ROTHENBURGER – Recall legislation doesn’t exist for local governments, but it should
(Image: CFJC Today)
THE MOST COMMON QUESTION I get asked these days is, “How do we fire a City council?”
The answer is, very slowly, if at all. It’s hard enough getting rid of one member of a council, let alone a bunch of them.
The most certain method is to wait for the next election. That’s the slow way. Anything faster is almost impossible.
Theoretically, you could gather nine other electors and ask the B.C. Supreme Court to do it but there are only a few grounds on which it can be done: that the council member has violated conflict of interest rules, failed to take the oath of office, has at least four unexcused absences from council meetings in a row, or has spent municipal funds without authority.
While the case is in progress, the councillor or councillors named are allowed to continue in office. This method has been tried elsewhere but I’m not aware of it ever succeeding.
Mel Rothenburger 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 has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Should “post election” signs be allowed? Nothing could be better than campaign-sized photos of that sorry lot the day they skipped the St. Patrick’s Day meeting at the TNRD and showed up for the group shot at City Hall.
Two of the councillors did not reply to emails from me asking why they thought it was OK if they skipped out of a meeting they were being paid to attend as City Councillors. One had been a business owner on Victoria Street. I asked what his response would have been if one of his employees had left work in order to attend a public shaming of a person by a group of like-minded individuals who had also left their paid jobs.
The “Sound of Silence”: a great song which could be used in a future PowerPoint presentation.
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Recall legislation should be carefully crafted around promises made by the councillors at campaign time versus actual activities once elected. Many basically lie.
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