Rocky Mountain House council is looking for support a proposed resolution calling on the province to set up an Independent Office of Integrity.
The Alberta Government passed legislation several years requiring municipalities establish a code of conduct bylaw.
Rocky Mountain House council supports that legislation but takes issue with how it is applied. The current code of conduct puts municipal administrations in a difficult position because it leaves it up to them to hire and co-ordinate investigators to look into who is essentially their employer, says a resolution proposed by Coun. Len Phillips for the next Alberta Municipalities (AbMunis) conference Sept. 25-27 at Westerner Park.
Phillips and councillors Dave Auld and Marley Capraro were cleared of violating the town’s Code of Conduct in 2023 following an investigation.
The year before, Mayor Debbie Baich was found to violated the code and was reprimanded.
The resolution says “it would be fairer and more impartial if a third party assessed and determined if a code of conduct complaint was valid and if so, conducted the investigation and recommended appropriate actions warranted by any breach …”
The government is called on to create an Independent Office of Integrity “to serve the public, elected officials and local government in an advisory, educational and investigative role in the application and enforcement of code of conducts.
Under the Municipal Government Act, councillors cannot remove other councillors but they can remove them from committees or exclude them from certain meetings if its determined they violated a code of conduct.
“But councillors on the receiving end of those judgments argue that power can be wielded sometimes inappropriately,” says background to the resolution.
The existing legislation also places councillors in a”quasi-judicial role on a peer.”
Establishing a provincial integrity office would put code of conduct investigations and decisions in the hands of an independent body separate from municipal administrations and councils.
To bring the resolution to AbMunis, Rocky Mountain House needs a seconder from a larger-sized municipality.
Council passed a motion on Tuesday to seek the support of another municipality to move its resolution forward.
Under new AbMunis rules, movers and seconders must come from two of three categories: municipalities with fewer than 2,500 people, between 2,500 and 10,000 and more than 10,000. The move is designed to ensure resolutions are applicable to most municipalities and not, for instance, an issue that would only apply to very small or the larger communities.
The deadline for submitting resolutions is May 31.