Westlock County councillors are reviewing a draft for a new Procedure and Code of Conduct bylaw as part of the county’s ongoing efforts to fulfill recommendations made in the July 11 Municipal Inspection Report.
Council voted unanimously to review the draft policies and provide feedback to administration at its Feb. 13 meeting.
“The Municipal Inspection Report identified that the existing bylaw that we had is not going to be adequate to the new Municipal Government Act,” chief administrative officer Leo Ludwig said.
Deputy reeve Brian Coleman noted that the county needed to reconcile it’s own conflict of interest bylaw with the actual rules in the MGA.
“Our old bylaw has a rule that says you can opt to not vote if you have a perceived conflict of interest and that contravenes the MGA,” he said. “You can only not vote if there is a pecuniary (financial) interest. If a councillor doesn’t vote, that’s a reason for him or her to be disqualified.”
The last time the code of conduct bylaw was updated was in 2000.
Councillors welcomed the change and said that it would help provide clarity of responsibilities going forward.
“Right now, the stuff we have on the website has things scratched out and amendments literally handwritten in,” said coun. Jared Stitsen. “It’s really hard to tell what’s a rule and what isn’t.”
Ludwig echoed Stitsen’s concerns.
“A lot of those amendments are not our actual policies anymore and will eventually be replaced,” he said.
Council will review the new bylaw and move the bylaw to first reading at its Feb. 27 meeting.
