City councillor Brian Skakun is turning to the courts to head off city council's effort to censure him.
Skakun filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court last week in which he is seeking an injunction against proceeding with the action until his position on the issue is heard by a judge.
He maintains council members have no jurisdiction to proceed with a censure hearing and are taking the action for an "improper purpose" and that council "violated principles of natural justice and statutory requirements" when they voted July 25 to proceed with a censure hearing.
Moreover, Skakun asserts the attendance of Mayor Dan Rogers and "certain council members" at the time the vote was held "gives rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias."
If a censure hearing is held, Skakun says Rogers and councillors Debora Munoz, Don Bassermann and Murry Krause, will all be excluded from participating in the censure hearing. All four testified during the trial that led to Skakun's May 24 conviction of violating provincial privacy legislation by leaking a report about the conduct of a top manager at the Prince George RCMP detachment to the media.
Under a censure, council has the authority to remove Skakun from committees, boards, municipal commissions and the rotating acting mayor and chairperson of the committee of the whole list. In addition, council could restrict his travel on council business to municipal events only.
However, city council does not have the authority to prevent Skakun from attending closed city council meetings or otherwise preventing from doing his elected duty.
The city has 21 days to file a response.
