File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Sadie Hunter

In The Loop

HUNTER: Council valentines can come in the form of conduct and community budget

Feb 14, 2023 | 10:39 AM

ON THIS VALENTINE’S DAY, Kamloops city council will be discussing two very different, but important items – budget and conduct.

Both of these items are in the best interest of all of us taxpayers to get right. Setting the annual budget is really the heart of the job of a councillor.

Let’s start with the 2023 budget. Today, the council will be discussing and considering 10 different items, four of which are community requests. While not every item will have a potential tax implication — in fact, only four do — each would have an overall implication on city reserve and capital budgets.

Supplemental budget items are normally considered “nice to haves” and are things not already accounted for in the five-year financial plan. The regular provisional (draft) 2023 budget and corresponding tax rate can be found on the city’s website. There are also two ways residents can engage with the budget discussions — in person at McArthur Island Park in the Sports Centre Lounge Wednesday, February 15 from 7:00-9:00 p.m. or on the Let’s Talk page where there’s a Q&A section and a survey (which is open until midnight on March 2).

The 2023 provisional budget proposes a 5.6 per cent property tax increase (approximately $7 million). This is the increase required to continue providing the same services at the same levels as last year while considering new items already approved by council and changes to regulations, contracts and rates outside of the city’s control.

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The supplemental items have the potential to increase this by an additional 1.85 per cent if all four items with tax implications are approved – meaning the 2023 tax rate could be 7.45 per cent. What this means for the average household in terms of dollars remains to be seen and will be calculated this spring once BC Assessment has finalized the taxation role (more information about the relationship between taxation and property assessment here).

I believe all the supplemental requests are valuable. The real difficulty will be deciding how to roll them out in a manner that balances community benefit and tax impact. Striking this balance will be nuanced and require compromise, not to mention collaboration. The best option is to seek opportunities to find this, such as spreading out the cost implication over a number of years instead of approving all of the funding in one go.

One example is the request for more Community Service Officers. The report offers three options: the preferred option by staff is to fund all new positions in 2023, the second option is status quo, and the third is to split the increase over 2023 and 2024. I think the third provides the best compromise and would result in a 0.35 per cent increase in each of 2023 and 2024 instead of 0.7 per cent ($888,000) in one year. Keep in mind, this increase is not just for 2023, but set to start in 2023 and then continue every year as part of the operational budget.

The same approach is presented as an option in the request to add 10 more firefighters — although this request is heavily weighted, with most of the cost being in 2023 as the proposed approach is adding eight members in 2023 and two in 2024. This total cost is just over $1 million (a 0.83 per cent tax increase).

There are also a couple of infrastructure upgrades for exit and entry points at key intersections. The funding source for the $2.3 million Pacific Way highway off ramp is proposed to be debt funding and the $600,000 needed for Summit Drive highway on ramp upgrades from gaming grants. While neither of these result directly in a tax increase, they will obviously mean other projects wait in the wings. With the province’s announcement of $1 billion to municipalities for infrastructure projects last week, hopefully some of these costs could be covered by that pot – the Pacific Way project in particular seems like a great fit for a grant aimed to help municipalities improve roads, among other things.

The four community requests are varied and each have their merits. It will be interesting to see how council approaches these requests and how they weigh overall community benefit with the cost of each project. Some have a pretty hefty price tag.

Once council wades through all these requests, they’ll be moving on to a much different, but equally important discussion – the council code of conduct.

You might remember there being some resistance to this policy, but I can say I’m very happy it was ultimately passed by the previous council and exists to set a foundation for the discussion today around giving the policy a bit more teeth by adding sanctions and enforcement options for those who don’t abide by the policy. There’s also a recommendation to consider creating a code of conduct bylaw from this policy to give some legal heft to the principles. The policy, as adopted June 28, 2022, doesn’t include any sanctions or mechanisms to enforce the policy and is more of a commitment to conduct oneself with integrity.

In the report, council is asked to consider recommending up to 20 sanctions other councils and regional district boards have imposed on members due to poor conduct. The most notable include: the publication of the request for apology, promise to comply, or formal reprimand, and the member’s response; formal, public censure of the member; restrictions on representing the local government or attending events or conferences and limits on access to buildings, staff, and information; reduction in compensation (must be set out in council remuneration bylaw); suspension or removal as deputy/acting mayor; request for the member’s voluntary resignation; and reporting the matter to law enforcement.

I think it’s important to note here that the mayor and council are not considered employees and so don’t have access to the same options to address conduct and conflict normally available in the workplace. It’s incredibly important to have a policy in place which sets out some ground rules for conduct and expectations for how conflict might be addressed. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs enacted the Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act (No. 2), 2021 (the Community Charter) at the request of elected officials across the province as a first step in providing some kind of protection and process to address poor conduct and conflict.

Why is this important? I think the introduction to a document created by the Working Group on Responsible Conduct sums it up the best in their report Forging the Path to Responsible Conduct in Your Local Government, released April 2021:

“How local government elected officials conduct themselves matters. Conduct is central to governance and when conduct issues emerge, especially if allowed to fester, good governance can be impaired and public trust eroded. Yet dealing with conduct issues can sometimes be overwhelming and governing in the face of them is enormously challenging.”

It’s no secret there’s been some disagreement at City Hall, or a fly in the ointment, as one councillor recently put it in a Kamloops This Week column. Having a code of conduct bylaw with some teeth would help protect individuals on council and staff, avoid possible legal costs, and hopefully, lead to conduct with integrity which leads to a strong foundation for leadership and trust.

So, happy Valentine’s Day council! May your love for community shine through in the decisions you make today.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.