ATHABASCA – Athabasca County has a new code of conduct bylaw that councillors hope will help prevent further conduct violations and provide clearer guidance for what should happen if bad behaviour occurs.
During their Jan. 9 meeting, councillors voted 9-0 in favour of a new councillor code of conduct bylaw, completing a project started Aug. 31, 2023.
“The code of conduct sets out some general guidelines that govern the rules and expectations of councillors' behaviour and actions,” said Athabasca County Reeve Brian Hall. “It’s important to spend the time with it to make sure that it's not only in the spirit of what you want to accomplish but also that there’s some clarity around how you want to do it. If we want a certain outcome, what are the steps required if an issue arises?”
The bylaw replaces an older code of conduct bylaw, passed in 2022, which councillors voted to amend and update after an Aug. 31 closed session discussion around a conduct investigation into Coun. Gary Cromwell. Hall said the third-party investigator hired to handle the investigation pointed out some issues in the bylaw that had been previously documented and highlighted a few concerns of their own.
“It’s important to take those (recommendations) seriously and the third party we hired to do the investigation pointed out some weaknesses,” said Hall. “Some of the bigger changes that came forth related to the complaint process and the mechanics around how those were handled.”
Some of the changes to the formal process included fleshing out what a written complaint involved — the name of the councillor(s) must be in the complaint, and it must include "reasonable and probable" grounds for the allegation that a councillor has contravened the bylaw, including a "detailed description of the facts," and the complainant's name.
The new bylaw also specified the reeve as the first stop for a complaint. If the reeve is named in or involved with the complaint, it will go to the deputy reeve.
The bylaw passed first reading Nov. 30 and second reading Dec. 12. Third reading was originally set to take place Dec. 12, before an amendment that guaranteed councillors would get a copy of a complaint passed that raised concerns about the internal consistency of the bylaw.
“It seemed like changes may have created an internal conflict in that paragraph, and we want to make sure that the intent of what council is trying to accomplish is reflected in the language,” said Hall on Dec. 19.
In addition to the three formal council meetings, the bylaw was also discussed and worked on during committee of the whole meetings. Some additional changes proposed during that time included clearer language around where complaints should go once received and tighter conditions to help prevent anonymous complaints.
“There’s some language in there about how councillors are stewards of public resources, and that we should avoid waste, abuse, and extravagance of those resources, which is something I think most of us inherently know,” said Hall. “It did strengthen the code to put that in — it’s not a big earth-shaking change, but it’s small improvements to make it better.”
