Changes needed to Vancouver code of conduct to ensure public trust: city councillor

A Vancouver city councillor is pushing to amend the city’s code of conduct bylaw to ensure public trust and accountability.

Coun. Pete Fry says City Hall needs to reinforce transparency, accountability, and ethical governance to make sure people can trust their local government.

Next week, Fry will table a motion to advance key reforms to Vancouver’s Code of Conduct bylaw, including clearer investigative procedures, new sanction provisions, and structural protections for the city’s integrity commissioner, Lisa Southern.

In late August, Southern published her report against Mayor Ken Sim and Couns. Sarah Kirby-Yung, Lisa Dominato, Lenny Zhou, Brian Montague, Mike Klassen, Peter Meiszner, and Rebecca Bligh, dated Friday — released Monday — concluding a year-long investigation in response to an issue raised by Fry.

All of the councillors were, at the time, members of the ABC Party. Bligh was later ousted from the party after publicly disagreeing with a policy push by Sim.

Fry had alleged that party members breached Vancouver’s code of conduct by “failing to respect and comply with the open meeting requirement” when they gathered in private and discussed city business “in a material way towards a decision of Council.”

Southern concluded that Sim et al. failed their obligations, as defined under the Vancouver Charter, to be transparent.

“There is a problem — they are depriving the public of participation in the policy development and decision-making processes that serve to build public trust and confidence in local government. Democracy is undermined,” said Southern’s report.

On Thursday, Fry said the motion is not about targeting rival ABC Party councillors, who the commissioner recently found to have breached the code in an investigation.

“This measure is not a retroactive, punitive approach, but it’s rather [asking,] ‘How can we improve the process moving forward?’ I don’t expect members of council to vote to sanction themselves. That wouldn’t be fair and realistic. So this is really about looking at how we can improve this process so that we don’t run into this kind of scenario again,” Fry told 1130 NewsRadio.

He explains that the bylaw covers conflicts of interest, inappropriate behaviours, and violations of the open-meeting principle.

“Those are all elements that have been variously ruled on by the integrity commissioner, and currently there’s no ability to sanction it, beyond the recommendation of council. Now, if a majority of council is found to be in breach of some kind of element of the Code of Conduct or the Vancouver Charter, it’s not reasonable and realistic to expect them to rule on themselves… So the motion seeks to have staff report back with amendments to the code of conduct to make that happen.”

Fry’s motion is last on city council’s Standing Committee on City Finance and Services agenda for Oct. 8. The meeting starts at 9:30 a.m.