cover image: Integrity in local government

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Integrity in local government

18 Feb 2016

Once a declaration has been made, the member of council must not do any of the things referred to in section 101 (e.g., remain or attend any part of the meeting during which the matter is under consideration, participate in any discussions of the matter, vote on the matter or attempt in any way to influence the voting of the matter whether before, during or after a meeting). [...] In addition, under section 109, the Community Charter provides for the ability of the municipality or an elector to apply to the Supreme Court of British Columbia for an order requiring a member, or former member, to pay to the municipality all or part of the member’s financial gain that was obtained as a result of contravening the rules governing ethical conduct. [...] One author summarizes the potential consequences in the following terms: To sum up briefly, the consequences of a member of council debating and voting on a matter in which the member has a pecuniary conflict of interest are: 
 • the member can be disqualified from holding office until the next election; • the member’s vote can be invalidated, which could change the result if the margin was one vo [...] Eberle was removed from office, pursuant to section 402 of The Municipalities Act.66 Also as a result of the inquiry, a number of shortcomings in the conflict of interest provisions of The Municipalities Act, The Cities Act, and The Northern Municipalities Act, 2010 were identified. [...] The result of applying that narrow interpretation to the facts was to defeat the purpose and object of the conflict of interest legislation.85 The key finding of the Court of Appeal was that elected officials may be in a pecuniary conflict of interest when they vote to provide funds to societies for which they are directors, even if the money does not benefit the voting official personally.
municipal government political corruption misconduct in office

Authors

Giltrow, Maegen, Bildfell, Connor

Pages
63
Published in
Vancouver, British Columbia

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