ROTHENBURGER – City Hall needs an ethics commissioner for complaints

IT’S HIGH TIME Kamloops City Hall hired an ethics/ integrity commissioner instead of farming out code of conduct complaint inquiries to various Vancouver lawyers on a case-by-case basis.

For one thing, it would establish continuity in how complaints are handled. An ethics commissioner in charge of looking into all complaints would, I submit, provide more consistency and more timeliness in investigations.

In addition, an ethics or integrity commissioner (call it either one) could be tasked with submitting annual reports summarizing code-complaint activity and make recommendations on procedures for the coming year, instead of the current ad hoc situation. As well, such a position would insure that complaint resolutions and investigation results would be communicated appropriately to the public.

If you think a full-time commissioner would cost much more money than hiring investigators case by case, a close look at costs might disprove that assumption. One investigation here cost taxpayers $62,801.

It involved a code of conduct complaint about leaks from within City Hall to local media, and resulted in — nothing. The investigator could confirm no clear example of violations of confidentiality, though (according to FOI material obtained by Info News) he did find that Coun. Bill Sarai had forwarded a copy of a report from his City Hall email account to his personal account. The reason, apparently, was that he had trouble opening attachments on his City emails.

Since July of last year, taxpayers have shelled out $212,847 for code of conduct investigations.

This, even though council removed the public’s ability to file code of conduct complaints, limiting it to council members, staff and committee members. The reason? It was costing too much.

Fourteen complaints have been filed by members of council against each other, one by staff and another five by members of the public — the latter, of course, before the public was removed from the equation.

Surrey and Vancouver both have code of conduct commissioners. Surrey calls theirs an ethics commissioner, Vancouver has an integrity commissioner. Same thing. The Surrey commissioner operates independently of City council and administration, and investigates code of conduct complaints from “any person who has witnessed or experienced conduct by a Council member which they believe to be in contravention of this Bylaw or another City policy governing conduct of a Council Member.”

The mission of the commissioner is to “assist council on how to best enhance open, transparent and accountable government.”

Aside from adjudicating code of conduct complaints, the commissioner offers advice to council on ethical obligations under the City’s code, delivers training and orientations on ethical behaviour, and provides recommendations from time to time on amendments to the code of conduct and other relevant policies.

Like the Kamloops complaints process, Surrey’s commissioner can rule that a complaint is vexatious and not promote it to a formal investigation. However, unlike Kamloops, Surrey doesn’t exclude complaints from the public.

Interestingly, Surrey’s first ethics commissioner was none other than Vancouver lawyer Reece Harding, hired by the City of Kamloops to investigate the complaint of unauthorized leaking of documents to the media, the one that cost $62,801.

Harding has said the Surrey process needs to be more transparent, including mandatory publication of code of conduct complaints reports on the City’s website.

Though the office is defined as independent, it’s not immune from political interference. The council of the day implemented a moratorium on complaints ahead of the 2022 civic election by not renewing his contract. Harding commented that the move constituted interference in the independence of the commissioner. He said the province should set up provincewide guidelines for municipal ethics/integrity commissioners.

After the election, the new council re-instated the position, hiring a new commissioner.

A similar situation has arisen in Vancouver, where the council will vote in September on a motion to suspend the work of integrity commissioner Lisa Southern, ostensibly to review the position. Critics of the decision say the council should be strengthening the role, not weakening it.

Like Surrey, members of the Vancouver public may file complaints.

Appointing ethics/ integrity commissioners is gaining some steam. New Westminster joined the trend a few weeks ago with its own commissioner, and now Maple Ridge has done the same. Both of those appointments are on a contract, as-needed basis rather than full-time. Complaints under the Maple Ridge code are limited to council, staff, committee members and volunteers but New Westminster allows residents to file complaints as well.

Two-year appointments seem typical for the commissioner job. References to how much commissioners get paid are scarce but Vancouver commissioner Southern received $200,000 in 2022, the same amount that Surrey established for the job in 2020. That’s darn close to what Kamloops has paid out to various investigators over the course of a year.

Clearly, the concept and practice of municipal ethics/integrity commissioners is a work in progress, and the provincial government needs to step in and provide firm guidelines. (The Union of B.C. Municipalities proposes establishment of an Office of the Municipal Ethics Commissioner within the Municipal Affairs Ministry but the Province has been dragging its feet. Which is OK, because setting it up as a centralized provincial office that would adjudicate all complaints would undoubtedly result in waits of many months for results, which is the case with FOI applications.)

In the meantime, the Kamloops council should work toward appointing an independent commissioner for the Tournament Capital. It could even bring the public back into the picture.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. 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.