Revised code of conduct too demanding: Buchanan

In one instance, council voted to change the wording in a clause related to orientation and other training attendance to read “unless doing so is not practically possible” from the original “unless excused by council.”

In the other, council agreed to add “as well as deputy mayor duties” to a paragraph relating to making every effort to participate in the meetings of council and other committees or bodies.

“The only way I seem to have affected change at The City is when I said ‘no, I’m not going to do that.’ Now this doesn’t allow you to do that unless you want to deal with the code of conduct,” says Buchanan, who remarked that being a councillor is actually a part-time job. “So (that means) committee stuff, deputy mayor stuff, retreat stuff, that’s all in there now that you have to, whereas before I said ‘no, I’m going to take a stand here.’ I’m probably going to be the first one challenging the code of conduct.”

Buchanan – who’s had two legal opinions brought against him during his time on council, both of which were deemed unfounded – says he’s had to hand his business over to his wife in order to reduce a number of potential conflicts.

“This last election where we had folks who are school teachers, well one young fellow said he can make the meeting every second week at 2:30. Well this week, there’s council tonight, a workshop tomorrow all day and we’re obligated to be there, and then an emergency meeting on Wednesday. If you’ve got stuff going on, how are you going to do all that?”

Councillor Michael Dawe pointed out that the chance to review the code of conduct is poignant given the actions of other public servants around the world.

“If you watch the news every day, there are very serious allegations made about certain people in power making statements that simply aren’t true,” he said at Monday’s council meeting. “One of the things I’m struck with is on a couple of occasions the individual has denied saying those things as they literally then play the video tape of them saying it.”

Dawe said having a code of conduct should be about raising the standard of the way council members act in their public lives. But he felt council was rushed to meet the deadline and that more constructive debate could’ve been had if given more time.

Council voted 7-1 in favour of the new Code of Conduct with Buchanan being the lone opposing vote.

Mayor Tara Veer was absent from Monday’s meeting as she was speaking at an event in Ottawa.

by Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Revised code of conduct too demanding: Buchanan

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