Regional council can’t agree on code of conduct
Regional council is again kicking a decision on a new code of conduct for councillors down the road.
Council voted to refer the work they’ve done, and the comments they have received from the public, to yet another integrity commissioner in the fall.
ADR Chambers Inc. has been contracted to handle complaints about councillors. It has a freshly inked contract with Niagara Region that runs until 2019, with an option to extend the agreement to 2023.
The firm will be the third one that has hand its hands on the file in recent years.
Grimsby Coun. Tony Quirk and Niagara Falls Coun. Selina Volpatti revised the new proposed code at the procedural bylaw committee in May. Their version was up for debate Thursday.
Quirk and Volpatti changed interim integrity commissioner John Mascarin’s 28-page draft report in 58 different places and reworked or eliminated many sections.
Quirk told council that after listening to the debate it was clear the feeling around the council horseshoe is that work of the procedural bylaw committee didn’t get it right.
He moved all the work be referred to the new integrity commissioner for yet another revision.
Council passed the motion 1710.
Two residents made presentations about the changes to Mascarin’s draft, one of which was Perry Schlanger of St. Catharines, who took issue with the Quirk-Volpatti edit.
“The first problem with this code as it stands is it was essentially born in a back room,” Schlanger said. “There were very significant rewrites by two members. It was approved by three councillors (at the committee level) in total. The authors missed an opportunity to work together with council to find solutions to real problems.
“The second problem is that it sets a very low bar for councillor conduct. Both the existing code and Mr. Mascarin’s proposed code assume councillors are going to conduct themselves appropriately everywhere.
“The revised code before you tonight requires councillors to behave in only very specific contexts. It makes it easy for councillors to misbehave, but hard for the public to file a complaint.”
Quirk and Volpatti’s edited version takes a somewhat laissezfaire view of councillor conduct, and puts the onus on the electorate to vote out councillors who are offensive.
Under the Quirk-Voplatti edit, the code would only apply when councillors are acting in an “official capacity.”
Their approach protects councillors and the public purse from frivolous and vexatious complaints. One recent complaint against Regional Chair Alan Caslin was dismissed but cost taxpayers more than $10,000.
Mascarin’s version of the code takes the position that councillors represent all their constituents, even when their views are different, and they must take that into account when they speak or use social media — in effect holding our elected representatives to a higher standard.
Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop essentially agreed with Mascarin’s version. Redekop said the Quirk-Volpatti edit ignores the reality that politicians hold a special platform in their communities because of their elected office.
“You can’t divorce the fact you are an elected representative from the fact you live in the community,” he said. “Fort Erie’s code of conduct has a definition of official duties, but it doesn’t divorce the conduct of an individual member of council from the fact that they are also out in the community and have a profile in the community as an individual.
“The individual also happens to be an elected representative. The things they do or say that bring disrepute to the town may or may not be done while they are on active official duties.”
Previously, on Dec. 8, council voted to review and update the code and hired Mascarin to undertake the task, who was serving as interim integrity commissioner.
Mascarin has said his version of the code seeks to establish a standard to guide council member’s behaviour in a way that is acceptable to residents, taxpayers and all others in the community. He also has said the code should foster public confidence in the integrity, honesty and professionalism of those councillors.
A public meeting was held on April 12 to gather input for the changes to his code.
The process was given in push when residents demanded council take action to address the social media activity of St. Catharines Coun. Andy Petrowski over an anti-Semitic video the councillor posted on Twitter. Petrowski — who removed the tweet in question — denied he intended any attack on the Jewish community. He has since taken a leave of absence after distributing a pornographic image using his Region email account.