(From left to right) Bob Davidson, Douglas James and Randall Goodwin have all filed complaints against city officials, and say they have all been ignored. (Danielle McCreadie)
Members of the Saint John Citizens Coalition gathered outside City Hall Monday afternoon for a symbolic burning of council’s Code of Conduct.
Randall Goodwin with the Saint John Citizens Coalition says the document has proven to be “useless” after three complaints went ignored.
“There’s been three violations of this code of conduct that’s all gotten filed and received and done nothing. There’s no accountability, they won’t listen to the people. (Deputy Mayor) Shirley MacAlary says it’s a useless document? Well, we’re going to show it’s a useless document by burning it,” he said.
“It’s a serious conflict of interest because nobody is enforcing anything.”
(Left to right) Bob Davidson, Doug James and Randall Goodwin all filed code of conduct complaints this year, and say no action was taking. So, here they are burning what they call “a useless document.” pic.twitter.com/xnxbFNoiUl
— Danielle McCreadie (@danimccreadie) December 2, 2019
Bob Davidson with the Saint John Police Association says there is no formal process in the document that council can follow when dealing with complaints.
“The person we complained against (Councillor David Merrithew) was allowed to sit there while it was being dealt with. I mean, that is a bias, unfair, ridiculous environment to deal with a legitimate complaint,” he said.
The Code of Conduct was adopted by council in July after it was made mandatory for all municipalities to have one by the province.
What the province didn’t make mandatory was ensuring there were measures in place to keep city councils accountable.
Davidson says he plans to send a letter to Local Government Minister Jeff Carr asking the province to ask for the creation of a formal complaints process for breaches of conduct.
Douglas James with the Citizens Coalition says there needs to be an external committee or independent body put in place to ensure the complaints are properly dealt with.
“An outside, independent arbitrator of some kind, a volunteer maybe, maybe a citizens committee, that can look at the complaints as they come in, evaluate them, review them, do a little bit of investigation” he said.
James says the document is, in fact, quite useful, and very well written. He says the reason it isn’t working is a lack of due process.
“What’s missing is the willingness on the part of the politicians to enforce it,” he said.
He would like to see the province change the legislation to allow for an external review process for code of conduct complaints, not unlike Ontario’s integrity commissioners.
A motion to explore a formal complaints process was shut down at Monday night’s council meeting.
