Mayor seeks clarity on gift policy
’Tis the season for giving, but when you’re the mayor, the presents have been piling up all year long.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi says he receives on average about 100 gifts each month.
From coffee mugs and pens to designer socks, concert tickets and exclusive private club memberships, the presents are prompting a re-write of the city’s gift policy.
“There is a very large closet in my office which tends to collect a lot of things,” Nenshi said outside council’s legislative governance task force meeting Monday.
Currently, rules require council members to report gifts worth more than $100. Calling the existing policy vague, Nenshi said the value should be increased to $200, provided there are more clear details on what can be kept and what must be donated.
“We log everything and I wanted to be a lot more clear on how we disclose, when we disclose, what kinds of gifts members of council can keep, which ones they have to donate to the city, which ones they have to give back.
“That’s really the goal for developing a new policy this way,” said Nenshi, who has received an original painting portraying him sitting on a swing.
Nenshi said invites to concerts and events typically involve a speech or presentation, and he does get honorary memberships to the city’s most exclusive social clubs, including the Glencoe, Ranchmen’s and the Petroleum Club.
To improve the optics of the windfall, Nenshi said he wants the rules more clearly defined so all council members will disclose the gifts they receive.
“It’s important for us, I think, to get this stuff in place so we avoid the appearance of impropriety and make sure there is not a possibility to influence a member of council’s decision.”
But not every alderman’s desk is overflowing with bouquets, bonbons and corporate label coffee mugs.
Some said they receive few if any gifts of appreciation from the public.
Others said changes to the gift policy are unnecessary.
“We could spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to track this stuff. To me, it’s just a waste of time,” said Ald. Jim Stevenson.
“It’s all small incidental things. No one’s offered to give me a trip to Hawaii, I’ll tell you that.”
Council will debate the new policy, which will undergo changes and be presented in February.
Besides looking at its gift policy, city council is also examining different policies and is aiming to create new rules by 2013 for city council on ethical guidelines, and a new policy on conduct, including talk of reinstating a real estate registry.
In 2001, city council eliminated the registry due to concerns about exposing business partners’ ownership in projects.
Council is looking at three policies: a gift policy, a new ethical guidelines policy and a new policy on conduct during election campaigns for members seeking re-election.
Nenshi said he wants to reestablish a registry so council can lay out land holdings.
While the matter is not officially on the table yet, he said they will look at requiring council members to disclose real estate holding as well as other substantial financial holdings with companies that might do business with the city.
“When I was a private citizen, I really questioned why that real estate registry was removed and, in fact, at that time council didn’t keep as good records as this new council. It was difficult to find the reasoning,” he said. “I was surprised that council made such a big move without more thoughtful consideration and I’d like to reverse that.
“This has been on my personal ‘to do’ list since I was elected.
Nenshi said people who go into partnership with a council member are going to be held to a higher level of accountability.
“If an elected official is in a partnership that affects land that may or may not be affected by city decisions, I think we need to do this in a more methodical way,” he said.
Some aldermen said they weren’t aware of any such dealings.
“I’m all in favour of making sure land holdings are transparent,” said Stevenson.
He said he aims to recuse himself from an upcoming vote on development because he sits on his church’s council, which has a project in the works.
“I think that’s an important thing. I don’t think we should be voting on a development if that development is close to our landholdings that would increase the land value. So I think it should be made public,” Stevenson said.