Mountain View County (MVC) council has deferred final reading of proposed changes to the Council Code of Conduct approved in June.
Councillors were scheduled to give final reading to amending bylaw No. 25/18 on Nov. 28 but instead voted to defer final reading until next month after Coun. Peggy Johnson asked for additional time to examine the proposed change.
When passed in June, the Code of Conduct’s section 14.06 stated: “In the event that the complaint that a majority of members of council breached this bylaw, the complaint shall be submitted to the Alberta Ombudsman.”
In a briefing note to council, administration said upon further review, that section was not workable, making an amending bylaw necessary.
“Since the passage of this bylaw, the role and responsibilities of the Alberta Ombudsman has been established and clarified to only include reviews of ‘administrative decision, recommendation, act or omission.’
“As the Council Code of Conduct Bylaw does not grant administration authority to make any decisions or recommendations, but instead leaves the final decision making authority in council, no decision nor act could be reviewed by the Alberta Ombudsman.”
The amending 25/18 bylaw would remove the existing section 14.06 in the Code of Conduct and replace it with the following: “In the event that the complaint alleges that a majority of the members of council breached this bylaw, the complainant shall proceed with a municipal inspection as outlined under Section 571 (1)(c) of the Municipal Government Act.”
The complaint system of the Council Code of Conduct states, in part, that, “Any person may report a perceived breach of this bylaw by a councillor in the following matter: All reports of perceived breaches shall be reported to the chief administrative officer.
“The chief administrative officer shall ensure the form is completed and forward the complaint to the reeve in the event that the reeve is the party that has allegedly breached the bylaw, the report shall be delivered to the deputy reeve; in the event that both the reeve and the deputy reeve are the parties that have allegedly breached this bylaw, the report shall be submitted to any other member of council.”
Councillors gave first and second reading to the amending bylaw in October. The matter will be back before council on Dec. 12.
Meanwhile, council passed a repealing bylaw to rescind three out-of-date bylaws.
The bylaws were recently examined by the governance review committee, which recommended their removal from the books. The bylaws repealed are:
- Bylaw No. 141 Local Authorities Pension Plan is no longer required as the Municipal Government Act no longer requires for municipalities to enter into agreements via bylaw.
- Bylaw No. 13/00 Penalties for Unpaid Taxes is redundant, as Bylaw No. 15/18, Property Tax Administration is currently in place and covers penalties and unpaid taxes.
- Bylaw No. 55/04 Short Term Borrowing is to be terminated, as the bylaw was only in effect for the calendar year.
