracks, and take control of the runaway train – check.
Four. long. years.
A quick read of Kamloops’ last year’s Code shows it to be very punitive, with transgressions open to wide interpretation. Instead of the long list of public shaming, etc, listed therein, maybe we should just erect a pillory in front of City Hall and provide a nearby basket of rotten fruit and vegetables.
Administration keeps saying that a Code of Conduct was approved by council last year and refers to “the current Code of Conduct” but this cannot be true. The government legislation regarding CoC explicitly states that a council may not vote on a CoC in an election year. This makes last year’s vote illegal and invalid. City admin, if not council, should know this
Wasn’t the Bass complaining recently that “staff” is already overwhelmed, overworked and underpaid? Maybe staff shouldn’t be doing council work as aptly pointed out in a recent re-published (but pertinent and very much current in contents) op-piece from 1983. What gives with that councillor? And why is the rest of council so numb?