By Staff
January 30th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
At the Committee of the Whole Standing committee meeting this afternoon city council members will be asked to recommend the following Staff Direction:
City Clerk Angela Morgan
Direct the City Clerk to draft a Code of Conduct for members of Council which addresses, donations, fundraising, sponsorship, entertainment and the acceptance of gifts by members of Council as well as other standards clauses included in Codes across the Province. The Code of Conduct for members of Council should not be less stringent than the Code of Conduct established for City of Burlington staff.
This is close to unbelievable. Most of the members of this council have bobbed and weaved and done everything they can to not have a Code of Conduct.
The Mayor found a way to shuffle this hot potato to the city Manager who has now handed it down to the Clerk.
Creating a Code of Conduct for members of city council has taken some time – more than five years. There was some resistance amongst the members of council – not all of them.
Let’s see what Angela Morgan can achieve.
It might be a useful exercise to pass along any ideas you have on what should be included in the code of conduct to the city clerk. She can be reached by email at: angela.morgan@burlington.ca
If you have words of wisdom for our Clerk and choose to pass them along to her – the Gazette would be interested in what you have to say. You could copy us at newsdesk@bgzt.ca
As someone who has owned and operated a corporation that trades with major corporations across North America.
I am just (Gob Smacked) that the city does not require this.
I could not, even as a thank you, give any gift however small to anyone without it being perceived as a bribe.
Even offering to contribute to a charity or nowadays (Foundation) was off limits.
Let’s start by requiring all elected officials to provide the City Clerk with an itemized listing of all companies or organizations in which they hold a financial interest, or in which they are part of a partnership. That goes for spouses and family members too.
Then mandate all elected officials to refrain from voting on any issues in which they could, potentially, stand to gain financially from that any decision taken by the City. That includes zoning issues and land severances.
Let’s also ensure there is a training program that explains the Code of Conduct, and also, its relationship to everyday business practices. Might not be a bad idea to provide them with a copy of the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Employment Standards Act.
Require all elected officials to notify the City Clerk when/if they are under criminal investigation, or have been charged with a criminal offence. That goes for audits by the Canada Revenue Agency.
Finally, an annual sign-off please in which elected officials agree to abide by the terms and provisions of the Code of Conduct.
Stephen,
Saying this here will get it nowhere.
You have to send it to the Clerk.
I agree with it all.
Surely this is an assignment that actually suffers from a surfeit of available models and information. If you ‘google’ “municipal code of conduct” you get on just page 1 of your search, .pdf example of those Codes of Conduct currently in place for the City of Toronto, Kitchener, Barrie, Huntsville, Mississauga and Brampton together with a ‘create your own’ (simply insert the name of the applicable municipality) template. But where there’s no will, there’s little way. Burlington Council should be able to rag the puck on this until say October 2018.