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Wednesday, October 28, 2009 Orono Weekly Times - 7 Council seeks code of conduct Last week, Clarington councillors felt they could police themselves and didn't need an official code of conduct to guide them. "If we are not honest and straightforward, we don't get re-elected," Regional Councillor Charlie Trim said at last week's committee meeting. This week, council instructed Frank Wu, Clarington's Chief Administrative Officer, to isolate clauses in the existing employee code of conduct which pertain to council members, as a stand-alone code of conduct for council members. Wu reported to committee last week that while most municipalities, including all but one Durham Region municipality, have codes of conduct for council members, none of the existing codes contain any meaningful compliance or enforcement provisions. Most municipal codes of conduct, according to Wu, are silent on enforcement, and leave this matter to self-compliance and public scrutiny through media reports on particular issues. "What punitive measures are in place when a personal attack is waged, not behind closed doors, but in the public domain by one Councillor against another Councillor?" Ward 3 Local Councillor Willie Woo asked on Monday night. He was referring to the statements made by Trim at last week's meeting of the Newcastle/Bondhead Ratepayers Association monthly meeting. At that meeting, Trim said that Woo was in favour of a landfill site in Ward 3, the Ward he represents, while he lives in Ward 4. This statement, according to Woo, was untrue and an attempt by Trim to "twist the truth." As the longest standing member of Council, "Trim knows what the rules are, and his comments were out of line," Woo said. Members of council hold positions of privilege, Frank Wu stated in his report to committee. As a result, they are held to the highest standard of behavior and integrity. "One cannot assume each and every member of council has the same understanding of that standard of behavior and integrity," he states. A code of conduct, according to Wu, should only contain the behavior issues and not venture into the area of ethics. However, most municipal codes of conduct do cover both behavior and ethical matters. The clauses in Clarington's existing employee code of conduct referring specifically to council members are to: not breach the public trust or misappropriate public funds; not use municipal property for activities not associated with the discharge of official duties; not benefit from the use of information relating to the affairs of the municipality; not sell goods and services to the Municipality or have direct interest in a company that does; not conduct their work activities in a manner which may cause personal injury or damage Municipal property; not bid on the sale of goods except those disposed by public auction; not use municipal buying power for personal gain. All members of council voted to support the creation of a code of ethics for council members derived from the code which already exists for members of staff. RESPECT Continued from page 3 the current problem is caused by taxpayers being out the money wasted by the last council on Total Hockey, so it's not in the bank now when we need it. Three of our current councillors (Gord Robinson, Charlie Trim, and Adrian Foster) voted for that wastage (in spite of huge public opposition), and there is little doubt that it was a complete waste - you are now experiencing exactly how big a waste it really is as you're being told to make up for it. I have never seen an apology, or even an indication that anyone learned from that mistake, and it looks like history is repeating itself with the incinerator - huge public outcry - total council 'stick the fingers in the ears and hum' attitude. That does not earn my respect. I lost a great deal of respect for council when they banned Jim Richards from council meetings - that's not real problem resolution that's a power trip. I only gained back a little of that respect when they apologized and realized their mistake - but I'm not sure if that was caused by public outcry or recognition of what the right thing to do was. Truthfully, I respect them more for the apology than allowing Jim back in - an apology was certainly the right thing to do. I think it's important the politicians understand that respect can never be taken it always has to be earned. Your actions earn you respect, and that's the only thing that earns you respect all the rhetoric and complaining, and problem avoidance in the world will never substitute. Follow that code of ethics and we'll be well on our way to more respect. Mark Hendrikx Newscastle will be published one day early, on November 10th. The deadline for advertising and classifieds for that issue will be Friday, November 6th. 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