Toronto's code of conduct was put on display this week with a judge's decision to remove Mayor Rob Ford from office for contravening the rules by using his position and official letterhead as a then-city councillor to raise money for his children's charity.
During the core service review process, KPMG consultants identified a lack of a code of conduct for council in Prince George as a cause for concern. They devoted one line to the issues in their final report, stating "council should consider establishing a Code of Conduct to be signed by each councillor."
That sentence generated some discussion when the report was presented at the Nov. 2 select committee on core services review meeting.
"It's a leading practice to have a code of conduct in the organization and we were looking at leading practices when doing our work," KPMG's Mary O'Callaghan explained.
There are numerous other examples of city council codes of conduct across the country, but primarily in Ontario.
At the Nov. 2 meeting, Coun. Brian Skakun expressed interest in the idea, but said he would prefer if it was set up so that it wasn't council colleagues passing judgment on each other.
"Are there organizations that have an independent body that actually looks at code of conduct issues, to take the politics out of it?" he queried.
Across the country, codes of conduct range from having an appointed person deal with formal and informal complaints to having the council deal with them in-house.
The city of Hamilton states the "primary objective of the Office of the Integrity Commissioner is to advise and guide members of council on the requirement and prohibitions contained in the Code of Conduct with a view to preventing ethics violations before they occur." The position is held by a former RCMP Inspector who works part time in the position.
In Toronto, Rob Ford was felled by a complaint to the city's Integrity Commissioner.
Article 6 of the Code of Conduct for Members of Council for the City of Toronto states "no member of Council should use, or permit the use of City land, facilities, equipment, supplies, services, staff or other resources... for activities other than the business of the Corporation."
Ford was then accused of a conflict of interest when he spoke at a council meeting and voted on a resolution that set out to clear his name.
The District of North Vancouver, one of the comparator jurisdictions for the local core review, places the primary responsibility for adherence to their Code of Ethics upon council members.
"Council may impose sanctions on members whose conduct does not comply with the District's ethical standards, such as motion of censure," the code reads. Council members may also face removal from committees.
In Whitehorse, the mayor attempts to resolve any disputes between councillors and if necessary, an outside mediator could be brought in. The city manager handles any concerns regarding the mayor's conduct.
While the enforcement provisions and people responsible may differ, many of the codes of conduct have a similar intent. They urge the city's elected officials to safeguard confidential information, comport themselves with dignity, not accept extravagant gifts and not abuse their position for personal gain.
Councillors in Midland, Ont., recently abandoned their own pursuit of establishing a code of conduct due to an inability to agree on whether or not to have an integrity commissioner.
"It's a yardstick by which we measure ourselves, but it should not be a yardstick which we hit each other over the head with," Coun. Glen Canning told the Midland Mirror newspaper. "There is no need for an integrity commissioner. Why should we burden the taxpayers with an additional [layer] of bureaucracy simply because we can't behave ourselves?"
