(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Alessia Proietti

Report expected July 24

Red Deer city council holds first internal Code of Conduct Bylaw investigation

Jul 20, 2023 | 10:49 AM

There has been another complaint made against a Red Deer city councillor for a Code of Conduct Bylaw violation.

On Tuesday, council held a special closed meeting for the matter, lasting roughly three and a half hours.

While the specific code and councillor in question cannot be named at the moment, Mayor Ken Johnston said the complaint came in by a citizen a couple of weeks ago.

He said council was given a recommendation by the Review Committee, made up of himself and two other councillors, to conduct the investigation internally, for the first time.

Not too long ago this May, another Code of Conduct violation was brought against Councillor Kraymer Barnstable to which two of six allegations were founded.

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The mayor said, when the depth and scope of the complaint are felt to be beyond council’s capacity, they can choose to conduct the investigation externally; however, this bears a cost to the City and can take, at times, months for the final report.

According to the City’s website, the total of all three external investigations has costed the City $144,632.

READ: Second code of conduct investigation costs Red Deer taxpayers $107,000

He said Councillor Barnstable’s investigation was conducted externally, along with the only two other Code of Conduct investigations since the bylaw’s adoption in 2018, as required by the Municipal Government Act (MGA).

Councillor Buck Buchanan was found to have breached three section in April 2021 and another complaint in May 2021 was voted unfounded and kept in confidentiality.

The mayor said he is not concerned over the number of complaints received as he believes the challenge of public life is only increasing.

“Public life is not an easy task, if you will, but the public, of course, has a right to get accountability and get transparency from its elected representatives,” he said, adding that council wants the same.

“There’s various sanctions that council can impose, but again, it’s a way of council regulating itself so as the public would have more confidence that its elected representatives are being held to a standard.”

Mayor Johnston said the final report is expected to be released at their upcoming regular council meeting on July 24.

More information on the City’s Code of Conduct Bylaw and processes can be found on their website.