EDITORIAL – Who would survive if we had a recall law for City councils?

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

I’LL WAGER THAT if B.C. had recall legislation for municipal politicians, eight of the nine current members of Kamloops City council would be under threat of removal from office.

The only one who wouldn’t be is Coun. Margot Middleton, because while she’s solidly in the Gang of Eight, she stands aside from the fray. She’s neither petulant nor petty, avoiding entirely the temptation to get into cheap arguments with Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson.

But there’s no such thing as a recall process for B.C. municipalities because the provincial government refuses to legislate it, relying on other ways of dealing with dysfunctional councils. Those ways are inadequate or simply don’t apply when a council just doesn’t work anymore. You practically have to commit a crime (actually, that’s one of the criteria) before you can get booted from office.

While Kamloops is the poster child for needed recall legislation, other communities have wished out loud that they could have it, too. Many civic politicians themselves have asked for it.

The Union of B.C. Municipalities has approved resolutions at its annual conventions at least twice. One of them, sponsored by the council in Penticton, said recall is needed in situations where “elected officials are in breach of integrity and/ or eroding public confidence.”

A couple of change.org petitions have also demanded that existing recall legislation for MLAs be extended to mayors and councils.

The B.C. office of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has said that “If city politicians are giving themselves raises or blowing money on designer office furniture, local voters should be able to call them on the carpet.”

Speaking of raises, maybe recall legislation would make TNRD board members think twice about giving themselves 15 per cent pay increases as they did recently.

And that’s a big part of the need for a recall law — a deterrent to bad behaviour. Civic politicians would be more mindful of their duty to the electorate and less focused on themselves.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

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.