Prince George's delegation to the Union of B.C. Municipalities annual conference last month raised some eyebrows when no one spoke in favour of two resolutions the city proposed, according to Coun. Murry Krause.
Krause, who serves on the executive of the organization, said executive director Gary MacIssac questioned why Prince George put the resolutions to the membership without speaking in support
of them.
MacIssac could not be reached for comment.
"It is certainly important to say that the first two motions, the more important ones, were passed," Krause said.
"I was in the room when the other resolutions were being
discussed, but I did not speak to them. The challenge for me is the timing was off."
City council proposed a total of four resolutions to the Union of B.C. Municipalities conference - all four dealing with issues of councillor responsibility to maintain confidentiality and strengthening penalties for councillors who breach that responsibility.
At the time, the B.C. Supreme Court had not heard the petition by Coun. Brian Skakun seeking an injunction to prevent the city from censuring him for his conviction under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
In that petition, Skakun requested that if a censure hearing went forward that Mayor Dan Rogers and councillors Debora Munoz, Don Bassermann and Krause be disallowed from taking part because of their perceived bias.
All four gave evidence at Skakun's trial.
"With all those things pending, I just did not want to be seen [as] biasing my position," Krause said.
Other members of city council were at the conference, but were taking part in meetings with provincial cabinet ministers at the time the resolutions came forward, Krause said.
"It's really hard to determine when the resolutions will come up. I've seen the debate on one resolution go half an hour," he said.
Skakun was the only member of Prince George city council to speak to the resolutions, and he advocated against them.
"If we're going to restrict what officials do and say... we have to make sure that elected officials have some protections," Skakun told the Citizen in September.
